Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
and
•
Guy Debord
SOCIETY
OF THE SPECTACLE
Chapter Paragraph
Separation Perfected
II Commodity As Spectacle 35
FEUE R BACH
The entire l ife of societies i n whi ch modern conditions of product ion
reign a nnou nces itself as an i m mense accu m u lation of spectacles. Every
thing that was direct l y l ived has moved away i nto a represen tat i on.
2
The i mages which detached themselves from every aspect of l ife fuse
i n a common stream where the u n ity of l ife can no longer be reestab
l i shed. R ea l ity considered partially deploys itself i n its own genera l u n i
ty as a pseu do-worl d apart, an object of contemplation on ly. The spe
cial i zation of i mages of the worl d is redi scovered, perfected, i n the
worl d of the autono m ized i mage, where the liar has l ied to h im self. The
spectacle i n genera l , a s the concrete i nversion of l i fe, is the autonomous
movement of the non-l iving.
3
The spectacle presents itself si mu ltaneou sly as society itself, as a
part of society, a n d as instrumen t of unifica tion. As a part of society i t
i s specifica l l y t h e sector which concentrates a l l look ing a n d a l l con
sciousness. Because of the very fact that th i s sector is separa te, it is the
location of the abused look and of fal se consciou sness; a n d the u n i fi
cat i on wh ich it accompl i shes i s not h i n g other than an official language
of genera l ized separation.
4
10
To descri be the spectacle, its for mation, its fu nctions, and the forces
wh ich tend to d issolve it, one m u st artific ia l l y d i stinguish some i nsep
ara b l e e l ements. W hen ana l y z i n g the specta cle one speaks, to so m e ex
tent, the la nguage of the spectacu l ar itself in the sense that one m oves
across the m et hodologica l terra i n of the soc iety w h ich expresses itsel f
i n the spectacle. But the spectacle is noth i n g other tha n t h e sense o f the
total practice of a socia l-econom ic format i o n , its use of time. It is the
h ist orical moment which conta ins us.
12
13
14
The society wh ich rests on modern ind ustry is not acc identa l l y or
superfici a l l y spectacu lar, it is funda menta l l y spectaclist. I n the spec
tacle, i mage of the ru l i ng econo m y , the goa l is not h i ng, d evelopm ent is
a l l . T h e spectacle wants to get to n ot h i ng oth er than itself.
15
As the i nd ispenab l e decorat ion o f the obj ects prod uced today, as
the general expose of the rational ity of the system, as the ad vanced eco
nomic sector w h i ch d i rect ly shapes a grow i ng m u ltitude of i mage
objects, the spectacle is the main production of present-day society.
16
The spectacle subj ugates l i v i n g men to itse lf to the extent that the
economy has tota l l y subjugated the m . It is no more than the eco nomy
develo p i n g for itself. I t is the true ref l ection of the prod u ction of
t h i n gs, and the fa lse objectif ication of the prod u cers.
17
19
20
P h i losophy, the power of separate thou ght a nd the thou ght of sep
a rate power, cou l d never by itsel f overco m e theology. The spectac l e is
the materia l reconstruction of the rel i g ious i l lusion. Spectacu l a r tech
nol ogy has not d issi pated the relig ious c l ouds where men had p l aced
their own powers d etached from themselves; it has o n l y tied them to an
eart h l y base. T h u s it is the most earth l y l ife wh ich beco m es opaq ue a nd
u nbreath a b l e . I t no longer throws i n to the sk y but houses w it h i n it
self i ts abso l ute d e n i a l , its fa l lacious parad ise. The spectac l e is the tech
n ica l rea l ization of th e e x i l e of human powers i nto a beyond ; separation
perfected within the i nterior of man .
21
22
The fact that the practica l power of modern society detached itself
and bu i lt itself a n i n depen dent empire i n the spectacle can only be ex
plai ned by a nother fact, the fact that thi s practical power cont i n u ed to
lack cohesion a n d remai ned i n contra diction with itself.
23
24
•
conditions of existence. The feti shi st appearance of pure objectiv ity i n
spectacular relations hi des their character of relations a mong men a n d
a mong c lasses: a secon d nature seem s t o dom in ate our environment
with its fata l laws. B u t the spectacle is not the necessary product of
technical development seen as a natural development. The society of
the spectacle is on the contrary the form wh ich chooses its own tech
nical content. If the spectacle, taken in the l i m ited sense o f " means of
mass com m u n ication," wh ich are its most glaring su perficia l man ifesta
tion, may seem to invade society as a si m ple i n stru mentation , this in
stru mentation i s in fact nothi ng neutra l but is the very instru mentation
wh ich i s su ited to the tota l self-movement of the spectacle. If the social
nee ds of the epoch in which such techn iques are devel oped can onl y be
satisfied through their mediation, if the a dm in i stration of this society
and a l l contact among men can no longer take place except through the
intermediary of this power of instanta neou s com mu n icati on, it is be
cau se this " com m u n ication" is essenti a l l y unila teral. As a resu lt the
concentration of " co m m u nication" accu m u lates within the h a n ds of the
a dm i n i stration of the existing system the means which a l low it to carry
on th is particular adm i n i stration. The genera lized cleavage of the spec
tacle i s i n separable from the modern State, namely from the general
form of cleavage within society, the product of the division of social
labor and the organ of c lass dom ination.
