View source for The Society of the Spectacle

===Degradation of human life===
Debord traces the development of a modern society in which [[authenticity (philosophy)|authentic]] [[Interpersonal relationship|social life]] has been replaced with its representation: "All that once was directly lived has become mere representation."<ref name="Thesis1"/> Debord argues that the history of social life can be understood as "the decline of ''being'' into ''having'', and ''having'' into merely ''appearing''."<ref>Debord (1967) thesis 17</ref> This condition, according to Debord, is the "historical moment at which the [[commodity (Marxism)|commodity]] completes its [[colonization]] of social life."<ref>Debord (1994) thesis 42.</ref>

The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in which "passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity". "The spectacle is not a collection of images," Debord writes, "rather, it is a social relation among people, mediated by images."<ref>Debord (1994) thesis 4.</ref>

In his analysis of the spectacular society, Debord notes that the [[quality of life]] is impoverished,<ref name="examples" /> with such a lack of authenticity that [[human perception]]s are affected, and an attendant degradation of knowledge, which in turn hinders [[critical thought]].<ref>Debord (1977) from thesis 25: "All community and all critical sense are dissolved"</ref> Debord analyzes the use of knowledge to assuage reality: the spectacle obfuscates the past, imploding it with the future into an undifferentiated mass, a type of never-ending present; in this way the spectacle prevents individuals from realizing that the society of spectacle is only a moment in history, one that can be overturned through revolution.<ref name="Thesis11">Debord (1967) thesis 11</ref><ref name="Thesis143">Debord (1967) thesis 143</ref>

Debord's aim and proposal is "to wake up the spectator who has been drugged by spectacular images...through radical action in the form of the construction of situations...situations that bring a revolutionary reordering of life, politics, and art". In the Situationist view, situations are actively created moments characterized by "a sense of self-consciousness of existence within a particular environment or ambience".<ref>Ford (1950)</ref>

Debord encouraged the use of [[détournement]], "which involves using spectacular images and language to disrupt the flow of the spectacle."