Analytical Situationism

[Narodnik]

Is there a non-"continental philosophy" explanation of Situationist views? Or can someone explain in their own words clearly, for starters- what exactly is the definition of spectacle, why is something a spectacle ans something isn't, what are the examples of spectacles and examples of similar things that are not spectacles?

[subcp]

They were councilists; against all elements of 'The Left' (Trotskyism, the official Communist parties like the PCF in France, trade unions of all stripes) but also largely opposed to the form and role of a revolutionary organization.

Debord's concept of the spectacle-commodity society (or 'society of the spectacle') was more or less a re-packaging of what already existed in Marxism in different language (specifically reification, commodity fetishism and alienation). The underlying idea is that over the course of capitalist development, to the point it had reached in the post-war period (the time when capitalism had never been more productive, where the income disparity had never been so low in the West, near full employment, strong worker's movement, etc.) when consumerism really took off, capitalism changes all things in a perpetual movement from the beginning of capitalism, leading to where we are now (modern capitalism) where capitalism dominates all things in life, including the 'opposition to capitalism' to our thoughts and beliefs.

A line he repeats in the book is how life (for all classes) is mediated by images; what we do, what we want, what we have, who we are, are all mediated by images- and those images derive from the movement of capitalism to transform society into its own image (a movement begun in the earliest days of capitalism culminating in the post-war period when it is completely dominant over all things everywhere).

One example he brings up is the use of celebrity in modern (post-war) capitalism: the image of the celebrity is as a vicarious 'free life', a person who personifies all of the freedom's individuals in a society divided by classes do not have (freedom to travel, freedom to use leisure time in any way, freedom to work or not work)- but in fact, these celebrities are alienated because they are carrying out a role, selling their labor, to present this image as the embodiment of a 'free life'. So, neither the people who follow or like celebrities, or the celebrity themselves, are living their own lives as they see fit but are both alienated from their real lives.

Another example is the Capitalist-Socialist false dichotomy presented to the working-class in the central capitalist countries during the Cold War. In the NATO bloc, the spectacle of opposition, where one system is counterposed against another, the Communist Party-labor federation's (PCI-CGIL in Italy, PCF-CGT in France) play the role of official opposition to capitalism; socialism is held as the example of the USSR and its bloc and is presented as the only alternative world- but even in this case, both societies are driven by the needs of capital accumulation.

Rather than 'really living', we're living alienated lives, at work and socially, mediated by images and dictated by capital.

[blake 3:17]

Is there a non-"continental philosophy" explanation of Situationist views?

You could try this:http://monoskop.org/images/2/24/Plant_Sadie_The_Most_Radical_Gesture_The_Situation ist_International_in_a_Postmodern_Age.pdf

A group I was in tried to reduce the Situationists to counicilists which to me was totally bankrupt. It's much more interesting to see their film work or check out stuff to do with Asger Jorn. http://www.c4gallery.com/artist/database/asger-jorn/asger-jorn.html

[subcp]

Do you think their roots as avant-gaurde artists was a central part of their politics?