25
26
With the general ized separation of the worker from his produ ct every
u nitary viewpoi nt of accom p l i shed activity and a l l d irect personal com
m u n ication among producers, are lost. Acco m panying the progress of
the accu mu lation of separate prod ucts and the concentration of the pro
d u ctive process, u nity and com m u n i cation become exc l u sively the at
tri bute of the d irectorate�of the system . The success of the econo m ic
sy stem of separation i s the proletarianization of the world.
27
T h rough the very su ccess of separate prod uction i n the sense of pro
d u ction of the separate, the basic experience rel ated i n pri m itive socie
ties to a principal work is in the pr ocess of being d i splaced by no n-work,
by i nactivity, at the po l e of the system's deve l o pment_ B u t t h i s i nac
tivity is in no way l iberated from prod uctive activi ty: it depends on
produ ctive activity, it is an uneasy a nd ad m i ri ng su b m issi on to the n ec
essit ies a n d the res u l ts of pro d u ct i o n ; i t is itsel f a product of i ts rati on
a l ity. There can be no l i berty outside of activi ty, and in the context
of the spectac l e a l l act ivity is negated , j u st as real activity has been cap
tured in its entirety for the gl oba l erection of t h i s resu l t. T h us the pre
sent " l i beration from labor," the a ugmentat i o n of leisure, is in no way a
l i berat ion with i n labor, nor a l i beration of the wor l d sh aped b y th is
l abor. Non e of the activity stolen w i t h i n l a bor can be red iscove red i n
t h e s u b m ission t o its resu lt.
28
The origin of the spectacle i s the loss of the u nity of the world , and
the gigantic expansion of the modern spectacle expresses the tota l ity of
this loss: the abstraction of a l l specific labor and the general abstrac
tion of the entirety of produ ction are perfectly translated i n the spec
tacle, whose mode of being concrete is precisely abstraction. I n the
spectacle, one part of the world represents itself before the world and is
superior to it. The spectacle is noth ing more than the common l an
guage of th is separation. What ties the spectators together is no more
than an i rreversible relation at the very center which mai ntains their
isolation. The spectacle reun ites the separate, but reun ites it as separate.
30
31
32
33
34
ASA
SPECTACLE
36
37
The wor l d at once present and absent wh ich the spectacle makes
visible is the wor l d of the commodity dom i nati ng a l l that is l ived. A n d
t h e worl d o f t h e com m odity is thus shown as it is, because its move
ment is i dentical to the estrangement of men among themselves and
vis-a-vis their globa l product.
38
39
This' development wh ich excl udes the qual itative is, as development,
itself subject to a passage i nto the qual itative: the spectacle signifies
that it has crossed the threshold of its own abundance; this is as yet
true only loca l l y at some po ints, b ut is already true on the u niversal
sca l e which is the original context of the commod ity, a context wi;;.;ii
its practical movement, encompassing the Earth as a world market, :, '
ver ified .
40
41
The dom i nation of the com modity was at first exerted over the
economy i n an obscu re manner; the economy itself, the material basis
of social l i fe, remained u nperceived and not u n derstood, l ike the fa
m i l iar wh ich rema ins u nknown. In a society where the concrete com
modity is rare or u n u sual, it is the apparent domi nation of m oney
which presents itself as an emissary armed with fu l l powers w h i ch
speak s i n the name of an u n known force. With the i n du stria l revo l u
tion , the division of labor i n manufactu res, a n d mass production for
the world market, the com modity appears in fact as a power wh ich
comes rea l l y to occupy social life. It is then that pol itical economy
takes shape, as the dom i nant science and as the science of dom ination.
42
The spectacl e is the moment when the com modity has atta ined the
total occupation of social l ife. The relation to the commodity is n ot
o n l y visible, but one n o longer sees a nyth i ng but it: t h e world one sees
is its worl d. M o dern economic produ ction extends its dictatorshi p ex
tensively a n d intensively. I n the least i n dustrial ized p laces, its domina-
t io n i s a lready present with a few star commodities and as i m peria l i st
dom i nation by zones which a re a head i n the development of produc
t ivity. In these a dvanced zones, social space is invaded by a conti nuous
su perimposition of geo l ogica l layers of commodities. At this point i n
t h e "secon d i ndu strial revolution," al ienated con su mption becomes for
the masses a su pplementary duty to a l i enated production. It is all the
sold labor of a society which globa l l y becomes the total commodity for
which the cycle m u st be con t i n u ed. For this to be do ne, it is necessary
for t h i s total com modity to return as a fragment to the fragmented i n di
vidu a l , abso l utely separated from the produ ctive forces operat ing as an
ensemble. T h u s it i s here that the special i zed sci en ce of dom i nation
must in t u rn special ize: it fragments itself i nto sociology, psycho
tec h n ics, cybernet ics, sem i o l ogy, etc. , watc h i ng over t he sel f-regu lation
of all the level s of the process.
