Thanks for watching! Lots of requests for another Spectacle-related video so hope this lives up to expectations in some way. If you'd like to support what I do here then I'd love it if you'd check out my Patreon at patreon.com/tomnicholas
Okay, I'm pretty sure putting "fake news" as the first two words of the title of this video was a mistake as it got demonetised almost instantly after I released it... This will probably effect how much it's recommended by UA-cam so sharing anywhere where you think folks might be interested is even more appreciated this time round than usual! Thanks all!
Dude, you got like 27k subscribers and only 118 views rn. This is a nice video. Maybe do a re-release in a week with a different title? I'm still getting ads though idk
THIS IS FAKE NEWS!!! Oh wait. I just now read the title. Anyway 3 hours in and no adds but is was suggested on my homepage but I'm a subscriber but I told Susan Wojcicki I'd kick her butt if she jacked with my suggested videos (that's 4 buts so far [counting Wojcicki's butt]). Being demonized by UA-cam is a badge of honor. Like being elected homecoming queen at a school for the blind. Please keep doing what you are doing.
"Alternative facts" is an orwellian term. In germany we even have a contest for language like this. "Unwort des Jahres ". It's an award given out by a bunch of journalists each year to document the most manipulative and misleading language in politics and the media.
I just googled this and I love the "Unwort des Jahres" project so much. Do the awards get much public attention? I so wish we had something like that in the UK.
Tom Nicholas Yes, they‘re reflected in the media, as well as the other similar awards like the Youth Word of the Year. Especially in the last years the „Unwort des Jahres“-winners have been right-wing terms (sometimes even Nazi-vocabulary which was revitalised by nationalists) that are very popular around supporters of the populist AfD party, which was dominating public discourse recently. This negative prize is not only for orwellian terms, but „alternate facts“ (which is indeed orwellian) won the award in 2017.
Only problem is, the corporate MSM has been manipulating facts to lie to the public for decades. They're the present day corporate McCarthyists who control everything from academia to the fortune 500.
Trump didn't define his base's beliefs, he gave oxygen to the beliefs that were already there. That sense of resonance and being given a voice is what turned people into his supporters.
most people find it easier to imagine themselves in a post-societal "Mad Max" apocalypse than they can imagine themselves living in a world with a slightly different economic system. Such is the ideological power of capitalism.
At the expense of possibly repeating myself, I have to say it is a tremendous thrill to see the flourishing of interest in Debord's work almost 40 years after reading it and forming part of a small, relatively isolated group who appreciated his insights. It is also highly satisfactory that these insights have advocates like yourself making engaging and thought-provoking content freely available to new generations. Vive la Commune. All Power to the Workers' Councils!
I don't think you'd mentioned having been around at the time previously. That must have been really exciting. I'd like to think we might look back on the present day with a similar sense of excitement at some point but who can tell!?
Tom Nicholas I was working at a Leftist bookshop when it was first published in English & read it (& any other IS stuff I could find) with great avidity at a time and place in which it seemed to resonate highly with my own lived experience. Missed Paris ‘68 though! (I'm not *that* old!) However it is true as you say his ideas have more relevance today than ever. Go Tom.
awesome video! And cool insight Red Tide! I learned of the situationists from someone named Sole (Tim Holland), a rapper originally from Maine. But these videos and others are really insightful, exciting and well done. Have been learning a lot while isolating...Thanks
Debord's work is all the more pressing and prescient in this day and age, he has significantly influenced the way in which I perceive not only my social interactions but how consumption under capitalism has dissolved the foundations of identity and relationships
10:18 When I watched Donald Trump presenting himself as an alternative to the system, essentially as a saviour, I thought, But he's just another "top-shelf" product of the very system he's speaking against. People can't buy it. Of course they would, and here we are today.
Yeah I found it so ridiculous that people believed the man KNOWN FOR BUYING SO MANY BUSINESSES IT WOULD MAKE DISNEY BLUSH AND ALSO RENAMING THEM IN HIS OWN NAME TO BOOT was anti-establishment.
When anyone says "I, alone, can fix it" it's time to be suspicious. In fact it's time to walk away. That person is either lying or delusional. Especially when they freely admit to being part of the problem.
@@MrAspiringactor the conservative mindset is so resistant to change and growth that they will double down on their views to the point of absurdity. Trump administration is pretty much the end result of that.
andre: I was totally baffled back when Ronald Regan said "Let's get the government off our backs" and lots of people thought that made sense. like, did they not realize that he was president and thus the strongest person within the government? Would we expect the CEO of Chevron to say "Let's get Chevron off our backs?' There was some kind of cognitive dissonance happening there that I just could not understand. And it has only gotten worse since then.
Thank you Kerry, I really appreciate you saying so. I hope you've enjoyed my videos!
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Too bad your hateres for Donald Trump is polluting your vision so much that it made this video unwatcheable. I find this often on the left - you are so bitter that you push people away- you might have othervise swayes with facts. Alas - you dont work with facts but wirh alegations and spite. Truly sad and shamefull. DISLIKE.
Tom its a pleasure to listen to your world views. Gives me a lot of insight and food for thought on this crazy, fun-filled and scary roller-coaster of life. Can sit and listen to you for hours
Thank you John, that's very kind. Sometimes the first drafts of these videos look like they might be a few hours long but I wouldn't want to put you through that!!
This makes me think of how long the right has criticized postmodernism based on the oversimplification of the idea that we can't really know anything at all. Well, the reality they seem to be pushing is precisely that kind of reality: one in which nothing can really be known or universal and into which individual whims to create one's own reality are just as valid as anyone else's. I guess you have to be careful of your zealotry lest you come to resemble that which you rail against.
Uh, it's the left that is pushing that idea, not the right. Critical race theory, gender confusion, and the like are all leftist projects. It's the right that is more aligned with reality, economics, and how people actually live in reality. The left exists in a make-believe cloud cuckoo world that cares only about appearances. That's why the media, Hollywood, and image-makers are usually leftists.
Some people even blithely blame “Postmodernism” for all kinds of various social ills, and I’ve thought about Structuralism, Modernism, Postmodernism and stuff a lot because I’m interested in philosophy and it makes me a bit sad to see Postmodernism reduced to this sort of “talking point”
I always thought of Richard III as cunning rather than especially intelligent. Remember that he’s written by Shakespeare. Richard despised the people who he conned and built nothing that would outlive him.
Tom should be the education secretary. I only stumbled across this channel yesterday, and have watched several episodes, Not only impressed by the thoroughness of the research, but the quality of the script writing. But I think the thing that really makes this stand out is he is teaching critical thinking, which is what is desperately needed in education. Well done sir.
@@Tom_Nicholas I am also interested to know weather society thirst for spectacles weather be it politics or in films (especially marvel blockbusters) got to do something with the rise of showman politicians or celeb culture because something of similar sorts was also taking place back in the 20's and 30's with spectacle films like metropolis , Godzilla , king Kong etc
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Too bad your hateres for Donald Trump is polluting your vision so much that it made this video unwatcheable. I find this often on the left - you are so bitter that you push people away- you might have othervise swayes with facts. Alas - you dont work with facts but wirh alegations and spite. Truly sad and shamefull. DISLIKE.
I think it's simpler than that. People initially liked Trump because he was presenting himself as something he's not (being a spectacle). After they liked him, they formed a bias. This bias made it harder for them to change their opinion of him. This is similar to the way that if you tell someone they're wrong, or argue with them, they're only going to become more convinced of their opinion. So, once Trump got people to like him through lies and propaganda, the bias we have towards criticizing ourselves kicks in, where we hate to admit that we're wrong, and therefore, have ad-hoc justifications for their beliefs or just have cognitive dissonance where they ignore inconvenient facts (or actively call them out as fake), and focus on the things that they believe confirm their views. So again, all because Trump got someone to like him, bias prevents them from now disliking him. It takes something extreme to overcome the bias we have to save face.
