by Anonymous Occupier
What hides under the spectacular oppositions is a unity of misery. Behind the masks of total choice, different forms of the same alienation confront each other, all of them built on real contradictions which are repressed. The spectacle exists in a concentrated or a diffuse form depending on the necessities of the particular stage of misery which it denies and supports. In both cases, the spectacle is nothing more than an image of happy unification surrounded by desolation and fear at the tranquil center of misery.
-Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle pp. 63.
photo by Adam
It can be conceded that the mask of total choice deludes an individual from understanding the different forms of alienation meeting, examining, and contradicting each other under this mask. If the individual pulls back the mask of total choice and their own perceived total agency, an individual might understand the contradictions of these forms of alienation as contrary to one another. If they are contrary, they examine and present the spectacle in a way which allows an individual to understand the full ramifications of a spectacular society in the context of an individual’s own choices. If the spectacle is able to change and shape itself to either be diffuse or concentrated based on how it forms itself in any given situation, the contradictions present in the spectacle when all the forms of alienation meet under the mask of choice is in fact the place where we can understand how to challenge the spectacle. Behind every choice we imagine to be our own free and responsible choice, there is a meeting point of all the forms of alienation that impact our decision and shape these decisions in ways that are hidden to us. It is our responsibility to understand and examine this meeting point of alienation with fervor and imagine the repercussions outside the relative freedom of each moment of choice which are part of the illusion of total control and individual choice under the spectacular society.