43
Whereas i n the pri m itive phase of capita l i st accu mu lat i o n , "po l itical
economy sees in the proletarian only the worker," who m u st receive the
m i n i m u m i n di spen sable for the conservation of his labor power without
ever considering h i m "i n his leisu re, in h i s h u ma n ity," this position of
the i deas of the dom i nant class is reversed as soon as the degree of abun
dance attai ned i n the production of commodities demands a surpl u s of
col laboration from the worker. T h i s worker sudde n l y washed of the
total scorn wh ich i s clearly shown to h i m by a l l the moda l it i e s of organ
ization a n d surve i l lance of production, f i n ds h i m se l f each day, outsi de
of production, see m i ngly treated as a grown u p, w ith a zea lous pol ite
ness u n der the mask of a con su mer. Then the humanism of the com
modity takes charge of the "Ieisure and h u m a n ity" of the worker, si m
ply becau se political economy can and m u st now dom i nate these
spheres as political economy. T h u s the "perfected den i a l of man " has
taken charge of the total ity of h u man ex i stence.
44
45
47
The tendency of use value to fall, this constant of cap ital ist econ
omy, develops a new form of privat ion w i th i n augmented su rviva l . T he
new p r ivation is not l i berated to a n y extent fro m the old pen u ry s i n ce
it req u i res the part i c i pation of most men as wage work ers i n the end
less purs u i t of i ts atta i n m ent, and si nce everyone k nows h e m u st su b
mit or d i e. The rea l ity of t h i s b l ack m a i l l ies in the fact that use i n its
most i mpover ished form ( eat ing , i n ha b it i n g ) ex ists o n l y to the extent
that it is i mpri soned within t h e i l l usory wea l th of augmented surviva l ,
the rea l basis for the acceptance o f i l l usion irl general i n the consu m p
tion of modern co m mod it ies. The r ea l consu mer becomes a consu mer
of i l l u sions. The com mod ity is t h is factua l l y real il l u s ion, and the
spectac l e is its genera l manifestat i o n .
48
49
50
51
52
The consciousness of d esire and the desire for con sciou sness are
identica l l y the project w h i ch , in its negative form, seeks the abol it ion
of classes, that i s, the d irect possession by the workers o ver a l l the mo
ments of their act i vity. Its opposite is the society of the spectacle,
where the com mod ity contemplates itself in a world w h ich it has
created.
� new animated polemic isunfol.ding in the
�
count:rY/�"QfI;tt��� .
osophical front, with respect to the cOncepts nOne divfdesJoto,tif¢/;ji':;:
and "two fuse in to one. " This debate is a struggle betweenttrQie'wfio/<J�,�}<�Zfl;�
are against the ma terialist dialectic" a struggle between two coi1(3ep,�id(J.$? : :;< ;;,j�:����;:;
"of the world: the proletarian conception and the bourgeois concept{«((f::: ;}<:,/!��'F;i�'
A if lF� 'J
Those who maintain that "one divides into two" is the fundartfof lJl f8; L,i�� }l 1 i ::
/o
of things are on the side of the materialist dialectic; those whomiiin,tBm , !;,:; ;:::,;c;f: '/
that the fundamen tal law of things is that ,"two fuseif}:ti:). e�1 · .. :Q,y �(tJ ,��{�'d;{)��'2
against the materialist dialectic. ,The' two sides have dr.awn.'� clfJ,ii;lliui:" <' >:f�{�':
of demarcation between them, and theirfJrgurntmtsarec 'diarri,rr/�811y. i -:'?:
'
opposed. This polemic reflects, on theideol,(jiJiC;811eve!/t!,e_ :a-c��"a,�q",L ; , (hb ;�
complex class struggle which is un folding in Chinaam:11r.: Jheworl(i. '5c ' \ ';i ; ; C
",
The Red Flag 01 Pe�irig
,', September
. 21; ,1964;
" '
-
:
-
. .�
54
55
The struggle of powers con stituted for the management of the same
socio-economic syste m spreads as an offi cial con trad i ction but is i n
fact a real u n i ty-on a world sca le a s well a s w i th i n every nat ion .
56
57
58
The d i vis i o n of spectacular tasks wh ich preserves the ent i rety of the
exist i n g order, preserves i n pa rti c u l a r the dom i n a n t pole of its deve l o p
ment. The root of the spectacle is w i t h i n the terra in' of the abu ndant
economy, w h i ch is the sou rce of the fru its wh ich d o m i nate the spec
tacu l a r market, in spite of the ideo logico-po l i ce protection ist barriers
of l oca l spectacles with autark ic pretenti ons.
59
60
61
The agent of the specta cle, put on stage as a star, i s the opposite of
the individ ua l ; he is the enemy of the ind ivid u a l i n h i m self a s obviously
a s in others. Passing into the spectacle as a model for identification,
the agent has renoun ced all autonomous qual ities in order to identify
him self with the general law of obed ience to the course of th ings.
The star of con sumption, wh i l e being external l y the representation of
d ifferent types of personality, shows each of these types having eq ual
access to the tota l ity of con su mption and find ing si m ila r happiness
there. T he celebrity of decision m u st po ssess a complete stock of rec
ogn ized h u man qual ities. T h us between stars off icia l d ifferences a re
wiped out by off i cial si mil iarity, the presu pposition of the i r excel lence
in everything. Khrushchev became a general so as to decide on the
batt le of K u rsk , not on the spot, but at the twentieth anniversary, when
he was master of the State. Kennedy remained a n orator even to the
point of pro claiming the eu logy over his own tomb, si nce Theodore
Sorensen con t i n ued to ed it speeches for the successor in the sty le which
had characterized the personal ity of the deceased. The adm irable peo
ple in which the system person ifies itself are well k nown for not bei ng
what they are; they became great men by descending beneath the rea l ity
of the sma l l est ind ivid u a l l ife, and everyone knows it.