We've got a pretty similar thing in the UK at the moment surrounding Brexit on both sides. People who would both prefer to remain in the European Union and leave it have so committed themselves to each cause that the discourse has just become absolutely wild. The problem being that this means that it's really difficult to have any kind of meaningful discussion of Brexit with anyone at all.
I just find it fascinating the way there is not even the slightest attempt to make it appear cohesive. Maybe that says something about him (and that tends to be the focus of much of the discourse) but, more likely, it says something about society at large.
@@Tom_Nicholas Donald Trump hasn't produced modern America - modern America produced Donald Trump; BTW, he isn't that chaotic: he (and his billionaire friends) achieved their main goal - they lowered taxes on the rich & corporations
He made a rally where he faked an orgasm to mock someone who had a scandal or something like that. If you go to the comments, you will see his followers saying that it was the funniest rally they've ever been and that that's what they like about him...
@@juandelacruz4679 Exactly. These people aren't looking for politicians who are going to fix the world, they just want someone like them to be the leader for once. Decades of bad policy has caused our democracies to erode. You can write as you want about it, but that's the bottom line. Our democracies have failed us, and now they are to reap what they've sown.
@ I find your comment a bit ironic as your comment seems to apply more to yourself and the comment you made than to "the left" that you refer to. In your comment, which you seem to have copy-pasted repeatedly on multiple comments here, lacks any factual criticisms. You say that they "don't work with facts but wi[t]h allegations and spite." But your whole comment is just an allegation and you present no facts. You also give evidence to being spiteful yourself with allegations, which you don't back up with facts, that "I find this often on the left - You are so bitter that you push people away- you might have other[w]ise swaye[d] with facts. Alas - You don't work with facts but wi[t]h allegations and spite." These are all allegations you make while presenting no facts to back it up. You target an entire group and make an negative assertion about them without backing it up with any facts. Add to this you copy-pasting this comment on multiple comment threats on this video and there is evidence that may suggest you yourself are spiteful. Spiteful is defined as "spiteful, vengeful, vindictive refer to a desire to inflict a wrong or injury on someone, usually in return for one received." (Dictionary.com) Your insults, which you do not back up with facts, seem to illustrate a "desire to inflict a wrong or injury on someone," in this case what you define as "the left." You disired to insult them both in the comments I quote above and in how you ended the comment with "truly sad and shameful. DISLIKE." You also demonstrate that you believe this is "In returned for one received" with your comment accusing "the left" of these actions, of which you desire to inflict an injury in return for. Considering all these facts it seems that your comments assertions apply more to your comment itself rather than "the left" that you claim it to.
"Trump's blasphemous words, while in no way backed up with policy changes, may actually serve to reinforce the status quo he contradicts. As long as those who agree with his cynicism feel like they can be heard and that someone as powerful as the president agrees with them, they will be less likely to actually work toward challenging the powers they despise."- Caleb Maupin
@@HxH2011DRA without getting into too much detail, he buddies up with nazbols like Aleksandr Dugin. Imperialism isn't any less imperialism if it isn't the USA or Europe doing it.
Haha, Boris is an odd one. Prior to a few years ago (as far as I can recall), he primarily managed to get himself into lots of gaffes and play them for attention but they were mostly harmless gaffes and almost entirely unobjectionable. It's only since Trump gained in popularity that he seems to have pivoted to his current model of slightly more outrageous behaviour. To be honest, I don't even really know what to make of Johnson at the moment. Most days I forget he's the prime minister...
@@Tom_Nicholas Perhaps an understanding of his current behaviour can be understood by analysing his relationship with Steve Bannon - who he has had meetings with - and his main adviser, Dominic Cummings.
Definitely want to make a Brexit video at some point. But probably more no how wild the discourse has become rather than focussing too much on Johnson and co or foreign interference in the vote.
Scary thoughts at the end indeed... reminds me of the point Mark Fisher was trying to make with Capitalist Realism, and taking into account how he ended... fuck
Yes, a similar point to Fisher's to a limit. I think, in the present moment, we /can/ imagine a world without capitalism. The 2008 crash (or, more accurately, the effects of it over a period of years) has allowed an increasing number of people to be able to imagine a world without capitalism to an extent that would have seemed unthinkable when Fisher published Capitalist Realism. The challenge now is to build a coherent alternative narrative which the widespread scepticism I discuss here proves something of an obstacle to. Also, while I know that it's tempting to want to view Fisher's death as symbolic in some grand political or theoretical way (and, furthermore, that this was only a UA-cam comment!), I would caution against doing so. As with most people who struggle with their mental health, I'm sure there were myriad factors at play. I'm sure you meant well but all the research suggests that fetishising those who lose their fights with mental health in such a way has a negative effect on those who are still battling on. (Not trying to get on my high horse here, just a gentle word of advice).
@@Tom_Nicholas no you're totally right, of course I didn¡t intend that to be the message but when dealing with such topics I should be much more careful in the way I word things and what the message could be perceived as. There is indeed a tendecy in the emo/defeatist left to do that and my statement was being very reductionist, thanks fur pointing that out. And as you say, the protests in Ecuador, Chile, etc; are proof that there is not only a wish to imagine alternatives, but a will to fight for it.
@@Tom_Nicholas I'm not kidding when I say that your videos have made me understand Debord so much more. Reading his book is a struggle that I have fought with for over a year now lol
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Too bad your hateres for Donald Trump is polluting your vision so much that it made this video unwatcheable. I find this often on the left - you are so bitter that you push people away- you might have othervise swayes with facts. Alas - you dont work with facts but wirh alegations and spite. Truly sad and shamefull. DISLIKE.
There's something Orwellian about Orwell. I love what you're doing, Tom Nicholas. I think part of what makes DeBord so compelling is his appreciation for paradox and the fuzziness between reality and for lack of a better word, fantasy. The glamorization of the image. The tyranny of the box, the rectangle, the screen. That which glamorizes finally kills. His thinking touches upon spiritual truths, which for me are answered finally by the Christian faith. "If that light which is within you is dark, how great is that darkness."
It’s absolutely true that there aren’t any widely accepted/recognized spaces to discuss the many flaws and inequalities that inevitably result from a capitalist society
I liked your analysis, I am so tired of seeing people underestimating how sly Trump is critizing his intelligence, omitting how heartless he is and how much his politics hurt people. In my country there was a prime minister candidate which followed exactly the same tacticts. At that time everyone was making superficial critizism of him because he was a goofy. Today he runs the country and nobody is laughing now... Good job.
Yes, I think there is a tendency to, as you say, criticise the "silly" aspects of the aesthetic whilst overlooking the real and damaging harm that his policies are doing.
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Too bad your hateres for Donald Trump is polluting your vision so much that it made this video unwatcheable. I find this often on the left - you are so bitter that you push people away- you might have othervise swayes with facts. Alas - you dont work with facts but wirh alegations and spite. Truly sad and shamefull. DISLIKE.
Here here! Are you talking about Bolsonaro? It’s scary how much he is following Trumps tactics, and how that has equally volatilized and divided Brazil’s population.
@@melaniey.5596 No I am talking about Greece. The current government is a neoliberal one, that is using racist rhetoric against refugees, in order to cater to its far-right audience, while they violently suppress peoples' protest against their governance. Greece always had a thing for police brutality, but currently, we are worse than we've ever been after the military Junta. To make things more clear, Mike Pompeo, visited Greece a couple of weeks ago to congratulate our government for the good job they do... The fact that Trump sees our government in a positive light, speaks by itself.
