Chapter 49

This chapter focuses on the ideas of Marx theorist Guy Debord and the role of media, popular culture and other forms of representation in justifying the status quo. Debord believes that life is now dominated by an endless succession of spectacles and we are now moved by representation rather than direct experience. He argues that images have taken over our lives and that now unreal aspects of life are now more important than real life experiences. According to Debord, the term spectacle, is not just a series of images, but the social relationships that exist among people that are mediated by these images. He goes on to discuss how the dominant class creates these images that control the rest of society and create false consciousness that runs throughout the common people. The "spectacles" or images are created by a group of artists and workers who are controlled by the dominating class. In fact Marx himself, argued that the ideas of the ruling class are always the ideas of the masses, because they control the media and can shape the ideas of society. I am somewhat confused by what Debord has to say in regards to the spectacle dominating a person's life. He does not cite any specific examples of this, which would help.