62
False choice wit h i n spectacu lar abu ndance, a choice which consists
of the j uxtaposition of com peting a nd u nited spectacles and in the j u x
taposition of roles (signified and carried ma inly by th ings) which are
at once exclusive and overlapping, develops into a struggle of fantastic
q ua l ities destined to give passion to adhesion to q uantitative triviality.
I n this manner, false archaic oppositions are reborn; regionalisms or
racisms a re charged with transform ing the vu l ga rity of h ierarch i c places
into a fantastic ontological superiority. I n this manner, the i n terminable
series of laughable confrontations is recom posed , mobili z i ng a sUb- l ud i c
interest, from t h e sport o f com petition t o that o f elections. Wherever
abundant consum ption is installed , the spectac u la r opposition between
youth and adu l ts gains i mportance among the fal laciou s roles. T here
a re no ad u lts, masters of their lives. Youth, the transformation of what
exists, is in no way the character i st i c of those who are now young; it
is a property of the econom ic system , the dyna m i sm of capitalism.
It is things which' rule and are young; wh ich confront and replace each
other.
63
It is the unity of misery wh ich h ides u nder the spectacu lar opposi
tions. If varied forms of the same al i enation stru ggle u nd er mask s of
total cho i ce, it i s becau se they are a l l bu i lt on real contrad i ctions w h i ch
are repressed. The spectacl e ex i sts i n a concen tra ted or a diffuse form
depend ing on the necessities of the particular stage of m isery w h i ch it
d i n ies a nd su pports. In both cases, it i s the same i mage of happy u n i f i
cation surrounded by desolation and horror, in t h e tranqu il center of
u nhappiness.
64
65
The d iffu se spectacle acco m panies the abundance of com mod ities,
the u n pertu rbed d evelopment of modern cap italism. H ere every com
mod ity taken a lone is j u stified in the name of the grandeur of produ c
ing the totality of objects of w h i ch the spectacle is an apologetic cata
logue. I rreconcilable cla i m s seize the stage of the affluent economy' s
u nified spectacle; d ifferent star- co mmod ities si m u ltaneou sly support
contrad ictory projects for the management of society : the spectacle of
a utomobiles demands a perfect transport network w h i ch d estroys old
cities, w h i le the spectacle of the city itself req u i res m u seu m-cities.
Therefore the a lready problematic sati sfaction which is su pposed to
come from the consump tion of the ensemble, is i m med iately falsified
sin ce the real con su mer can d irectly tou ch on ly a su ccession of frag
ments of t h i s com modity happiness, fragments in w h i ch the q uality
attributed to the ensemble is obviou sly m i ssing every t i me.
66
Every given com mod ity fights for itself, cannot acknowledge the
others, a nd attempts to i m po se itself everywhere as if it were the only
one. The spectacle, then, is the epic poem of this struggle, an epic
whi ch cannot be concluded by the fall of any Troy. The spectacle does
not sing the prai ses of men and the i r weapons, but of com m od ities and
their passion s. In this blind struggle every com mod ity, pursu ing its pas
sion, u n con sciou sly realizes something h igher : the beco m i ng-world of
the com mod ity, which i s also the becom:,lg-commod ity of the world.
Thus, by means of a ruse o f commodity reason, the specific of the com
mod ity-form moves on toward s its abso lute reali zation .
67
69
I n the i mage of the soci ety happi l y u n ified by consum pt ion , real
division is only suspended until the next non-accom p l i sh m ent in the
consu mable. Every specific produ ct w h i ch m u st represent the hope
for a d a zzl i n g shortcut to the pro m i sed land of total consu m ption, i s
ceremoniously presented a s t h e deci sive u n it. B u t as in the case of the
i n stantaneous d iffu sion of fad s of apparent l y aristocrati c first names
w h i ch are carr ied by nearly a l l i nd ividuals of the same age, the object
from w h i ch one e xpects a si ngu lar power cou l d not have been sug
gested for the devotion of masses u n less it had been produ ced in n u m
bers large enough to be consu med massivel y . The prestig i o u s character
of a product comes to it on l y from its hav ing been placed for a m o
ment at the center of social l ife, as the reveal ed mystery of the f i na l
goa l of prod u ct i on. T h e object w h i ch was prestigious i n the spectacle
becom es v u l ga r the moment it enters the house of the co nsu mer, at
the sa me time that it ente rs the house of a l l the others. Too late it
revea ls its essential poverty, w h ich natura l l y comes to it from the mis
ery of its prod uct ion . B u t it is a l read y another object wh ich carries
the j ust ification of the system and the demand to be ack nowledged .
70
71
What the spectacle gives a s eternal i s fou nded on cha nge, and must
change with i ts base. The spectacle i s absolute l y dogmatic and at t h e
sa me time cannot rea l l y achi eve any so lid d ogma. Noth ing stops f o r it:
t h i s is the state wh i ch i s natura l to it and n evertheless the most con
trary to its i n cl ination.
