The Spectacle Thesis by Isaac

The Spectacle research & design by Isaac Carlos

The Spectacle isn’t one specific system of influence, but multiple systems functioning together as a whole. The Spectacle manifests itself as the society that we currently partake in every single day. Although modern society is all that we’ve known, society is only an illusion that we as members of the modern globalized society have chosen to accept as real. The Spectacle is “a world view transformed into an objective force”(Debord/5) that is controlled by itself. We can assume that The Spectacle is ruled by the 1% to keep the wealth and power to themselves, but aren’t they only operating from the greed and false happiness offered by The Spectacle? Granted, some people benefit far more from The Spectacle than others, but studies show that wealth in the West has doubled in the past sixty years while satisfaction rates stay slightly lower.

TH SO E LIG B HT BU T H LIN I SE E OW S D WI W I NG I TH OU L L I T I T?

It’s in the core of The Spectacle to never be satisfied, at least not with material wealth. We hear it time and time again, primarily hrough the works of artists and philosophers, that material wealth won’t bring you happiness, but when The Spectacle is so far integrated into our daily lives it is almost impossible to escape. So then why do we work such long hours at jobs that we hate? My parents would answer that question with “So we can survive,” but surviving is not living and seeing my parents sacrifice their physical, mental, and spiritual health to only ever just have enough is a pain that shouldn’t be necessary. The real danger of The Spectacle happens when the hungry get hungrier and the rich get richer. ¶ Tell me what is worse, one, a person who views their world as having been robbed of choices and therefore must turn to drugs and violence to feed their family, or two, a person exploiting the land and labor of millions for an increase of profit margin? Maybe it is never that serious or extreme for the most of us, but whether we know it or not, the systems that we participate in, without question or critique, will keep op pression on all levels a part of humanity.

Coloni zation is the first level of

T he Specta cle

The Spectacle creates two forms of people, the oppressed and the oppressors. Neither of them reach the full potential of being human since they are direct subject of The Spectacle’s rule. As members of a modern global society, we must acknowledge the positions we hold in society and how The Spectacle functions to keep us in those roles. Brazilian writer Paulo Freire has plenty to say about the power roles in society and how to overcome them. Paulo grew up in the slums of Brazil and saw the direct effect of colonoization on the intellectual growth and self empowerment of the poor. According to Paulo Freire, true freedom of the oppressed lies within themselves and their need to redefine what it is to be human, for only they know what is like to be dehumanized.

While the problem of humanization has always, from an axiological point of view, been humankind’s central problem, it now takes on the character of an inescapable concern.[1] Concern for humanization leads at once to the recognition of dehumanization, not only as an ontological possibility but as an historical reality and as an individual perceives the extent of dehumanization, he or she may ask if humanization is a viable possibility. Within history in concrete, objective contexts, both humanization and dehumanization are possibilities for a person as an uncompleted being conscious of their incompletion. But while both humanization and dehumanization are real alternatives, only the first is the people’s vocation. This vocation is constantly negated, yet it is affirmed by that very negation. It is thwarted by injustice, exploitation, oppression, and the violence of the oppressors; it is affirmed by the yearning

Pedagog y of the Oppressed by Pau lo Frei re

Coloni zation is the first level of

T he Specta cle

The Spectacle creates two forms of people, the oppressed and the oppressors. Neither of them reach the full potential of being human since they are direct subject of The Spectacleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rule. As members of a modern global society, we must acknowledge the positions we hold in society and how The Spectacle functions to keep us in those roles. Brazilian writer Paulo Freire has plenty to say about the power roles in society and how to overcome them. Paulo grew up in the slums of Brazil and saw the direct effect of colonoization on the intellectual growth and self empowerment of the poor. According to Paulo Freire, true freedom of the oppressed lies within themselves and their need to redefine what it is to be human, for only they know what is like to be dehumanized.

of the oppressed for freedom and justice, and by their struggle to recover their lost humanity. â&#x20AC;&#x192; Dehumanization, which marks not only those whose humanity has been stolen, but also (though in a different way) those who have stolen it, is a distortion of the vocation of becoming more fully human. This distortion occurs within history; but it is not an historical vocation. Indeed, to admit of dehumanization as an historical vocation would lead either to cynicism or total despair. The struggle for humanization, for the emancipation of labor, for the overcoming of alienation, for the affirmation of men and women as persons would be meaningless. This struggle is possible only because dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed.