The weird thing is, the right wing trolls get mad at some far less obviously critical of the right stuff than this. Sometimes I post something that I think is fairly inarguable and get a whole barrage of odd responses...
I have listened a few times, I don't actually see too much wrong with them. They have a big beef with the Chinese Communist Party, which is the way it should be.
@@Captain_MonsterFart it's my understanding that they're pretty far-right, kind of racist, willingly spread misinformation about Covid, very pro-Trump and is now somehow peddling QAnon. Pretty nasty shit all around.
I usually get two dislikes pretty soon after release. I’m guessing there’s someone who gets notifications just to do so. Which, if that’s how they want to spend their time, that’s fair enough I suppose...
Thank god I finally finished a whole video from this channel. I’ve tried maybe 4 or 5 different videos and I just can’t finish them. I was thinking it has more to do with my intelligence level than anything wrong with the content. When I heard you mention Katie Halper I was relieved that I had not read the ideology wrong. Phew! You’re just a few levels ahead of me. Anyways, thanks for pushing my limits with great content. ✌️❤️
The concluding segment was a stirring defense of the Enlightenment ideal of a common fund of shared knowledge and protocols for ascertaining truth. Red Tom is right!
Clickbait! As an optometrist I was initially happy with the algorithm bringing me here but bitterly disappointed with the lack of spectacles in the content. 😟
Trump getting people "interested" in politics by being so "spectacular" was play similarly played out to the people of Toronto during Rob Ford's ludicrous stint as our mayor. He was an populist buffoon who "spoke for the little guy," while coming from a family whose wealth and connections were all formed and tended by his father a generation before. I know myself, and many others, who didn't previously pay as much attention to the goings-on of City Council, found themselves reading the papers and blogs to find out what fresh Hell he was unleashing in our city. His big brother Doug is now the twice-elected Conservative premier of the province of Ontario. He's a little smarter than Rob was, and certainly more ambitious. But he's just as much of a buffoon. And he's really bad at hiding his attempted manipulations and his venal motivations. And enough of the public lapped it up to give him two majorities... sigh
the society of the spectacle is the book that had the most formidable insight into our society in the 2000s. Although it was written many decades ago, it documented the substitution of real experience by apearrances, the age of the image. The age where people market themselves on the internet, create virtual personalities which then they try to immulate in the real world. Politics do not evolve around reason or facts but mostly around scandals, fake news, essentially who is better at creating the "media buzz" in order for people to see his face everywhere. That's trump. Most people think they are "informed" just by scrolling around facebook looking at the headlines. The alienation in the workplace has spread into everyday experience through consumption. The consumption of life itself. Political desicions are motivated as if they were market decisions. There is no turning back from this,or at least i dont see one. The only hope is for us to try to deconstruct in our heads what is really out there for itsel and what is fed to us by media domination. To have conversations that go beyond capitalist realism and imagine. Although everythning is commodified there are emancipatory elements in art, discusions about politics,culture etc. But i simply can not be so optimistic that this,even though it will happen at a small scales and it is happening, will have a srong impact in orde to shake the status quo and change everyday experience for the mass of people.
I think your analysis is mostly correct however I wouldn't say "there is no turning back". Prior to 2016, much of this kind of stuff went undiscussed outside of particularly engaged groups; now, there is a great deal more open discussion of it in the "mainstream". I'm gonna discuss this more in a future video, but the "crisis of liberalism" has, to my mind, made some kind of change more possible rather than less so.
@@Tom_Nicholas but what is really discussed in the mainstream isn't a radical change or a realisation that this kind of twist from the real to the virtual is a direct byproduct of the capitalist system trying to sustain itself. Trying to find new markets through the commodification of every aspect of life,because it is a system that demands expansion and its based on the axiom that this is sustainable ( we could enter in a discussion about the ecological problems here but that would be beside the point). The change that i see being more possible is a shift to authoritarianism through a shallow and dangerous anti minority moralisation about the nation identity,globalisation etc. The return to a rhetoric that affirms that our crisis is not due to the systemic failures and their pshycosocial byproducts but a matter of the decaying of absolute values such as the nation or religion. Here is trumps protectionism again, or orbans for that matter. Last but definetely not least the left in the western world has a history of losing the crucial battles that arise after big economic crisis and we re gonna experience one very very soon. I have a glimpse of hope but just a glimpse mate. Anyway,maybe im being too pesimistic...
You have fuelled my obsession with the current US political quagmire...covid, election, cognitive tests etc. Thank you. Meanwhile say after me... Parent,Man,woman, camera, TV... (I,ve forgotten the first one).
The problem with political opinions is that they are often originated and spread by those who don't believe in them, but simply benefit from others believing them
The difference in the spectacle now is the media part-after all in Rome Gladiators fought to the death in front of huge cheering crowds offering thumbs up or down to seal their fate.
Interesting analysis. I thought of Debor's book all through Obama's reign. Obama adopted the facade of a pillar of morality all the while dropping more bombs in foreign countries than any president ever. People just totally bought into it - the image of benevolent leader. The society of the Spectacle applies equally to the left and right. We want to believe in the images we're presented with.
I mean admittedly they aren’t that different. While here in the US we refer to them as the left and right, on the large global political spectrum they both land in almost the same spot.
You're releasing this video at the perfect moment! I'm preparing an oral presentation on Conservative Feminism and Alternative Facts ;) Thank you very much for your analyses Tom. Always a pleasure to watch your videos :)
Well, if nothing else; Trump did follow through on his "draining the swamp" promise... We just didnt assume he meant draining out all that obstructive water and wildlife out so we could see the trash and mud beneath. For those bad with metaphores: He showed the true colors of modern politics. Particularly the Republican and conservative politics that surround bigoted intent and maintaining the status quo for the benefit of the wealthy.
Thanks as always. One technical feedback is that your audio is clipping. I don’t know if you added gain afterwards but a quick tutorial in mastering dialogue will drastically improve presentation
Just came upon this, Tom. These have been my thoughts as well during the past several scores of years. Guy points in Society of the Spectacle (SOS) the "spectacle" is passively received. This is, I think, in the proverbial nutshell the essence of his theoretical work (including his depressing 20+ year re-assessment of Society of the Spectacle, Comment on Society of the Spectacle) rather than the in-your-face aspect of the perversion media by the ruling spectacle. It is the commodification of everything in our lives--in a world now totally dominated by capitalism and the fully integrated capitalist production system--that has reified people and human relations, made us all into commodities, i.e., passive receivers. This reification of consciousness supplants activity (the way humans learn) and critical thought, substituting "likes" and emojis, and social media for real thought and action. Not only does this make masses of people more easily manipulable, at the same time it destroys the foundations of each culture in which the spectacle penetrates. While the world is (literally) on fire, people's attention is averted and perverted by the spectacle. In the bad old days of the late 1950s and the 1960s, "media" in the U.S. lied about the size of demonstrations supporting civil rights, opposing the war in Vietnam. The New York Times not only parroted the government line, it deliberately covered up the numbers of people against Jim Crow and the war in Vietnam. The fact that it turned out the U.S. CIA had placed people on the Times and in several magazines (imagine MI-6 doing this in UK), was lightly gone over and dropped from history. It is all back there in the hoary microfilms on the Times itself--but we seem to have lost "history" in the process of being consumed by the spectacle. I do not think our species will survive the effects of world capitalism. We will kill each other and completely destroy the world eco-system.