72
The u nreal u nity proclai med by the spectacle is the mask of the class
d iv i sion on w h i ch the real u n ity of the cap i ta l i st mode of produ ction
rests. That which obl iges the produ cers to parti ci pate in the constru c
tion of the world i s a l so that which separates them from it. That wh i ch
creates relations a mong men l iberated from their loca l and n ational
l i m its is a l so that which pu l l s them apart. That w h i ch req u i res a more
profou nd rational ity is a l so that w h i ch nourish es the irrational ity of
h ierarchic exploitation and repression. T hat wh ich creates the a bstract
power of society creates its concrete non-liberty.
IV.
THE PROLETARIAT AS SUBJE CT
AND AS RE PRE SE NTATION
"
The equal right of all to the goods and joys of this world,
the destruction of all authority, the negation of all moral UUOitur".
cles-- there, if one goes to the bottom of things, is the reason for
the insurrection of March 18th and the charter of the suspicious
association which furnished it with an army.
74
75
76
• 77
79
The inseparable character of Marx 's theory a n d the H egel ian m ethod
is itself inseparable from the revo l ut ionary character of this theory,
namely from its truth. T h is relationship has been m isunderstood and
even denou nced as the weakness of what fal laciously becam e a marx ist
doctrine. B ernstein, in h is Theoretical Socialism and Social-Democratic
Practice, perfectly reveals the connection between the dia lectical meth
od a n d h istorica l partisanship, by deploring the u nscientific forecasts
of the 1 847 Manifesto on the i m m inence of proletarian revolution i n
Germa n y : " This h istorical auto-suggestion, so erroneous that t h e first
pol i tical visionary who arrived cou l d hardly have fou n d better, woul d be
i ncom p rehensib l e in a Marx, who at that time had already seriously
stu died economics, if o ne cou l d not see in th i s the product of a rel i c
o f t h e antithetical H egelian dial ectic from which M arx, no l ess than
E ngels, cou l d never com p l etely free h im se lf. I n those times of general
effervescence, this was all the more fatal to h i m . "
80
The overturning which M arx brings about for a " recovery t h rough
transfer" of the thought of bourgeois revol u tions does not trival ly con
sist of putting the m aterial ist development of pro du ct ive forces in the
place of the journey of the Hege l i a n Spirit movin g towards its encounter
with itself in time, its objectification being i dentical to its a l i enation,
and its h istorical wou nds leaving no scars. H istory become real no long
er has an end. Marx has ruined the separate position of H egel in the
face of what happens, a n d the contempla tion of a ny supreme external
agent. Theory must now k now o n l y what it does. However, the con
templation of the movement of the economy in the dom i nant thought
•
81
That wh i ch clo sel y l i nks M a rx ' s theory with scientific th ought is the
rational u nd erstand i n g of the forces w h i ch in fact exert themselves in
society. But M arx' s theory is fundamenta l l y outside of scientific
thought, and i t preserves scienti f i c thought only by transcending it:
what is i n q uestion is a n u nderstand i ng of struggle, a nd not of law. " We
recognize only one science: the science of h istory," sa y s The German
Ideology.
82
The bou rgeo i s epoch , wh ich wants to give a scientific fou ndation to
h i story, overloo k s the fact that the economy f ir st had to give a h i stori
cal fou ndation to this science. I nversely, h i story rad i ca l l y depends on
economic k nowledge o n l y to the extent that i t rem a i n s economic his
tory. The degree to wh ich the rol e of h i story i n the economy (the
globa l process wh i ch modifies its own basi c scientif i c pre m i ses) cou l d
b e overlooked by the v i ewpoint o f scientif i c observation i s shown by
the vanity of those soci a l i st cal cu lations whi ch thought they had estab
l i sh ed the exact periodicity of crises. When the con stant i ntervention of
the State succeeded in com pensati ng for the effect of tenden cies toward
crisis, the sa m e type of reasoni n g sees in th i s equ i l i b r i u m a d ef i n itive
economic harmony. The project of surmou nting the econom y, the p ro
ject of tak i n g possession of h i story, if it m u st k now-and take into it
self-the science of society, cannot itself be scien tific. I n the movement
wh i ch th i n k s it can dominate present h i story by mea n s of scientific
knowledge, the revolutionary point of v i ew rema ins bourgeois.
83
84
85
86
88
89
90
91
The f i rst successes o f the struggle of the I nternat ional led i t t o free
itself from the confu sed i nf luences of the dom i nant ideo l ogy which sur
v ived i n it. But the defeat and repression wh ich it soon e ncountered
bro u ght to the foregro u nd a confl ict between two conceptions of the
proletarian revolution. Both of these conceptions contai ned an authori
tarian d i mensi o n through wh ich the conscious self-emancipation of the
work i n g class is a bandoned . I n effect, the quarre l wh ich became i r
reconci lable between M arx ists and Bak u n i n ists was two-edged, referr i ng
at once to power in the revolutionary society and to the orga n izat ion of
the present movement, and when the positions of the adversaries passed
from one aspect to th e other, they reversed themse lves. Baku n i n fought
the i l l u sion of a bo l ish ing c lasses by the au thoritarian use of state power,
foreseeing the reconstitution of a dom i nant bureaucratic c l ass and the
d i ctatorsh i p of the most knowledgeable, or those who wou l d be reputed
to be su ch. Marx, who thou ght that a matu ring process inseparable
from economic contrad i ctions, and democratic edu cation of the work·
ers, wou ld redu ce the ro le of the proletarian State to a simple phase of
legitimating the new social relations i m posing themselves objectively,
denou nced Bak u n i n a nd h is fol lowers for the au thoritarianism of a con
spiratorial elite wh ich deliberatel y placed itself above the I nternational
and formu lated the extravagant design of imposi ng on society the ir
responsi ble d i ctatorsh ip of those who a re most revolutionary, or those
who wou ld designate themselves to be such . Baku n in , i n fact, recru ited
followers on the basis of such a perspective : " I nv isible p ilots i n the
center of the popu lar storm, we must d i rect it, not with a v isible power,
but with the col lective d i ctatorsh ip of a l l the allies. A d ictatorsh ip
without badge, without title, withou t off ici a l r ight, yet a l l the more
powerfu l because it will have none of the a ppearances of power. " Thus
two ideologies of the workers' revolution opposed each other, each con
tain i ng a partially tru e cr itique, bu t losing the u n i ty of the thought of
history, and instituting themselves into ideo logica l au thorities. Power
fu l organizations, like German Social- Democracy and the I berian Anar
ch ist Federation fa ithfu l I y served one or the other of these ideologies;
and everywhere the result was greatly d ifferent from what had been
desired .