Pedagog y of the Oppressed by Pau lo Frei re

Coloni zation is the first level of

T he Specta cle

Because it is a distortion of being more fully human, sooner or later being less human leads the oppressed to struggle against those who made them so. In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both. This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power; cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves. Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both. Any attempt to “soften” the power of the oppressor in deference to the weakness of the oppressed almost always manifests

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Pau lo Freire

Coloni zation is the first level of

T he Specta cle

itself in the form of false generosity; indeed, the attempt never goes beyond this. In order to have the continued opportunity to express their “generosity,” the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. An unjust social order is the permanent fount of this “generosity” which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty. That is why the dispensers of false generosity become desperate at the slightest threat to its source. True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the “rejects of life” to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands — whether of individuals or entire peoples — need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world.

Pedagog y of the Oppressed by Pau lo Frei re

Coloni zation is the first level of

T he Specta cle

The Spectacle creates two forms of people, the oppressed and the oppressors. Neither of them reach the full potential of being human since they are direct subject of The Spectacleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rule. As members of a modern global society, we must acknowledge the positions we hold in society and how The Spectacle functions to keep us in those roles. Brazilian writer Paulo Freire has plenty to say about the power roles in society and how to overcome them. Paulo grew up in the slums of Brazil and saw the direct effect of colonoization on the intellectual growth and self empowerment of the poor. According to Paulo Freire, true freedom of the oppressed lies within themselves and their need to redefine what it is to be human, for only they know what is like to be dehumanized.

â&#x20AC;&#x192; This lesson and this apprenticeship must come, however, from the oppressed themselves and from those who are truly in solidarity with them. As individuals or as peoples, by fighting for the restoration of their humanity they will be attempting the restoration of true generosity. Who are better prepared than the oppressed to understand the terrible significance of an oppressive society? Who suffer the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity of liberation? They will not gain this liberation by chance but through the praxis of their quest for it, through their recognition of the necessity to fight for it. And this fight, because of the purpose given it by the oppressed, will actually constitute an act of love opposing the lovelessness which lies at the heart of the oppressorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; violence, lovelessness even when clothed in false generosity.

Pedagog y of the Oppressed by Pau lo Frei re

Coloni zation is the first level of

T he Specta cle

The Spectacle creates two forms of people, the oppressed and the oppressors. Neither of them reach the full potential of being human since they are direct subject of The Spectacleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rule. As members of a modern global society, we must acknowledge the positions we hold in society and how The Spectacle functions to keep us in those roles. Brazilian writer Paulo Freire has plenty to say about the power roles in society and how to overcome them. Paulo grew up in the slums of Brazil and saw the direct effect of colonoization on the intellectual growth and self empowerment of the poor. According to Paulo Freire, true freedom of the oppressed lies within themselves and their need to redefine what it is to be human, for only they know what is like to be dehumanized.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire was written in a time of decolonization in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Decolonization is an important subject of the book primarily in the way an individual develops internally. Internalized colonization is the system instilled within us after colonial armies leaves, the institutions remain to shape our existence. The colonial systems affect the way that we learn, the way that we contribute to society, and the way we perceive the world. We remain as

colonial subjects by operating in a oppressive and oppressed manner. We are conditioned to be products of our social and economic environment, which for the most part was defined through violence and conquest by the white male, for the dominance of the white male. Not only did the Europeans believe the natives to be savage, but eventually started to convince the world as well as the natives that they were savage. Most importantly we start to believe that we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make any change.

With Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo offers a way to learn how to LIBERATE OURSELVES from oppression. First, we must accept that oppression exists through economic and social forces. Then once we locate the oppressive forces, we can start to transform reality at the subjective and objective level simultaneously. Paulo primarily focused on colonization through education, but the relationship between education and The Spectacle are closely related since The Spectacle works to influence how we think and operate. Paulo Freire gives us a better description on how colonization and The Spectacle can function as a method of education and influence to standardize the roles of oppression and dehumanization.

In their political activity, the dominant elites utilize the banking concept to encourage passivity in the oppressed, corresponding with the latter’s “submerged” state of consciousness, and take advantage of that passivity to “fill” that consciousness with slogans which create even more fear of freedom. This practice is incompatible with a truly liberating course of action, which, by presenting the oppressor’s slogans as a problem, helps the oppressed to “eject” those slogans from within themselves. After all the task of the humanists is surely not that of pitting their slogans against the slogans of the oppressors, with the oppressed as the testing ground, “housing” the slogans of first one group and then the other. On the contrary, the task of the humanists is to see that the oppressed become aware of the fact that as dual beings, “housing” the oppressors within themselves, they cannot be truly human.

Pedagog y of the Oppressed by Pau lo Frei re

A S S I M I L AT I O N

CONQUEST

C O N TAC T We can start to see The Spectacle as the direct process of the colonization of the Americas, Africa, and Asia. The process of colonization was to enforce the submission of the indegenous people either through death or assimilation. Assimilation means the stripping of prior beliefs and accepting a perception of the world foreign to your own. These colonizers publicized themselves as saving the “savages” by bringing them closer to a “civilized” world. But, any descendant of these tragedies could tell you that their true motives was to take ownership of valuable resources and to expand the white European dominance across the rest of the world. Opposition to colonization was met with murder and rape, thus creating a state of fear and submission, the oppressor and the oppressed where formed.

Neo-liberal capitalism is the second level of

T h e S p ec tac le

What our society today has are entire groups of people with a lost sense of identity trying to keep up in a western world which is foreignt to themselves. Not only have we been affected in a spiritual and mental way through inner colonization, but also in an economic way which over time has become even harder to get control of. Most people in the world can understand how monetary wealth function as a system of influence. The huge economic inequality across the globe acts as a catalyst for a large percent of all decisions through out a day. Some do not suffer as much from economic hunger as others, but all are subject to the rule of of the economy in one way or the other. Normally we define who we are by what we chose to do and make with our time, but when opportunity or resources are not available, we turn to whatever occupation makes sure we can survive in The Spectacle.

Marx did not feel that man’s essential nature is to merge with the social substance. Instead, he felt that this essence is to be found in the choices that people make in terms of their “life-activity” (p. 81). Specifically, Marx believed that people gain their self-identity through meaningful and productive work which helps to express the individual self. In Marx’s view, productive labor provides opportunities for workers to “externalize” their selves and to thereby attain a sense of “self-realization” (p. 85). However, Marx also claimed that it is possible for workers to become alienated from their own products and their own labor. This sense of alienation comes about whenever workers surrender their own control over their labor. Whereas Hegel divided alienation into two categories involving separation and surrender, Marx claimed that alienation occurs as a result

A L I E N AT I O N

Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism by Peter Hud is

Neo-liberal capitalism is the second level of

T h e S p ec tac le

of “separation through surrender” (p. 91). There are two major ways in which a person can surrender the products of his or her labor. One way is by turning over the fruits of that labor to “another man” (p. 94). This type of surrender occurs when a worker accepts wages in order to perform labor which benefits another person rather than the self. Another way in which a worker can lose control over his or her own labor is by being part of an impersonal market system (p. 95). This type of economic system creates alienation for workers because it encourages them to undertake work which is neither personally meaningful nor self-expressive.