10:21 _By invoking any number of different criteria, the spectacle can present false political oppositions as totally distinct social systems._ Corporate Party (D): "We want to bring more affordable for-profit private health insurance to common folk with some minimal regulation to ensure that they cannot screw you as much." Corporate Party (R): "tHaT's cOMmUniSm!"
WIth Trump it's a level worse. His failures were very real, yet so was the life of luxury he still managed to live despite that. What that says to me isn't so much that we live in a society of the spectacle, but that If you're rich enough you'll *never* be truly poor, no matter how badly you screw up. There'll always be another opportunity for his kind.
2,24 spot on. And if touched upon at all...subjects are thrown into doubt at the very least (anything from processed foods/beverages definitely all the info reg whole food/plant based and negative impacts of factory farming on animals, zoonotic diseases development, human health ..or the injuries/injustice also suffered by slaughterhouse workers. Or the general misguided info about any possibility to pay of national debt in a financial system where money is created out of debt...rising inequality all these kind of subjects are hushed or if reported it's "shady" doubtful or presented as subversive. Edit 21.55 the main problem is our sick system...money creation, ever increasing gambling/threath of new crash, growing inequality...unrest/division....mis+disinformation and the fact that we lack the will to chage it and save our planet not banks n large corporations. To make a system that works for all incl. Life in our oceans, the habitat and living soil we depend on that aren't to just be exploited n taken for granted. If rivers run dry, groundwater is polluted or used up, wild bee species, bats and other pollinators are killed off n glaciers melt...we'll have volunteered our own demise. Thank you for great content.
Where is the picture of everyone wearing 3D glasses from? Also. Fantastic videos I’ve spent a week or so not doing work on essays I should have been doing work on. Your vids really wake ideas / link themes / make me actually pick up a pen !
I am interested in the idea that many of his votes came not from those who “love” him, or his “straight talk-tells it like it is”, but rather from enjoying the spectacle itself. It’s not only a spectacle hidden, he showed us that it is a spectacle, many people enjoyed the show, and then retreated into an area where can simultaneously say that it is NOT a spectacle, but rather his firmly held convictions. If the quiver is empty, then surely at least one arrow must have hit the mark.
Hey Tom, Did you ever develop your last thought any further? What would make for a genuine discourse to you? Given the variety of ways to understand the spectacle and given the way a lot of us find ways to legitimise the construction of these understandings, wouldn't it require some claim on truth? And isn't a claim on truth somewhere entangled in the problem rather than the solution? In short, have you ever thought of what a genuine discourse would look like and how it could be "implemented" sensibly and cautiously? Ps. Thank you for the videos. You excel without exception. Fav screen time
It would be interesting to have a video on Surkov and his deliberate undermining of certainty, his use of spectacle, and his background in absurdist theatre......
Sir, you are an "intellectual" in the Edward Said sense of the word, It gives me hope to discover such a channel on youtube that deals with our current world with a scope of academic insight. Looking forward to further videos no matter where you decide to take them.
Great video. I first became familiar with the ideas of Debord back around 2000. Even then they rang true with alarming accuracy. It's a very very prescient work.
So glad I found this essay Tom, especially after listening to your presentation about Post -Structuralism. I'll certainly be sponsoring (according to my meagre means).
Here's an idea: scrap the entire programming schedule of the BBC4 TV channel and replace everything with back-to-back @Tom Nicholas UA-cam videos. Seriously, even if the content is seen by just 1% of the UK population, we'll be a much better and well-informed nation. The way that Tom presents philosophy and politics to his audience is incredibly engaging. Tom - if you're ever passing through Kingston-upon-Thames, I'd happily exchange multiple pints of beer for a few hours of pub philosophical bants with your good self! I guarantee that I won't be Débord one in any potential beer garden chinwag!
my pet theory-- trump is a reality TV star, he thought it was about ratings, if he made it 'exciting', the show would get renewed..this is why he says the 'election was stolen'... hes trying to play a completely different game, its not '9 dimensional chess' , its pokemon go
A guy I know defended the inauguration size of trump with some weird conspiracy of “fake news” photographers taking pictures when not everyone had arrived yet, and it really was a record breaking event. I just asked him if he had other pictures to prove it, I’m still waiting for him to get back to me🙄
Thanks for watching! Lots of requests for another Spectacle-related video so hope this lives up to expectations in some way. If you'd like to support what I do here then I'd love it if you'd check out my Patreon at patreon.com/tomnicholas
Okay, I'm pretty sure putting "fake news" as the first two words of the title of this video was a mistake as it got demonetised almost instantly after I released it... This will probably effect how much it's recommended by UA-cam so sharing anywhere where you think folks might be interested is even more appreciated this time round than usual! Thanks all!
Dude, you got like 27k subscribers and only 118 views rn. This is a nice video. Maybe do a re-release in a week with a different title?
I'm still getting ads though idk
@@user-nv9vn8fm1d To be fair, it's been about 25 minutes since I put it up so that's actually pretty decent. Thanks though!
THIS IS FAKE NEWS!!! Oh wait. I just now read the title. Anyway 3 hours in and no adds but is was suggested on my homepage but I'm a subscriber but I told Susan Wojcicki I'd kick her butt if she jacked with my suggested videos (that's 4 buts so far [counting Wojcicki's butt]). Being demonized by UA-cam is a badge of honor. Like being elected homecoming queen at a school for the blind. Please keep doing what you are doing.
Idk when ill be able to but when i get my financial situation situated i wanna donate. Till then i like comment and sub. Please keep making content.
"Alternative facts" is an orwellian term.
In germany we even have a contest for language like this. "Unwort des Jahres ". It's an award given out by a bunch of journalists each year to document the most manipulative and misleading language in politics and the media.
I just googled this and I love the "Unwort des Jahres" project so much. Do the awards get much public attention? I so wish we had something like that in the UK.
Tom Nicholas Yes, they‘re reflected in the media, as well as the other similar awards like the Youth Word of the Year. Especially in the last years the „Unwort des Jahres“-winners have been right-wing terms (sometimes even Nazi-vocabulary which was revitalised by nationalists) that are very popular around supporters of the populist AfD party, which was dominating public discourse recently. This negative prize is not only for orwellian terms, but „alternate facts“ (which is indeed orwellian) won the award in 2017.
Only problem is, the corporate MSM has been manipulating facts to lie to the public for decades. They're the present day corporate McCarthyists who control everything from academia to the fortune 500.
@@Tom_Nicholas Not sure, but I they were a big topic in our german class.
ZeuϟϟPater *_They_*_ control the media, academia, and major players in the economy._
Why does that sound so dang familiar? 🤔
Trump didn't define his base's beliefs, he gave oxygen to the beliefs that were already there. That sense of resonance and being given a voice is what turned people into his supporters.
most people find it easier to imagine themselves in a post-societal "Mad Max" apocalypse than they can imagine themselves living in a world with a slightly different economic system. Such is the ideological power of capitalism.
Whos saying they are any different?
What system works better ?
None i know of
@@perkeles23dobre59 a system based on human need instead of elevating the few above the many at the expense of the many would be a good start.
The reason that system fails is because human greed is limitless.
@@perkeles23dobre59 Dunno man, some societies would beg to differ though history.
As Fredrick Jameson said and Mark Fisher echoed, "It is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of Capitalism".
At the expense of possibly repeating myself, I have to say it is a tremendous thrill to see the flourishing of interest in Debord's work almost 40 years after reading it and forming part of a small, relatively isolated group who appreciated his insights. It is also highly satisfactory that these insights have advocates like yourself making engaging and thought-provoking content freely available to new generations. Vive la Commune. All Power to the Workers' Councils!
I don't think you'd mentioned having been around at the time previously. That must have been really exciting. I'd like to think we might look back on the present day with a similar sense of excitement at some point but who can tell!?