92
93
The anarch i sts, who d i stingu i sh themse lves expli citly from the en
semble of the workers' movement by their i deological conviction, re
produce t h i s separation of competences among themselves; they pro
vide a terra i n favorable to informal dom i nation over all anarch i st
organ izations by propagandists and defenders of their ideology, spec
ial i sts who are genera l l y more mediocre the more their inte l l ectual ac
tivity strives to rehearse certain defin itive truths. I deological respect
for u n a n i m i ty of decision has on the who le been favorable to the u n
con trol led authority, with i n the organ ization itself, of specialists in lib
erty; and revol utionary anarch i sm expects, from the l iberated popu la
tion, the same type of u na n i m ity, obta ined by the same means. Fur
thermore, the ref u sa l to take into a ccount the opposition between the
con d ition s of a m inor ity grou ped i n t he present strugg le and the so
ciety of free indiv iduals, has nou rished a permanent separation among
anarch i sts at the moment of com mon deci sio n , as i s shown by an i n
fin ity of a narch i st i n su rrections i n Spain, l i m ited and destroyed on a
loca l lev e l .
94
The illu sion entertai ned more or less exp l i citly by genu ine anarch i sm
i s the permanent i m m inence of a n i n stan ta neou sly accompli shed revolu
tion w h i ch will prove the truth of the ideology a nd of the mode of prac
tica l organ ization der ived from the ideology. Anarch i sm i n fact led, in
1 936, to a social revolu tion a nd the most adva n ced foresh adowing i n
all t i me o f a proletarian power. I n t h i s context i t m u st be noted that
the signal for a general i n su rrection had been i mposed by a proclamation
of the army. Furthermore, to the extent that th i s revolu tion was not
com p leted during the first days ( becau se of the ex istence of Franco ' s
power i n half the cou ntry, strongly su pported from abroad w h i le the
rest of the international proletar ian movement wa s a l ready defeated,
and becau se of su rv ival s of bou rgeois forces or other sta t i st wor kers'
parties with in the camp of the R epu bl i c) the orga n i zed anarch i st move
ment showed i tself u na ble to extend the dem i-victor ies of the revolu
tion, or even to defend the m . I ts known ch iefs became m in i sters and
hostages of the bourgeo i s State which destroyed the revolu t ion onlv to
l o se the civ i l war_
95
The " orthodox Marx i sm " of the Second I nternational is the scien
t if i c ideology of the sociali st revolution : it identifies i ts whole tru th
with objective processes in the economy and with the progress of a re
cogn ition of th i s necessity by the work ing class edu cated by the o rgan i
zation. T h i s ideology red i scovers the �onf idence in pedagogical demo n
stration wh ich had characterized utopian socialism, but m ix es i t w ith a
con templative reference to the cou rse of h i story : th i s attitude has lost
a s m u ch of the Hegelian d i mension of a total h i story as it has,lost the
i mmobile i mage of totality in the utopian critique ( mo st h igh� y devel
oped by Fou rier ) . T h i s scientific attitude can do no I'nore 'ttl'an rev iv e
a sym metry of eth i ca l cho ices; it i s from th i s att itude that theo n:6 nsense
of H i lferd ing spri ngs when he states that recogn i z i rtg the nece ssity of
sociali sm gives " no i n d i cation of the pract ical attitud� to be adopted.
For it i s one th ing to recogn ize a necessity, and it is qu ite a n other thi ng
to put oneself at the servi ce of th i s necessity." (Finanzkapita/). Those
who fai led to recogn ize that, for Marx and for the revolutio nary pro l e
tariat, the u n itary thou ght of h i story was in no way distin ct from the
practical attitude to be adop ted, regularly became v icti m s of the prac
t i ce they si m u ltaneou sly adopted.