A L I E N AT I O N

Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism by Peter Hud is

Neo-liberal capitalism is the second level of

T h e S p ec tac le

A L I E N AT I O N

Why is it that most of the resource rich countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia are often in poverty? This is because of European imperialism and American neo-liberialism. These imperial empires took control of major supplies of resources either through direct corruption, coups, puppet regimes, bombings and finally economic warfare.â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Âśâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; As a Mexican immigrant living in the United States practicing graphic design, I am left wondering why American neo-liberalism is not usually, if ever, a topic of conversation in academia or the media. Being a Mexican immigrant, I have naturally grown to understand American neo-liberalism by looking for the roots of immigration. We leave our countries of origin where our family, history, culture and identity reside for what exactly? The reason is usually because of economic disparity and violence. When it comes down to it we are really just refugees of foreign Imperialism, but instead the media paints us as criminals that are stealing your jobs. The irony...

1850-56: U.S. soldiers defend American-built transisthmian railroad in Panama 1852-53: U.S. Marines land in Argentina to protect American interests during a revolution 1855: U.S. forces sent to Ur uguay to protect American lives and proper ty 1 8 5 6 : W i l l i a m W a l k e r, w i t h a m e r c e n a r y a r m y, c o n q u e r s N i c a r a g u a . 1 8 5 7 : C o r n e l i u s V a n d e r b i l t f u n d s t h e w a r a g a i n s t W a l k e r, a n d h i r e s A m e r i c a n mercenary Sylvanus M. Spencer to lead Costa Rican forces 1 8 8 5 : Wa s h i n g t o n s e n d s - - i n o n e o f t h e f i r s t a c t s o f “ g u n b o a t d i p l o m a c y ” - - t h e U S S Wa c h u s e t t t o G u a t e m a l a t o d e f e n d A m e r i c a n l i v e s a n d p r o p e r t y 1898: America defeats Spain and annexes or assumes control of Cuba, the Philippines, Puer to Rico (and also annexes Hawaii) 1 9 0 3 : T h e H a y - B u n a u - V a r i l l a Tr e a t y m a k e s t h e U . S . t h e “ s o v e r e i g n ” p o w e r i n t h e Panama Canal Zone 1904: Roosevelt announces his corollar y to the Monroe Doctrine, and takes customs control of the Dominican Republic 1905: U.S. Marines land in Honduras 1906-09: U.S. forces occupy Cuba 1910: U.S. forces land in Nicaragua and control--for the next thirty-eight years--the c o u n t r y ’s f i n a n c e s 1912: United Fr uit begins operations in Honduras 1914-34: U.S. troops occupy Haiti 1916-24: U.S. Marines occupy the Dominican Republic

While Washington policy-makers argue that US overseas intervention is necessary to protect “our interests,” the press seldom asks what “our interests” are and who among us is actually served by them. As we have seen in regard to Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, and other cases, “defending US interests” usually means imposing a client-state status on nations that might strike a course independent of, and even inimical to, global corporate investment. This is rarely the reason given in the national media. Rather, it is almost always a matter if “stopping aggression,” or “protecting our national security,” or punishing leaders who are said to be dictators, drug dealers, or state terrorists. References may occasionally appear in the press about the great disparities of wealth and poverty in Third World nations, but US corporate imperialism

1918: U.S. ar my lands in Panama to protect United Fr uit plantations 1920-21: U.S. troops support a coup in Guatemala 1 9 2 6 - 3 3 : U . S . m a r i n e s o c c u p y N i c a r a g u a a n d w a g e w a r a g a i n s t S a n d i n o ’s p e a s a n t army

