The spectacle subjugates living men to itself to the extent that the economy has totally subjugated them. It is not more than the economy developing for itself.
‘Kickstarter … Indiegogo … Rockethub … Pledge … Gofu.yourself …’
The crowd-funded masses amass the archive of recorded histories, ready to plunder to re-appropriate, to renovate, to recall, to remind. The spectres of the (un)dead haunt existence, screens exhume, tech resurrects, the past sits side by side with the present, the future yet to be unearthed. An evil retrieval that replaces memory with misremembrance. A ‘passed’ rewritten for the purpose of crass commerce and craven careerism. You’re too blind to see your own transparency, your vision swayed by the rainbow’s gold.
Riefenstahl Rule #1 The triumph of the swill is the objective at ALL costs
Ego-liberalism reigns supreme in the ‘living’ veins of the ‘auteur-crat’, all narcissistic nonchalance buried deep within the recesses of the ID, barely submerged motives of market economy rule. Mammon and merit go hand in hand, ‘mate’.*
The documentarian as distraction-dispenser of devious deeds and desires, the historiographer hawking (alleged) halcyon days and horrorshows. Blithely aware that they themselves are the commodity as spectacle, they alone are the PRODUCT, the wares being offered for sale and consumed at a price. What price DIGNITY? What is the INTRINSIC VALUE?
Through detournement, the play of image, voiceover, and subtitle, ‘great art’ dissolves the totality of representations that structure our societies. Everything leads back to the false totality of the spectacle: the spectacle is the ongoing propaganda of images.
Questionable art structures and soothes for surreptitious gain.
Riefenstahl Rule #2 the message always justifies the means.
Chasing a cause to verify your own inadequacies as flesh and spirit, an energy vacuum masquerading as ghoulish gaping, the kind that did for Kevin Carter, the conscience conquers eventually. YOU’RE NEXT, Risible Briton.
The vulture gathers round its prey. And waits to capture. CUT!
The spectacle reduces reality to an endless supply of commodifiable fragments, while encouraging us to focus on appearances.
Do not be deceived by disguises, look for the agenda, it is in there, lurking. Liberation awaits those who reveal TRUTH, commiseration is destined for those who reveal only their eroded souls and decayed dreams. Those who are yet to realise will be resigned to solitude and illtruism, their negative effects seeping in and through their core.
*much overused and now redundant form of amicable affection. Passive-aggression is latent in many instances.
Guy Debored 2017 ©
Down the banks 