96
97
Bernste i n , the soc i a l -democrat furth est from pol it ica l i d eology a n d
most ope n l y attached t o t h e m ethodology o f bourgeois sc ience, h a d t h e
honesty t o want t o demonstrate the rea l i ty o f ttris contrad i ction. The
Engl ish workers ' reform ist movement had a l so demo nstrated i t, by de
privi ng itself of revolutionary i deology. H owever, the contrad iction was
def i n itivel y demonstrated o n l y by h istorical development itse lf. Thou gh
fu II of i l lusions in other respects, B ernste i n had denied that a crisis of
capita l i st prod uction wou ld m iracu lousl y force th e hand of soc i a l i sts
who wan ted to i n her i t the revo l u tion o n l y by this legitimate r ite. The
mo ment of profou nd social u ph eava l wh ich arose w i th the f i rst wo rld
war, though fert i l e with the awakening of consc iou sness, twice demon
strated that the social-democratic h ierarchy had not educated revo l u
tionar i l y , and had i n no way re ndered the German workers theoreti
cians: the first time when the vast majority of the party ra l l i ed to the
i mperial ist war , and then, i n defeat, when it squashed th e Spartakist
revo l utionar ies. The ex-worker E bert sti l l believed in sin, since he ad
m itted that he hated revo lution " I i ke si n . " And the sa me leader sh owed
h i m self a good precursor of the soc ial ist represen tation wh ich shortl y
after opposed itself to the R u ssian proletariat a s its abso l ute enemy,
moreover formu lat ing exactly the same program of th is new a l i enation :
"Social ism m eans wor k i ng a lot."
98
As a Marx ist th in ker Lenin was no more than a faithful and consis
tent Kau tskyist who app l ied the revolu tionary ideology of t h i s "ortho
dox Marx ism" to R u ssian cond itions, co nd itions wh ich did not a l l ow
the reformist practice carr i ed on by the Second I n ternatio n a l . I n the
R u ssian context, the ex ternal d i rection of the proletariat, acting by
mea n s of a disc i p l i ned clandest i n e party su bord i nated to i ntel lectu als
who had become "professi ona l revolutionaries," becomes a profession
w h i ch w i l l not negotiate with a n y lead i n g profession of cap ita l ist so
ciety (the Czar ist pol it ical reg i m e bei ng in any case u nable to offer such
an opening, wh ich is based on a n advanced stage of cap ita l ist power ) .
I t therefore became the profession o f the absolute direction of soc iety.
99
The authoritarian ideological rad ica l ism of the Bolshev iks deployed
itself a l l over the world w ith the war and the col l a pse of the social
democratic i nternational in the face of the war. The bloody end of the
democratic i l l u sions of the workers' movement transformed the ent i re
wor l d into a R u ssia, and Bolshev ism, reigning over the f i rst revolu tion
ary breach brought on by th is epoch of crisis, offered to pro letarians of
a l l lands i ts h ierarc h ic and ideological model, so that they cou l d " speak
R u ssian " to the ru l ing class. Leni n did not reproach the Marxism of the
Second I nternationa l for being a revolutionary ideology, but for ceasing
to be one.
1 00
The sa me h i stor ical moment when Bo lshev ism tri u m phed for itself
in R ussia and when soc ial-democracy fou ght v ictoriously for the old
world marks the com plete birth of the state of affa irs which is at the
heart of the do m i nation of the modern spectacl e : the represen tation
of the working class has opposed itself rad ical l y to the work i ng class.
1 01
" I n a l l prev ious revolutions, " wrote Rosa Luxemburg in Rote Fahne
of December 21 , 1 91 8, "the combatants faced each other d i rectly : class
aga inst c lass, program against progra m . I n t h e present revol u t ion, the
troops protecting the old order d id not intervene u nder the insignia of
the ru l i ng class, but u nder the f la g of a 'social-democratic party.' I f the
central question of revol u t ion had been posed open ly and honest l y :
capita l ism or socia l ism ?-the great mass of t h e proletariat wou ld today
have no dou bts and no hesitations. " Thus, a few days before its destruc
tion the rad ical cu rrent of the German proletariat d iscovered the secret
of the new con d it io n s w h ich had been created by the preced i ng process
( toward w h ic h the representation of the work i n g c lass had greatly con
tributed ) : the spectacu l ar orga n i zation of defense of the existing order,
the soc ial rei g n of appearances where no "cen tral q uestion" can any
longer be posed " open ly a nd honest l y . " The revo l u t ion ary representa
tion of the pro letariat had at this stage become both the m a i n factor
and the cen tra l resu lt of the genera l falsification of society.
1 02
The orga n i zation of the pro letar iat o n the B o l shev i k model , born out
of R u ssian backward ness a n d out of the resi gnation from revol uti onary
stru ggle of the workers' movement of advanced cou n tries, fou nd in t he
bac kwardness of R u ssia a l l the co n d i t ions wh ich ca rr ied t h i s form of
orga n izatio n toward the cou nter-revo l u t ionary reversa l w h i c h it u ncon
siously co nta ined a t i ts sou rce. The repeated retreat of the mass of t he
Eu ropea n workers' movement i n the face of the Hie Rhodus, hie sa lta
of the 1 9 18- 1920 period, a retreat wh ich i n c l u ded the v i o lent destruc
t ion of its radical m i nori ty, favored the com p letion of the B o lshev i k
development a n d let t h i s false resu l t p resent itself to the world a s the
o n l y pro letarian so l u t i o n . The sei z u re of a state monopo ly of represen
tation and of the defense of the wor kers' power, which j u stified the
Bolshev i k party, made the pa rty become what i t was, the party of the
proprietors of the proletaria t, esse n t i a l l y e l i m i nat i n g the ear l ier forms of
property.