Inventing Reality by M ichael Perenti

1936-79: U.S. support for the Somozas

25 1 9 5 4 : C I A - U n i t e d F r u i t c o u p i n G u a t e m a l a 1961: CIA-suppor ted invasion of the Bay of Pigs

is never treated as one of the causes of such poverty. Indeed, it seems the US press has never heard of US imperialism. Imperialism, the process by which the dominant interests of one country expropriate the land, labor, markets, capital, and natural recources of another, and neo-imperialism, the process of expropriation that occurs without direct colonization, are both unmentionables. Anyone who might try to introduce the subject would be quickly dismissed as “ideological.” Media people, like the mainstream academics and others, might recognize that the US went througha brief imperialist period around the Spanish-American War. And they would probably acknowledge that there since existed ancient Roman imperialism and nineteenth-century British imperialism and certainly twentieth-century “Soviet imperialism” But not many, if any,

Inventing Reality by M ichael Perenti

1936-79: U.S. support for the Somozas 1954: CIA-United Fr uit coup in Guatemala 1961: CIA-suppor ted invasion of the Bay of Pigs

mainstream editors and commentators would consider the existence of US imperialism (or neo-imperialism), let alone entertain criticisms of it. Media commentators, like political leaders, treat corporate investment as a solution to Third World poverty and indebtedness rather than as a cause. What US corporations do in the Third World is a story largely untold. In tiny El Salvador alone, US Steel, Alcoa, Westinghouse, United Brands, Standard Fruit, Del Monte, Cargill, Protector & Gamble, Chase Manhattan, Bank of America, First National Bank, Texaco, and at least twenty-five other major companies reap big profits by paying Salvadoran workers subsistence wages to produce everything from aluminium products and baking powder to transformers, computers, and steel pipes—almost all for export markets and all done without minimum-wage

Inventing Reality by M ichael Perenti

1936-79: U.S. support for the Somozas 1954: CIA-United Fr uit coup in Guatemala 1961: CIA-suppor ted invasion of the Bay of Pigs

laws, occupational safety, environmental controls, and other costly hindrances to capital accumilation. The profits reaped from the exploitation of a cheap and oppressed labor market in an impoverished country like El Salvador are much higher than would be procured in stateside industries. Of the hundreds of reports about El Salvador in the major broadcast and print media in recent years, few, if any, treat the basic facts about US economic imperialism. Nor does the press say much about El Salvador’s internal class structure, in which, a small number of immensely rich families own all the best farmland and receive 50 percent of the nation’s income. Nor is much said about how US military aid is used to maintain this privileged system. What capitalism as a transnational system does to impoverish people throughout the world in simply not a fit

Inventing Reality by M ichael Perenti

1936-79: U.S. support for the Somozas 1954: CIA-United Fr uit coup in Guatemala 1961: CIA-suppor ted invasion of the Bay of Pigs

subject for the US news media. Instead, poverty is treated as its own cause. We are asked to believe that Third World people are poor because that has long been their condition; they live in countries that are overpopulated, or there is something about their land, culture, or temperament that makes them unable to cope. Subsistence wages, forced displacement from homesteads, the plunder of natural resources, the lack of public education and public health programs, the suppression of independent labor unions and other democratic forces by US-supported police states, such things—if we were to believe the way the remain untreated in the media—have nothing much to do with poverty in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

1914-34: U.S. troops occupy Haiti 1916-24: U.S. Marines occupy the Dominican Republic 1918: U.S. ar my lands in Panama to protect United Fr uit plantations 1920-21: U.S. troops support a coup in Guatemala 1 9 2 6 - 3 3 : U . S . m a r i n e s o c c u p y N i c a r a g u a a n d w a g e w a r a g a i n s t S a n d i n o ’s p e a s a n t army

Inventing Reality by M ichael Perenti

1936-79: U.S. support for the Somozas 1954: CIA-United Fr uit coup in Guatemala 1961: CIA-suppor ted invasion of the Bay of Pigs

Labor

Natural Resources

Product

Media

Imperialism

Oppressed

Media

Product

Imperialism

Natural Resources

The spectator’s alienation from and submission to the contemplated object (which is the outcome of his own unthinking activity) works like this: the more he contemplates, the less he lives; the more readily he recognizes his own needs in the images of need proposed by the dominant system, the less he understands his own existence and his own desires. The spectacle’s externality with respect to the acting is demonstrated by the fact that the individual’s own gestures are no longer his own, but rather those of someone else who represents them to him. The spectator feels at home nowhere, for the spectacle is everywhere (1994, #30 Debord).

