47 | Guy Debord and the Society of the Spectacle

In today’s episode we talk about Guy Debord’s critique of life under modern capitalism by looking at his scathing and provocative The Society of the Spectacle. Is it true that all that was once lived is now mere representation? That the whole of society is mediated by an endless proliferation of passifying images? That the fullness of life has been replaced by its bloodless negation in survival? Because it sure feels like it! We discuss what exactly he means by spectacle, reflect on whether and how it’s possible to maintain his distinction between real needs and pseudo-needs, and consider what a politics without representation would, ahem, look like. And we talk some real trash on North American suburbia, whose surface-level image of homogeneous conflictless positivity is the true legitimation mechanism of capitalism here in the dying imperial core. It's a lot of fun, actually!
⬇️ 𝙂𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚:
𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙤𝙣: / leftofphilosophy
𝙏𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧: / leftofphil
𝙒𝙚𝙗𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚: www.leftofphilosophy.com/
📚𝙍𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨:
Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books, 1994).
🎶𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘: "Vintage Memories" by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
🎧𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩:
𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙡𝙚: apple.co/3SOfGZ2
𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙮: spoti.fi/3HJEiLQ
🎙𝘼𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙤𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩:
What’s Left of Philosophy is a podcast where four leftist friends get together to talk about concepts, thinkers, and texts from the history of philosophy and political theory.
Sometimes we talk about how good and useful certain ideas are for left theory and practice. Sometimes we mercilessly dunk on bourgeois idealism dressed up as radical thought. Sometimes we’re joined by extremely cool guests. We love concepts and long for an emancipated existence!
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