Tom Nicholas I was working at a Leftist bookshop when it was first published in English & read it (& any other IS stuff I could find) with great avidity at a time and place in which it seemed to resonate highly with my own lived experience. Missed Paris ‘68 though! (I'm not *that* old!) However it is true as you say his ideas have more relevance today than ever. Go Tom.
I definitely think it's one of the best works out there easy
awesome video! And cool insight Red Tide! I learned of the situationists from someone named Sole (Tim Holland), a rapper originally from Maine. But these videos and others are really insightful, exciting and well done. Have been learning a lot while isolating...Thanks
Debord's work is all the more pressing and prescient in this day and age, he has significantly influenced the way in which I perceive not only my social interactions but how consumption under capitalism has dissolved the foundations of identity and relationships
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” - George Orwell, 1984
10:18
When I watched Donald Trump presenting himself as an alternative to the system, essentially as a saviour, I thought, But he's just another "top-shelf" product of the very system he's speaking against. People can't buy it. Of course they would, and here we are today.
Yeah I found it so ridiculous that people believed the man KNOWN FOR BUYING SO MANY BUSINESSES IT WOULD MAKE DISNEY BLUSH AND ALSO RENAMING THEM IN HIS OWN NAME TO BOOT was anti-establishment.
When anyone says "I, alone, can fix it" it's time to be suspicious. In fact it's time to walk away. That person is either lying or delusional. Especially when they freely admit to being part of the problem.
@@MrAspiringactor the conservative mindset is so resistant to change and growth that they will double down on their views to the point of absurdity. Trump administration is pretty much the end result of that.
That must be why the media throws everything and the kitchen sink at him. Because he's on their side? Hmm I don't know.
andre: I was totally baffled back when Ronald Regan said "Let's get the government off our backs" and lots of people thought that made sense. like, did they not realize that he was president and thus the strongest person within the government? Would we expect the CEO of Chevron to say "Let's get Chevron off our backs?' There was some kind of cognitive dissonance happening there that I just could not understand. And it has only gotten worse since then.
Brilliant chanel , I'm so glad to have found it. Thank you.
Thank you Kerry, I really appreciate you saying so. I hope you've enjoyed my videos!
Too bad your hateres for Donald Trump is polluting your vision so much that it made this video unwatcheable. I find this often on the left - you are so bitter that you push people away- you might have othervise swayes with facts. Alas - you dont work with facts but wirh alegations and spite.
Truly sad and shamefull.
DISLIKE.
Indeed, glad to have discovered this gem of a channel.
Tom its a pleasure to listen to your world views. Gives me a lot of insight and food for thought on this crazy, fun-filled and scary roller-coaster of life. Can sit and listen to you for hours
Thank you John, that's very kind. Sometimes the first drafts of these videos look like they might be a few hours long but I wouldn't want to put you through that!!
This makes me think of how long the right has criticized postmodernism based on the oversimplification of the idea that we can't really know anything at all. Well, the reality they seem to be pushing is precisely that kind of reality: one in which nothing can really be known or universal and into which individual whims to create one's own reality are just as valid as anyone else's. I guess you have to be careful of your zealotry lest you come to resemble that which you rail against.
Uh, it's the left that is pushing that idea, not the right. Critical race theory, gender confusion, and the like are all leftist projects. It's the right that is more aligned with reality, economics, and how people actually live in reality. The left exists in a make-believe cloud cuckoo world that cares only about appearances. That's why the media, Hollywood, and image-makers are usually leftists.
Some people even blithely blame “Postmodernism” for all kinds of various social ills, and I’ve thought about Structuralism, Modernism, Postmodernism and stuff a lot because I’m interested in philosophy and it makes me a bit sad to see Postmodernism reduced to this sort of “talking point”
I always thought of Richard III as cunning rather than especially intelligent. Remember that he’s written by Shakespeare. Richard despised the people who he conned and built nothing that would outlive him.
Tom should be the education secretary. I only stumbled across this channel yesterday, and have watched several episodes, Not only impressed by the thoroughness of the research, but the quality of the script writing. But I think the thing that really makes this stand out is he is teaching critical thinking, which is what is desperately needed in education. Well done sir.
History first occurs as tragedy later repeats itself as farce .......
Trump presidency is a tragicomedy and a farce
I regularly flit between seeing it as incredibly cleverly orchestrated and as actually just as, like you say, farce.
@@Tom_Nicholas I am also interested to know weather society thirst for spectacles weather be it politics or in films (especially marvel blockbusters) got to do something with the rise of showman politicians or celeb culture because something of similar sorts was also taking place back in the 20's and 30's with spectacle films like metropolis , Godzilla , king Kong etc
Too bad your hateres for Donald Trump is polluting your vision so much that it made this video unwatcheable. I find this often on the left - you are so bitter that you push people away- you might have othervise swayes with facts. Alas - you dont work with facts but wirh alegations and spite.
Truly sad and shamefull.
DISLIKE.
Are you still alive to witness Biden's presidency?
Close to the next election we may just see a repeat of a second, maybe even a 3rd Trump term.
I think it's simpler than that. People initially liked Trump because he was presenting himself as something he's not (being a spectacle). After they liked him, they formed a bias. This bias made it harder for them to change their opinion of him. This is similar to the way that if you tell someone they're wrong, or argue with them, they're only going to become more convinced of their opinion. So, once Trump got people to like him through lies and propaganda, the bias we have towards criticizing ourselves kicks in, where we hate to admit that we're wrong, and therefore, have ad-hoc justifications for their beliefs or just have cognitive dissonance where they ignore inconvenient facts (or actively call them out as fake), and focus on the things that they believe confirm their views.
So again, all because Trump got someone to like him, bias prevents them from now disliking him. It takes something extreme to overcome the bias we have to save face.
We've got a pretty similar thing in the UK at the moment surrounding Brexit on both sides. People who would both prefer to remain in the European Union and leave it have so committed themselves to each cause that the discourse has just become absolutely wild. The problem being that this means that it's really difficult to have any kind of meaningful discussion of Brexit with anyone at all.
exactly how these things go!
There are ages of reason, and ages of spectacle. DJT is the epitome of unreasonable spectacle.
I just find it fascinating the way there is not even the slightest attempt to make it appear cohesive. Maybe that says something about him (and that tends to be the focus of much of the discourse) but, more likely, it says something about society at large.
@@Tom_Nicholas Donald Trump hasn't produced modern America - modern America produced Donald Trump;
BTW, he isn't that chaotic: he (and his billionaire friends) achieved their main goal - they lowered taxes on the rich & corporations
He made a rally where he faked an orgasm to mock someone who had a scandal or something like that. If you go to the comments, you will see his followers saying that it was the funniest rally they've ever been and that that's what they like about him...
@@juandelacruz4679 Exactly. These people aren't looking for politicians who are going to fix the world, they just want someone like them to be the leader for once. Decades of bad policy has caused our democracies to erode. You can write as you want about it, but that's the bottom line. Our democracies have failed us, and now they are to reap what they've sown.