Product= Labor x Natural Resources. Products as the form of objects have submerged itself in our every day life even past an economic level, but as well as our psychological and physical being. Products directly and inderectly influence the formation of our identities, relationships, and memorable experiences. Our religion of obtaining things creates a demand which the capitalist then exploit the lower classes for their economic gain. We have made a demand for things reach a point in which it can no longer sustain itself. The product has no intimate connection to the consumer, but it is perceived to add such fullfillment to our lives.

The process in which the dominant corporate interests of a country exploit the land, labor, markets, capital, and resources of another country. Imperialism presents itself as “defending US interests”, which really means forcing an under-developed country into a state of forced cheap labor to extract the natural resources used by corporations for high profit margins. Modern imperialism has developed into something less visible than past colonization, but ultimately causes the same effects. We are told by the spectacle to believe that Third World countries are poor due to their own conditions and that western capitalist investment will aid them which is completely false. Unfair wages, forced displacement of homes, the depletion of natural resources, lack of public education and health care, the suppression of labor unions and other democratic forces by US-supported police states is the real root of poverty in primarily Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

are constantly being exploited to meet the demands of the capitalist consumer culture. Natural resources are extracted by corporations usually through the means of environmental degradation and cheap labor. The natural resources no longer are owned by their country of origin and it’s inhabitants, nor are they fairly compensated for their raw materials or labor to extract said materials. Why is it that the countries with the most abundant natural resources are usually the poorest? The industrial revolution caused an unbalanced disparity where corporations sought out to exploit the countries without their own means to extract their own resources and manufacture their own goods.

Profit Margins

D C B A

Labor is external to the worker, it no longer belongs to their essential being. The capitalist has commodified work to maximize their profits. The worker feels alienated from their labor; it is a physical, mental, and spiritual burden. The worker feels like themselves only when they are at home. The labor is not voluntary, rather it is forced. The only satisfaction involved in commodified labor is the wages earned to continue to survive within the neoliberal culture of things. Commodified labor does not bring satisfaction to the being of the worker, rather it only satisfies the demand of the consumer world. The worker’s extensive time and labor is no longer owned by themselves, instead it is owned by the capitalist through the means of the product.

The power of being aware is crucial to the survival of The Spectcale. Without proper communication between people, thoughts and perspectives can easily be dominated. We are at a point in our society where communication between people is relegated to images broadcasted by specific corporate entities. Not only does the media affect what we know, but it also affects how we come to know. For example in our modern day we aqcuire information at lightning speeds through social media. The downside is that the depth of information that is given as well as the credibility of the source is questionable.

The media is the third level of

The Specta cle

Li fe

In The Medium is the Message, Marshal McLuhan studies media as a way of understanding what it is that makes us live the way we do. The Medium is The Message argues that the content of communication is less important than the medium used to communicate the content. The technology that we use to experience so cial relationships has a direct affect on our awareness and perception. Throughout history when a new technology alters our awareness it also then alters the way society functions. For example, when societies communicated history and ideas through oral stories, humans primary sense was hearing, but the transition to printed literacy changed our primary sense to a visual one. Modern electronic media created a new form of awareness where the user is fully submerged and incapable of looking at the content subjectively.

