Capitalism and Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Capitalism and Culture - Essay Example ived out of modern production.5 Separation is the beginning and end of spectacle.6 This is akin to the Marxist concept of alienation. In the Marxist concept of alienation, for example, the worker’s alienation from his product enabled the capitalist to appropriate the product for himself and in so doing was able to use the product to exploit further the proletariat. However, in the Debordian concept of spectacle, spectacle can be interpreted to have originated from the alienation of the proletariat from his produce and, at the same time, the Debordian perspective that spectacle would lead to further alienation suggest that a spectacle serves to alienate the proletariat and whole of society further away from their lives. Spectacle within society reinforces the reproduction of alienation.7 In a figure of speech, Debord said that â€Å"the spectacle is capital to such a degree of accumulation that it becomes an image.†8 In particular, Debord pointed out that â€Å"the spec tacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life.†9 The spectacle arises because of tendency of use value to fall and the consumer has to become a consumer of illusion through spectacle.10 The spectacle is associated with the abundance of commodities under modern capitalism.11 In this society of the spectacle, the historical mission is to install truth.12 II. Class Lecture’s on Debord’s â€Å"Society of the Spectacle† Our class lectures on capitalism and culture have pointed out that the idea of a consumer society was popularized sometime after World War II. Consumer societies have been pointed out to have emerged in the mid-1950s when consumer objects and products became more widely available. The â€Å"Situationist† perspective or â€Å"situationism† is a response to the emerging consumer society immediately after World War II. Our class lectures have pointed out that the perspective originally develop ed out of artistic avant-garde. Our class lectures have also pointed out that the movements that opposed have become commodities themselves after World War II as rapid industrialization required skills and a tremendously large labor force. Our class lectures have pointed out that for Guy Debord that life as spectacle has become real throughout capitalist society. Our class lectures have pointed out our ideals for living have been defined by the mass media through the direct and subliminal messages they have injected in our minds through what we read, see on television and movies, and through the messages that we derive from street advertising and billboards. The magazines, the literature, the movies, the newspapers, and the media created representations of what an ideal life in our society consist of. Living has become a spectacle and the spectacle has become more real than our actual life. For example, our class lectures have pointed out that we know more about Bradd Pitt than we k now of our immediate