@ I find your comment a bit ironic as your comment seems to apply more to yourself and the comment you made than to "the left" that you refer to. In your comment, which you seem to have copy-pasted repeatedly on multiple comments here, lacks any factual criticisms. You say that they "don't work with facts but wi[t]h allegations and spite." But your whole comment is just an allegation and you present no facts. You also give evidence to being spiteful yourself with allegations, which you don't back up with facts, that "I find this often on the left - You are so bitter that you push people away- you might have other[w]ise swaye[d] with facts. Alas - You don't work with facts but wi[t]h allegations and spite." These are all allegations you make while presenting no facts to back it up. You target an entire group and make an negative assertion about them without backing it up with any facts. Add to this you copy-pasting this comment on multiple comment threats on this video and there is evidence that may suggest you yourself are spiteful. Spiteful is defined as "spiteful, vengeful, vindictive refer to a desire to inflict a wrong or injury on someone, usually in return for one received." (Dictionary.com) Your insults, which you do not back up with facts, seem to illustrate a "desire to inflict a wrong or injury on someone," in this case what you define as "the left." You disired to insult them both in the comments I quote above and in how you ended the comment with "truly sad and shameful. DISLIKE." You also demonstrate that you believe this is "In returned for one received" with your comment accusing "the left" of these actions, of which you desire to inflict an injury in return for. Considering all these facts it seems that your comments assertions apply more to your comment itself rather than "the left" that you claim it to.
"Trump's blasphemous words, while in no way backed up with policy changes, may actually serve to reinforce the status quo he contradicts. As long as those who agree with his cynicism feel like they can be heard and that someone as powerful as the president agrees with them, they will be less likely to actually work toward challenging the powers they despise."- Caleb Maupin
This is exactly why Obama's war on middle east is never questioned
nice quote, fuck caleb maupin, though
@@patriciapandacoon7162 y
@@HxH2011DRA without getting into too much detail, he buddies up with nazbols like Aleksandr Dugin. Imperialism isn't any less imperialism if it isn't the USA or Europe doing it.
@@patriciapandacoon7162 Hasn't he stated before that he firmly disagrees with Dugin?
“Government is the Entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.”
― Frank Zappa
If you ever do a part 2, please make it about Boris Johnson.
Haha, Boris is an odd one. Prior to a few years ago (as far as I can recall), he primarily managed to get himself into lots of gaffes and play them for attention but they were mostly harmless gaffes and almost entirely unobjectionable. It's only since Trump gained in popularity that he seems to have pivoted to his current model of slightly more outrageous behaviour. To be honest, I don't even really know what to make of Johnson at the moment. Most days I forget he's the prime minister...
All you have to do is wait until Monty Python makes a documentary about The Three Stooges. That ought to be close enough to make you happy.
@@Tom_Nicholas Perhaps an understanding of his current behaviour can be understood by analysing his relationship with Steve Bannon - who he has had meetings with - and his main adviser, Dominic Cummings.
Definitely want to make a Brexit video at some point. But probably more no how wild the discourse has become rather than focussing too much on Johnson and co or foreign interference in the vote.
@@Tom_Nicholas The discourse is just as interesting because it's so strange.
Scary thoughts at the end indeed... reminds me of the point Mark Fisher was trying to make with Capitalist Realism, and taking into account how he ended... fuck
Yes, a similar point to Fisher's to a limit. I think, in the present moment, we /can/ imagine a world without capitalism. The 2008 crash (or, more accurately, the effects of it over a period of years) has allowed an increasing number of people to be able to imagine a world without capitalism to an extent that would have seemed unthinkable when Fisher published Capitalist Realism. The challenge now is to build a coherent alternative narrative which the widespread scepticism I discuss here proves something of an obstacle to.
Also, while I know that it's tempting to want to view Fisher's death as symbolic in some grand political or theoretical way (and, furthermore, that this was only a UA-cam comment!), I would caution against doing so. As with most people who struggle with their mental health, I'm sure there were myriad factors at play. I'm sure you meant well but all the research suggests that fetishising those who lose their fights with mental health in such a way has a negative effect on those who are still battling on. (Not trying to get on my high horse here, just a gentle word of advice).
@@Tom_Nicholas no you're totally right, of course I didn¡t intend that to be the message but when dealing with such topics I should be much more careful in the way I word things and what the message could be perceived as. There is indeed a tendecy in the emo/defeatist left to do that and my statement was being very reductionist, thanks fur pointing that out.
And as you say, the protests in Ecuador, Chile, etc; are proof that there is not only a wish to imagine alternatives, but a will to fight for it.
@@Tom_Nicholas There's the seed of an entire video essay in this reply to a comment. Do you mind if I steal it? ;-)
@liquidpebbles I love that album
@@wizkidextrordinare goot taste, good user name lol
"engaged in a war of attrition with the very fabric of reality."
that's awesome.
That is the most stupid statement I ever heard, like "real reality". This guy, and probably everyone here suffers from Trump derangement syndrome.
Spectacular work as always 😁
Haha, thank you!
@@Tom_Nicholas I'm not kidding when I say that your videos have made me understand Debord so much more. Reading his book is a struggle that I have fought with for over a year now lol
Too bad your hateres for Donald Trump is polluting your vision so much that it made this video unwatcheable. I find this often on the left - you are so bitter that you push people away- you might have othervise swayes with facts. Alas - you dont work with facts but wirh alegations and spite.
Truly sad and shamefull.
DISLIKE.
Thrilled I found this channel!
Great to have you here! Hope you've been enjoying some of my videos!
Tom Nicholas
Just watched your Aristotle on Poetics video as well as this one! Brilliant chap you are!
I’m thrilled but not enamored.
Richard Benitez
LoL...okay.
There's something Orwellian about Orwell.
I love what you're doing, Tom Nicholas.
I think part of what makes DeBord so compelling is his appreciation for paradox and the fuzziness between reality and for lack of a better word, fantasy. The glamorization of the image. The tyranny of the box, the rectangle, the screen. That which glamorizes finally kills. His thinking touches upon spiritual truths, which for me are answered finally by the Christian faith. "If that light which is within you is dark, how great is that darkness."
It’s absolutely true that there aren’t any widely accepted/recognized spaces to discuss the many flaws and inequalities that inevitably result from a capitalist society
I liked your analysis, I am so tired of seeing people underestimating how sly Trump is critizing his intelligence, omitting how heartless he is and how much his politics hurt people. In my country there was a prime minister candidate which followed exactly the same tacticts. At that time everyone was making superficial critizism of him because he was a goofy. Today he runs the country and nobody is laughing now... Good job.
Yes, I think there is a tendency to, as you say, criticise the "silly" aspects of the aesthetic whilst overlooking the real and damaging harm that his policies are doing.
Too bad your hateres for Donald Trump is polluting your vision so much that it made this video unwatcheable. I find this often on the left - you are so bitter that you push people away- you might have othervise swayes with facts. Alas - you dont work with facts but wirh alegations and spite.
Truly sad and shamefull.
DISLIKE.
Here here! Are you talking about Bolsonaro? It’s scary how much he is following Trumps tactics, and how that has equally volatilized and divided Brazil’s population.
@@melaniey.5596 No I am talking about Greece. The current government is a neoliberal one, that is using racist rhetoric against refugees, in order to cater to its far-right audience, while they violently suppress peoples' protest against their governance.
Greece always had a thing for police brutality, but currently, we are worse than we've ever been after the military Junta. To make things more clear, Mike Pompeo, visited Greece a couple of weeks ago to congratulate our government for the good job they do...
The fact that Trump sees our government in a positive light, speaks by itself.
Now we know Trump is the individual who lost more money doing business in the entire US economy. That's remarkable.
Great video Tom! I just discovered your channel through your two other videos on ‘the spectacle’ (and now I’m blessed with another one 😃)
Ah, thank you! Hope you enjoyed them and that this one makes a good addition to the trilogy!
My man what a great video, right-wing trolls will be mad
The weird thing is, the right wing trolls get mad at some far less obviously critical of the right stuff than this. Sometimes I post something that I think is fairly inarguable and get a whole barrage of odd responses...