C ap i t ali

Ours is a brand-new world of allatonceness. “Time” has ceased, “space” has vanished. We now live in a global village...a simultaneous happening. We are back in acoustic space. We have begun again to structure the primordial feeling, the tribal emo- tions from which a few centuries of literacy divorced us. We have had to shift our stress of attention from action to reaction. We must now know in advance the consequences of any policy or action, since the results are experienced without delay. Because of electric speed, we can no longer wait and see. George Washington once remarked, “We haven’t heard from Benj. Franklin umwrite him a i in Paris this year. We e should d M letter.” At the high speeds of electric communication, purely visual means of apprehending the world are no longer possible; they are just too slow to be relevant

The Medium is the Message by Marshal McLuhan

O ppre s s

The media is the third level of

The Specta cle

Li fe

C ap i t ali

or effective. Unhappily, we confront this new situation with an enormous backlog of outdated mental and psychological responses. We have been left d-a-n- g-li-n-g. Our most impressive words and thoughts betray usâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they refer us only to the past, not to the present. Electric circuitry profoundly involves men with one another. Information pours upon us, instantane- ously and continuously. As soon as information is acquired, it is very rapidly replaced by still newer information. Our electricallyconfigured world has forced us to move from the habit of data classifica- tion to the mode of pattern recognition. um blocki We can no longer build serially, d e M by-block, step-by-step, because instant communication insures that all factors of the environment and of experience co- exist in a state of active interplay.

The Medium is the Message by Marshal McLuhan

Oppre s s

The media is the third level of

The Specta cle

Li fe

C ap i t ali

We have now become aware of the possibility of arranging the entire human environment as a work of art, as a teaching machine designed to maximize perception and to make everyday learning a process of discovery. Application of this knowledge would be the equivalent of a thermostat controlling room temperature. It would seem only reasonable to extend such controls to all the sensory thresholds of our being. We have no reason to be grateful to those who juggle these thresholds in the name of haphazard innovation. An astronomer looking through a 200-inch tele- scope exclaimed that it was going to rain. His assistant asked, um my corns “How can you tell?” e “Because i d M hurt.”Environments are not passive wrappings, but are, rather, active processes which are invisible. The groundrules, pervasive structure, and over-all pat- terns of environments elude easy perception. Anti- environments, or

The Medium is the Message by Marshal McLuhan

Oppre s s

The media is the third level of

The Specta cle

Li fe

C ap i t ali

countersituations made by artists, provide means of direct attention and enable us to see and understand more clearly. The interplay between the old and the new environments creates many problems and confusions. The main obstacle to a clear understanding of the effects of the new media is our deeply embedded habit of regarding all phenomena from a fixed point of view. We speak, for instance, of “gaining perspec- tive.” This psychological process derives unconsciously from print technology. Print technology created the public. Electric technology created the mass. The public consists of separate individuals um walking around withedseparate, fixed i M points of view. The new technology demands that we abandon the luxury of this posture, this fragmentary outlook.

The Medium is the Message by Marshal McLuhan

Oppre s s

The media is the third level of

The Specta cle

Li fe

C ap i t ali

The method of our time is to use not a single but multiple models for explorationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the technique of the suspended judgment is the discovery of the twentieth century as the technique of invention was the discovery of the nineteenth.

um i d e M

The Medium is the Message by Marshal McLuhan

Oppre s s

The media is the third level of

The Specta cle

Li fe

C ap i t ali

M e di

st Oppre s s

In conclusion, we can break down The Spectacle into three main observable modes of influence. The first mode comes from the colonization of civilizations through force and institutions which then transforms itself into internal colonization. Internal colonization forces a state of oppression by forcing the oppressed to deny their own identity and house the oppressor within themselves. The second mode of influence is through economic disparity created by neo-liberalism. We work monotonous jobs in order to keep up with a lifestyle or even to survive. Uknowingly, this thirst for product creates a biproduct of a polluted environment and explopitation of the less fortunate. The third level of influence is through media which is the most modern and least concrete of the levels of influence. This level of influence shapes who we are by creating a mass consumer culture whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception and behavior has been reconfigured to follow instead of discover.