All that was once directly lived has become mere representation. Guy Debord More Quotes by Guy Debord More Quotes From Guy Debord The story of terrorism is written by the state and it is therefore highly instructive… compared with terrorism, everything else must be acceptable, or in any case more rational and democratic. Guy Debord terrorismstatesstories It is hardly surprising that children should enthusiastically start their education at an early age with the Absolute Knowledge of computer science; while they are unable to read, for reading demands making judgments at every line. Conversation is almost dead, and soon so too will be those who knew how to speak. Guy Debord readingagechildren The more he identifies with the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own life and his own desires. The spectacle’s estrangement from the acting subject is expressed by the fact that the individual’s gestures are no longer his own; they are the gestures of someone else who represents them to him. Guy Debord actingdesireneeds Images detached from every aspect of life merge into a common stream, and the former unity of life is lost forever. Apprehended in a partial way, reality unfolds in a new generality as a pseudo-world apart, solely as an object of contemplation. The tendency toward the specialization of images-of-the-world finds its highest expression in the world of the autonomous image, where deceit deceives itself. The spectacle in its generality is a concrete inversion of life, and, as such the autonomous movement of non-life. Guy Debord expressionforeverreality people who personify the system are indeed well known for not being what they seem to be; they have achieved greatness by embracing a level of reality lower than that of the most insignificant individual life- and everyone knows it. Guy Debord greatnesslifereality None of the activity stolen by work can be regained by submitting to what work has produced. - The Society of The Spectacle Guy Debord stolenactivity Behind the masks of total choice, different forms of the same alienation confront each other. Guy Debord maskdifferentchoices Everyone accepts that there are inevitably little areas of secrecy reserved for specialists; as regards things in general, many believe they are in on the secret. Guy Debord secretlittlesbelieve What appears is good; what is good appears. Guy Debord Looting is a natural response to the unnatural and inhuman society of commodity abundance. It instantly undermines the commodity as such, and it also exposes what the commodity ultimately implies: the army, the police and the other specialized detachments of the state's monopoly of armed violence. Guy Debord policearmyviolence Tourism, human circulation considered as consumption is fundamentally nothing more than the leisure of going to see what has become banal. Guy Debord tourismleisurecirculation Ideas improve. The meaning of words participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It embraces an author's phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea. Guy Debord expressionwritingideas An organization must always remember that its objective is not getting Guy Debord organizationexpertspeople Art... can become the direct organization of more highly evolved sensations. Guy Debord organisationdirectart The advertisements during intermissions are the truest reflection of an intermission from life. Guy Debord intermissionadvertisementsreflection The Sage of Toronto... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a "global village" instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle's present vulgarity. Guy Debord sagegossipboredom In societies where modern conditions of productions prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into representation. The images detached from every aspect of life fuse in a common stream in which the unity of this life can no longer be re-established. Reality considered partially unfolds, in its own general unity as a pseudo-world apart, an object of mere contemplation . . . The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images. Guy Debord unityrealitypeople The loss of quality that is so evident at every level of spectacular language, from the objects it glorifies to the behavior it regulates, stems from the basic nature of a production system that shuns reality. The commodity form reduces everything to quantitative equivalence. The quantitative is what it develops, and it can develop only within the quantitative. Guy Debord qualitylossreality Plagiarism is necessary, progress implies it Guy Debord plagiarismprogress The spectacle is capital accumulated to the point where it becomes image. Guy Debord
