FRENCH PHILOSOPHER PREDICTS THE IPHONE AGE IN 1967
I’ve just finished reading Guy Debord’s 1967 book “The Society of the Spectacle,” a socio-political work that claims that capitalism has brought us to the point where the image is the reality for most of us now, rather than reality itself. Debord was part of the ‘Situationist’ movement in France, and it could be said that this book helped to foster the civil unrest that swept through that country in 1968.
I don’t usually read philosophy, but a few months ago I was deeply into the 90s band Stereolab whose French vocalist had a habit of singing hard-hitting left-wing lyrics to jaunty pop tunes, quite a subversive act. The singer (Laetitia Sadier) stated that she was influenced by Debord’s book, which led me to check it out.
It’s not an easy read, like many works of political philosophy, with ideas being made needlessly impenetrable by the writer’s use of long words and specialised terminology. However, towards the end I came across this astonishing quote that seems to sum up our present situation perfectly:
“Imprisoned in a flattened universe bounded by the screen of the spectacle, behind which his own life has been exiled, the spectator’s consciousness no longer knows anyone but the fictitious interlocutors who subject him to a one-way monologue about their commodities and the politics of their commodities. The spectacle as a whole is his “mirror-sign,” presenting illusory escapes from a universal autism.”
Guy Debord, “The Society of the Spectacle”, (1967) p.117-118.
It’s so 2025, isn’t it?
Incidentally, going back to Stereolab, here are the lyrics to their song ‘Ping Pong.’ Don’t you just love the glorious disconnect between the music and the sarcastic Marxist polemic? Sheer genius…
It's alright, 'cause the historical pattern has shown
How the economical cycle tends to revolve
In a round of decades, three stages stand out in a loop
A slump and war, then peel back to square one and back for more
Bigger slump and bigger wars
And a smaller recovery
Huger slump and greater wars
And a shallower recovery
You see, the recovery always comes 'round again
There's nothing to worry for, things will look after themselves
It's alright, recovery always comes 'round again
There's nothing to worry if things can only get better
There's only millions that lose their jobs
And homes and sometimes accents
There's only millions that die
In their bloody wars, it's alright
It's only their lives and the lives
Of their next of kin that they are losing
It's only their lives and the lives
Of their next of kin that they are losing
Don't worry, be happy
Things will get better naturally
Don't worry, shut up, sit down
Go with it and be happy