Being Unreal
What you're reading is an attempt to delve deeper into the sixth aphorism featured in Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle'. If you missed the last one, you can read it here.
Here's the actual passage:
The spectacle grasped in its totality is both the result and the project of the existing mode of production. It is not a supplement to the real world, an additional decoration. It is the heart of the unrealism of the real society. In all its specific forms, as information or propaganda, as advertisement or direct entertainment consumption, the spectacle is the present model of socially dominant life. It is the omnipresent affirmation of the choice already made in production and its corollary consumption. The spectacle’s form and content are identically the total justification of the existing system’s conditions and goals. The spectacle is also the permanent presence of this justification, since it occupies the main part of the time lived outside of modern production.
Paragraphs that are as long and dense as these are what make works of this sort go by unnoticed. It's considered 'too much work' or 'too prosaic' for the readers of today, and the reason behind why it came to be could itself be derived from this aphorism. Let's dig in.
The Unreal Real
A short time ago, a social media app by the name of 'Be Real' gained a lot of attention. It's probably still quite popular, but I am an unapologetic resident of the space that is 'under a rock', so I wouldn't know. What I do know is that whoever named Be Real was attempting to peddle a lie, all while probably not knowing that they were, in fact, peddling a lie.
Debord's assertion of the spectacle not being a mere decorative element, but a truly elaborate contraption that sits at the heart of the informational artifice is more true today than it ever was. Despite this only being the sixth aphorism, he's been saying more or less the same thing repeatedly to drive home a singular point: the spectacle is not merely a spectacle, it's a lot more than that.
His proclamation that the spectacle is the 'present model' (keep in mind that this was written over 50 years ago) of all socially dominant life hinted at the dominance of the image and the representation over over collective mental landscapes. If you were a part of western society, chances were that your thinking was heavily influenced by some 'spectacle' or the other.
Pre-ordained Choices
One of the pitfalls of a capitalistic society is its implicit assumption of objectivity with which it measures progress. Material well-being is the only yardstick through which prosperity is measured, and money is the medium through which the entire charade (if you could call it that) is propagated.
The free market is 'free' only within the rules that it draws for itself, and in many geographies, is compulsory with little to no alternate means of eking out a living. Phrases such as 'don't hate the player, hate the game' are expressions of this fundamental truth of our current social systems.
In a sense, the choice of the spectacle's domination is already made for you. Its presence and all the ways in which it appears to you are meant to reinforce the prevailing economic order's gospel over you.
It's no surprise then that screen times are going up and up. It's also no surprise that people think it's cool that Reed Hastings considered sleeping the enemy of Netflix.
Keep an eye on your screen time, people. And be ever vigilant on what's being beamed into your head and why. Even the tiniest attempts to resist can snowball into surprisingly effective movements.
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If any of this sounds relatable, please write to me. Part of the reason I write this is to seek out more people who feel the same way I do about the modern Internet.
If you enjoyed reading this, you might like my cleverly disguised rants on LinkedIn too.