Situationist International

[Invincible Summer]

Can someone explain what this is really about? From this series of videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SvdWk8zRrI) it just sounds like a bunch of bored artsy kids that wanted to feel radical by drawing on things.

Is this considered a legitimate (in other words, should we take them seriously/as a possible ally or whatever) political movement?

[Pogue]

Can someone explain what this is really about? From this series of videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SvdWk8zRrI) it just sounds like a bunch of bored artsy kids that wanted to feel radical by drawing on things.

Is this considered a legitimate (in other words, should we take them seriously/as a possible ally or whatever) political movement?

Your analysis is very naive mate. They were active in the Paris 1968 uprising, and had some very interesting and relevant theories which were quite hard to understand because of the language they used, but when you get through to it its good. They inspired alot of the feeling behind 68.
I like their stuff on modern society, very relevant.

For a better understanding of them just read these slogans/quotes, which gave alot to my political views and analysis, all written on the walls of Paris:

http://www.bopsecrets.org/CF/graffiti.htm

[Nils T.]

It has been dissoluted long ago, so it is not a possible ally.

The rest of your questions (and this one too) have only one possible answer : Crève, salope !

[brigadista]

je suis un marxiste - tendence Groucho...

[Invincible Summer]

Your analysis is very naive mate. They were active in the Paris 1968 uprising, and had some very interesting and relevant theories which were quite hard to understand because of the language they used, but when you get through to it its good. They inspired alot of the feeling behind 68.
I like their stuff on modern society, very relevant.

For a better understanding of them just read these slogans/quotes, which gave alot to my political views and analysis, all written on the walls of Paris:

http://www.bopsecrets.org/CF/graffiti.htm

Well part of the reason why I sound very superficial and naive may be because, from what I understand, groups like Adbusters take from the pages of the Situationist handbook, and I think they're pretty lame. Perhaps they're not very faithful to "true" Situationalists (Situationalism?); I'll admit some of those slogans are very inspiring and do infer a degree of Anarchist thought, but for the most part, it seems pretentious and "artsy" for the sake of being pretentious and "artsy."

I want to understand it better, but as you mentioned, it is difficult to read their material b/c of the difficult language which again seems very pretentious.


It has been dissoluted long ago, so it is not a possible ally.


So no one considers themselves "Situationists" or whatever these days? I' wasn't necessarily talking specifically about the old organisation as much as the "ideology" in general.

[Pogue]

I interpret the ideology as being anyone who has that millenarian spirit and criticisms of the boredom of capitalist life mentioned in the 68 graffiti.

[Sasha]

So no one considers themselves "Situationists" or whatever these days? I' wasn't necessarily talking specifically about the old organisation as much as the "ideology" in general.

well, i'm an artist next to an activist, and my artwork is very influenced by situationism, my politics not so much (although espacely the Society of the Spectacle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_the_Spectacle) by guy debord (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Debord) is still a valuable work that should imo be studied by modern marxists/leftists with almost the same attention as das kapital)

[Nils T.]

The situationists tried to supress ideology. The term situationnism has been forged by the threatened journalists and maoists.

Along with other groups, they established the refusal of ideology, and of compelling doctrines, as an evident attitude among french (and maybe european, I didn't travelled enough to know for sure) leftists. So it is rare to find someone caling himself a situationnist, though some bureaucrats, aware of these critics against doctrines, use the term with a slight contempt to mock the desire of autonomy of their opponents. Some fetichists tried to revive situationnists groups, but if we except the comical effect, they had not much success.
The original group's writings are still the first intellectual base and reference for all the radical youth movements in france.

[ukuli]

First of all, "Situationism" doesn't exist. The most important thinker Guy Debord thought the same way as Marx did. And Marx thought there should be no "Marxism."

Situationism can have useful tools of cultural resistance today. Adbusters is very inspired by the situationists, but of course that kind of a tactic is very limited. Reclaim the streets might be another situationist-inspired event.

Situationist theory can still tell us something about the "Society of the Spectacle", which seems to be an even more fitting description of the society today than in 1968.

I think that what situationism has to offer is tools for the cultural struggle. Still you can learn more from reading the Communist Manifesto than reading the Society of the Spectacle.

[Invincible Summer]

So, would Situationst ideas & thoughts be similar to/influential on what sociologists call "Post-modernism" or even "cultural studies"

[Pogue]

No, it wouldn't.

[cenv]

Basically, the situationists looked at the way modern society turns people into "spectators," breeding apathy and boredom. They pointed out that individuals often become subordinated to ideologies, whether these ideologies are the values of capitalism or the doctrines of the left, losing their ability to act as free subjects.

This quote sums up their attitude to politics pretty well:

"People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth."

- Raoul Vaneigem

I think we have a lot to learn from them.

If you want an intro to situationist ideas written in simple English, check out the Spectacular Times, a series of short pamphlets on different situationist ideas:

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Larry%20Law%22