The Spectacle

The first chapter titled "Separation Perfected" from Guy Debord's book "The Society of the Spectacle" talks about the idea of the spectacle. What the spectacle is, was a little bit elusive throughout the reading but I think that this idea of the spectacle was the mass media. Debord seemed to have a negative outlook on the spectacle and seemed to think that there was no separation between this spectacle and real life. He talked a lot about how the spectacle alienates us from the rest of the world and makes a point on how people kind of try to understand themselves personally through representation. I think the idea of mass media being the spectacle can be related to a lot of things such as Facebook, magazine stands, movies, etc. I think that Debord's main point is his very last thesis, "The Spectacle is capital accumulated to the point where it becomes image." [Thesis 34] What I understand about this thesis is that this spectacle (mass media) is almost in a way being associated with things like money, and material goods and that society as a whole is "trapped" or alienated with blurred images of appearance and real life.