@@Tom_Nicholas it be like that sometimes. You never know exactly what type of brain maze you're dealing with when it comes to the right wing
Ironically, this video had not one but two ads for the Epoch Times. Gross.
I have listened a few times, I don't actually see too much wrong with them. They have a big beef with the Chinese Communist Party, which is the way it should be.
@@Captain_MonsterFart it's my understanding that they're pretty far-right, kind of racist, willingly spread misinformation about Covid, very pro-Trump and is now somehow peddling QAnon. Pretty nasty shit all around.
@@Captain_MonsterFart lol it’s literally a bunch of far-right conspiratorial cultists spreading dangerous misinformation
Awesome! 😃 A very interesting analysis.
Thank you, really appreciate you saying so!
"I don't think that's much of a risk." Man, this video hasn't aged well.
Why in the hell would people dislike your video?
I usually get two dislikes pretty soon after release. I’m guessing there’s someone who gets notifications just to do so. Which, if that’s how they want to spend their time, that’s fair enough I suppose...
@@Tom_Nicholas
Yeah, also, interaction helps your videos, this ain't reddit :) lol
Haha, yeah, I don't think people realise that UA-cam actually quite likes the divisive stuff...
Because your naive ... maybe?
@@MYGAS21 Because it is the truth...maybe? And truth has no place in the Trump cult.
0:55 defense minister role
1:58 site for false information
3:40 society of spectacle
4:55 video starts
7:15 show off
5:28 what he thinks of society
Tom you have mastered NEW SPEAK.
Got recommended this video exactly 3 years after it was released
Thank god I finally finished a whole video from this channel. I’ve tried maybe 4 or 5 different videos and I just can’t finish them.
I was thinking it has more to do with my intelligence level than anything wrong with the content. When I heard you mention Katie Halper I was relieved that I had not read the ideology wrong. Phew! You’re just a few levels ahead of me. Anyways, thanks for pushing my limits with great content. ✌️❤️
The concluding segment was a stirring defense of the Enlightenment ideal of a common fund of shared knowledge and protocols for ascertaining truth.
Red Tom is right!
Actually now that I'm watching this, where IS Kelly Anne Conway? She seems to disappear when she makes a slip-up for months at a time.
Great video Tom, as always.
Thank you!
i got an ad for Donald Trump playing cards while watching this
Wow! You had a big jump in subscribers! I've shared your videos. Hope it continues to grow.
Thank you! Yes, it's been a pretty good few months (often as a result of videos I'd never have expected to be big hits...). Thanks!
Clickbait! As an optometrist I was initially happy with the algorithm bringing me here but bitterly disappointed with the lack of spectacles in the content.
😟
😂😂😂😂😂
Trump getting people "interested" in politics by being so "spectacular" was play similarly played out to the people of Toronto during Rob Ford's ludicrous stint as our mayor. He was an populist buffoon who "spoke for the little guy," while coming from a family whose wealth and connections were all formed and tended by his father a generation before. I know myself, and many others, who didn't previously pay as much attention to the goings-on of City Council, found themselves reading the papers and blogs to find out what fresh Hell he was unleashing in our city.
His big brother Doug is now the twice-elected Conservative premier of the province of Ontario. He's a little smarter than Rob was, and certainly more ambitious. But he's just as much of a buffoon. And he's really bad at hiding his attempted manipulations and his venal motivations.
And enough of the public lapped it up to give him two majorities...
sigh
the society of the spectacle is the book that had the most formidable insight into our society in the 2000s. Although it was written many decades ago, it documented the substitution of real experience by apearrances, the age of the image. The age where people market themselves on the internet, create virtual personalities which then they try to immulate in the real world. Politics do not evolve around reason or facts but mostly around scandals, fake news, essentially who is better at creating the "media buzz" in order for people to see his face everywhere. That's trump. Most people think they are "informed" just by scrolling around facebook looking at the headlines. The alienation in the workplace has spread into everyday experience through consumption. The consumption of life itself. Political desicions are motivated as if they were market decisions. There is no turning back from this,or at least i dont see one. The only hope is for us to try to deconstruct in our heads what is really out there for itsel and what is fed to us by media domination. To have conversations that go beyond capitalist realism and imagine. Although everythning is commodified there are emancipatory elements in art, discusions about politics,culture etc. But i simply can not be so optimistic that this,even though it will happen at a small scales and it is happening, will have a srong impact in orde to shake the status quo and change everyday experience for the mass of people.
I think your analysis is mostly correct however I wouldn't say "there is no turning back". Prior to 2016, much of this kind of stuff went undiscussed outside of particularly engaged groups; now, there is a great deal more open discussion of it in the "mainstream". I'm gonna discuss this more in a future video, but the "crisis of liberalism" has, to my mind, made some kind of change more possible rather than less so.
@@Tom_Nicholas but what is really discussed in the mainstream isn't a radical change or a realisation that this kind of twist from the real to the virtual is a direct byproduct of the capitalist system trying to sustain itself. Trying to find new markets through the commodification of every aspect of life,because it is a system that demands expansion and its based on the axiom that this is sustainable ( we could enter in a discussion about the ecological problems here but that would be beside the point). The change that i see being more possible is a shift to authoritarianism through a shallow and dangerous anti minority moralisation about the nation identity,globalisation etc. The return to a rhetoric that affirms that our crisis is not due to the systemic failures and their pshycosocial byproducts but a matter of the decaying of absolute values such as the nation or religion. Here is trumps protectionism again, or orbans for that matter. Last but definetely not least the left in the western world has a history of losing the crucial battles that arise after big economic crisis and we re gonna experience one very very soon. I have a glimpse of hope but just a glimpse mate. Anyway,maybe im being too pesimistic...
You have fuelled my obsession with the current US political quagmire...covid, election, cognitive tests etc. Thank you.
Meanwhile say after me...
Parent,Man,woman, camera, TV... (I,ve forgotten the first one).
The problem with political opinions is that they are often originated and spread by those who don't believe in them, but simply benefit from others believing them
Absolute Geezer 👌🏼👍🏻
Reading society of the spectacle atm & your videos are helping sooo much!
The difference in the spectacle now is the media part-after all in Rome Gladiators fought to the death in front of huge cheering crowds offering thumbs up or down to seal their fate.
Interesting analysis. I thought of Debor's book all through Obama's reign. Obama adopted the facade of a pillar of morality all the while dropping more bombs in foreign countries than any president ever. People just totally bought into it - the image of benevolent leader. The society of the Spectacle applies equally to the left and right. We want to believe in the images we're presented with.
I mean admittedly they aren’t that different. While here in the US we refer to them as the left and right, on the large global political spectrum they both land in almost the same spot.
16:33 YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD very good. this is my new favorite channel. thank you for your work.
You're releasing this video at the perfect moment! I'm preparing an oral presentation on Conservative Feminism and Alternative Facts ;) Thank you very much for your analyses Tom. Always a pleasure to watch your videos :)
it was indeed the largest crowd. might not have been as numerous as previous years, but each attendant was at lest 6 meters tall.
this is literally my favorite channel ever omg
Loving your videos!
Well, if nothing else; Trump did follow through on his "draining the swamp" promise... We just didnt assume he meant draining out all that obstructive water and wildlife out so we could see the trash and mud beneath.
For those bad with metaphores: He showed the true colors of modern politics. Particularly the Republican and conservative politics that surround bigoted intent and maintaining the status quo for the benefit of the wealthy.
Tom, this analysis is absolutely dead on. Great job!
Thanks as always. One technical feedback is that your audio is clipping. I don’t know if you added gain afterwards but a quick tutorial in mastering dialogue will drastically improve presentation
Just came upon this, Tom. These have been my thoughts as well during the past several scores of years. Guy points in Society of the Spectacle (SOS) the "spectacle" is passively received. This is, I think, in the proverbial nutshell the essence of his theoretical work (including his depressing 20+ year re-assessment of Society of the Spectacle, Comment on Society of the Spectacle) rather than the in-your-face aspect of the perversion media by the ruling spectacle. It is the commodification of everything in our lives--in a world now totally dominated by capitalism and the fully integrated capitalist production system--that has reified people and human relations, made us all into commodities, i.e., passive receivers. This reification of consciousness supplants activity (the way humans learn) and critical thought, substituting "likes" and emojis, and social media for real thought and action. Not only does this make masses of people more easily manipulable, at the same time it destroys the foundations of each culture in which the spectacle penetrates. While the world is (literally) on fire, people's attention is averted and perverted by the spectacle. In the bad old days of the late 1950s and the 1960s, "media" in the U.S. lied about the size of demonstrations supporting civil rights, opposing the war in Vietnam. The New York Times not only parroted the government line, it deliberately covered up the numbers of people against Jim Crow and the war in Vietnam. The fact that it turned out the U.S. CIA had placed people on the Times and in several magazines (imagine MI-6 doing this in UK), was lightly gone over and dropped from history. It is all back there in the hoary microfilms on the Times itself--but we seem to have lost "history" in the process of being consumed by the spectacle. I do not think our species will survive the effects of world capitalism. We will kill each other and completely destroy the world eco-system.
I never knew I would witness the end of the Age of Reason. Then again, it never really existed.
it's coming back, give it a minute
"You still believe there's an empire behind the map, how cute." - Baudrillard, probably
Could you please add subtitles? I am having a problem following your explanation. Thank you.
Heya, I will be doing so shortly but it might be a few days I’m afraid (have just sent many hours finalising the video itself!).
10:21 _By invoking any number of different criteria, the spectacle can present false political oppositions as totally distinct social systems._
Corporate Party (D): "We want to bring more affordable for-profit private health insurance to common folk with some minimal regulation to ensure that they cannot screw you as much."
Corporate Party (R): "tHaT's cOMmUniSm!"
Best video essay ever. Thanks so much!
Well, that's high praise indeed. Thanks!
just discovered ur channel. i commend your sincere passion and i think its great channels like this exist!
Thank you, really glad you like my stuff!
some really really good analysis here.
Brilliant video Tom, very informative
No worries Finn, thanks for saying so!
keep killing it Tom Nicholas, ur videos are flame
WIth Trump it's a level worse. His failures were very real, yet so was the life of luxury he still managed to live despite that.
What that says to me isn't so much that we live in a society of the spectacle, but that If you're rich enough you'll *never* be truly poor, no matter how badly you screw up. There'll always be another opportunity for his kind.
A reality TV society will invariably have a reality TV president.
Hard to believe the dude actually became president of the US.
Thank you! I have referenced that book numerous times in the last 5 years
Love your work Tom
2,24 spot on. And if touched upon at all...subjects are thrown into doubt at the very least (anything from processed foods/beverages definitely all the info reg whole food/plant based and negative impacts of factory farming on animals, zoonotic diseases development, human health ..or the injuries/injustice also suffered by slaughterhouse workers. Or the general misguided info about any possibility to pay of national debt in a financial system where money is created out of debt...rising inequality all these kind of subjects are hushed or if reported it's "shady" doubtful or presented as subversive. Edit 21.55 the main problem is our sick system...money creation, ever increasing gambling/threath of new crash, growing inequality...unrest/division....mis+disinformation and the fact that we lack the will to chage it and save our planet not banks n large corporations. To make a system that works for all incl. Life in our oceans, the habitat and living soil we depend on that aren't to just be exploited n taken for granted. If rivers run dry, groundwater is polluted or used up, wild bee species, bats and other pollinators are killed off n glaciers melt...we'll have volunteered our own demise. Thank you for great content.
Where is the picture of everyone wearing 3D glasses from? Also. Fantastic videos I’ve spent a week or so not doing work on essays I should have been doing work on. Your vids really wake ideas / link themes / make me actually pick up a pen !
We are living through an epistemological crisis.
In the UK we have a compulsive liar in charge and people don't seem too bothered.
I am interested in the idea that many of his votes came not from those who “love” him, or his “straight talk-tells it like it is”, but rather from enjoying the spectacle itself. It’s not only a spectacle hidden, he showed us that it is a spectacle, many people enjoyed the show, and then retreated into an area where can simultaneously say that it is NOT a spectacle, but rather his firmly held convictions. If the quiver is empty, then surely at least one arrow must have hit the mark.
I enjoy the fact you simplified all of this for those of us who aren't Joe Six Pack, but aren't in the I.Q. range of Norman Mailer either.
Whats most important is a group of leaders who aren't in cahoots with big business
Hey Tom,
Did you ever develop your last thought any further?
What would make for a genuine discourse to you? Given the variety of ways to understand the spectacle and given the way a lot of us find ways to legitimise the construction of these understandings, wouldn't it require some claim on truth? And isn't a claim on truth somewhere entangled in the problem rather than the solution?
In short, have you ever thought of what a genuine discourse would look like and how it could be "implemented" sensibly and cautiously?
Ps. Thank you for the videos. You excel without exception. Fav screen time
It would be interesting to have a video on Surkov and his deliberate undermining of certainty, his use of spectacle, and his background in absurdist theatre......
Sir, you are an "intellectual" in the Edward Said sense of the word, It gives me hope to discover such a channel on youtube that deals with our current world with a scope of academic insight. Looking forward to further videos no matter where you decide to take them.
Thank you very much, that means a lot you saying that!
Great video. I first became familiar with the ideas of Debord back around 2000. Even then they rang true with alarming accuracy. It's a very very prescient work.
So glad I found this essay Tom, especially after listening to your presentation about Post -Structuralism. I'll certainly be sponsoring (according to my meagre means).
Also it's heartwreaking seeing labour lose to the spectacle, but honest people are cursed by the right thing
Finally a video that reflects my views of the current world. You said it better than I would ever have been able to express.
Tom, you’re a star. Love your videos.
Great analysis. LIKE!
Cheers~
Awesome video
Great work, really good
Here's an idea: scrap the entire programming schedule of the BBC4 TV channel and replace everything with back-to-back @Tom Nicholas UA-cam videos.
Seriously, even if the content is seen by just 1% of the UK population, we'll be a much better and well-informed nation.
The way that Tom presents philosophy and politics to his audience is incredibly engaging.
Tom - if you're ever passing through Kingston-upon-Thames, I'd happily exchange multiple pints of beer for a few hours of pub philosophical bants with your good self!
I guarantee that I won't be Débord one in any potential beer garden chinwag!
commenting to feed the algorithm :) great vid 👍
anyone can make it to the top if they're born into the right family
It is rare that I an have a conversation with someone who doesn't just write off a planned economy or pretty much any other - non-capitalist- system.
This video is very well crafted. Thank you!
my pet theory-- trump is a reality TV star, he thought it was about ratings, if he made it 'exciting', the show would get renewed..this is why he says the 'election was stolen'... hes trying to play a completely different game, its not '9 dimensional chess' , its pokemon go
Great discussion, truly needed at this time. Thanks for your hard work Tom.
A guy I know defended the inauguration size of trump with some weird conspiracy of “fake news” photographers taking pictures when not everyone had arrived yet, and it really was a record breaking event. I just asked him if he had other pictures to prove it, I’m still waiting for him to get back to me🙄
If everything else dies, only material realism will be left. As it is the immortal science
One would hope that maybe it would lead people to question capitalist realmism