103
For twenty years the var ied tendenc ies of R u ssian soc ia l - democracy
had exami ned a l l the co n d it ions for the l iqu idation of Czarism in a theo
ret ica l debate that was never sa tisfactory_ They had po i nted to the
wea k ness of the bou rgeoisie, the weight of the peasant major ity, t he
dec isive role of a concentrated and com bative but hard l y n u merous
proletariat. These conditions f i n a l l y fou nd the i r sol utio n in practice,
but becau se of a g iven w h ic h had n o t been p rese nt in the hypotheses of
the theoret ic ia n s : the revo l utio nary bureaucracy wh ich d irected t he
pro letariat seized State power and gave society a new class do m i nation .
Str ictly bou rgeois revolution h a d been i m possi ble; the "democratic d i c
tatorsh i p of workers a n d peasants" had no mean i ng. The proletarian
power of the Sov iets cou l d not mainta i n itse l f si m u l taneo u s l y against
the cl ass of sma l l landowners, a ga inst the national and i nternat ional
W h ite reaction, and agai nst its own representat ion exter n a l i zed and
a l ienated i n the form of a workers ' party of abso l u te masters of the
State, of the economy, o f expression, and soon of thought. The
theory of permanent revol ution of Trotsky and Parvus, w h i c h Len i n
ado pted i n Apri l 1 9 1 7 , was the o n l y theory which becam e true for
cou ntries where the social deve lopme n t of the bou rgeo isie was re
tarded, but th is theory became true o n l y after the i n trodu cti o n of the
u n k nown factor : the c lass power of the bureaucracy . The concentra
tion of d ictatorsh i p in the hands of the su preme representa t ion of ideo
l ogy was defended most consisten tly by Lenin i n the n u m erous confron
tations of the Bo lshev i k d irectorate. L e n i n was right every t i m e aga inst
h is a dversaries i n that he su pported the so l u t ion i m p l ied by ear l ier
cho ices of abso l u te m i n ority power. The democracy which was kept
from peasants by means of the sta te wou Id have to be kept from wo rk
ers as we l l , whi ch led to k eep in g it from co m m u n ist l eaders of u n io ns,
and in the entire party, and f i na l l y u p to the top of th e party h ierarchy.
At the 1 0th Congress, when th e Kronstadt Sov iet had been defeated by
arms a nd bur ied u nder c a l u mny, Len i n pronou nced the fo l l ow ing con
c l u sion a ga i nst the l eftist bu rea u crats o rga n ized in a "Work ers' Opposi
t i o n , " the logic of wh ich Sta l i n wou ld later extend to a perfect d iv ision
o f the wor ld : " H ere or down there w ith a rifle, but not w i th the op posi
t io n . . . We've had enough o pposi t i o n . "
1 04
After Kronstadt, at the t i m e of the " new eco no m i c po l icy, " the
bu rea ucracy, re ma i n in g so l e proprieto r of a State Capitalism, assured
i ts power i n terna l l y by m eans of a temporary a l l ia nce w i th the peasan
try. E xterna l ly it defended its power by u si n g workers regimented i nto
the b ureaucratic parties of the 3rd I nternational as su pports for R u ssian
d i p l o macy, thus sabota g i n g the ent ire revo l ut ionary movement and su p
porting bou rgeo is govern ments whose a id it needed in i nternationa l po l i
tics (the power of the Kuom i n ta n g i n C h i na i n 1 925-27, the Popu l ar
F ro n t i n Spa in a n d i n France, etc. ) . B u t the b ureau cratic society was to
cont i n u e its comp letion by exert i n g terror on the peasantry i n order to
rea l ize the most bruta l prim itive capital ist acc u m u lation in h istory. The
industria l i zation o f the Sta l i n epoch revea ls the rea l ity beh ind the bu
reaucracy: it is the con t i n u at io n of the power of the eco nomy, the
salyagi ng of the essentials of commod i ty society preservi n g commod i ty
l abor. I t is the proof of the i ndependent economy, wh ich dominates
society to the point of recreating for its own ends the class domination
i t requ ires. I n other words the bou rgeoisie has created an a utonomous
power wh ich, so long as its autonomy lasts, can even do without a
bou rgeoisie. The total itarian bureaucracy is not " the last owni ng class
i n h istory " i n the sense of Bruno R izzi; it is only a substitute ruling class
for the com modity economy. Dec l i n i ng capitalist private property is
replaced by a s i m p l if ied su bproduct, one which is less d i versified, wh ich
is concentrated into the col l ective property of the bureaucratic class.
This u nder-developed form of ru l ing class is a lso the expression of eco
nomic u nder-development, a nd it has no other perspective than to over
come the retardation of t h is development in certa in regions of the worl d .
I t was t h e workers ' party organized accord i ng t o t h e bourgeo is model of
separation wh ich furn ished the h ierarch ical-statist cadre for this su pple
mentary edition of a ru l i n g class. Anton C i l iga observed i n one of
Sta l i n ' s pr isons that "technical questions of orga n i zation tu rned out to
be social questions. " (Lenin and the Revolution).
1 05
1 06
Sta l i n ism was the reign of terror within the bureaucratic class itself.
The terrorism at the base of the power of this class must a l so stri k e this
class because it possesses no j u r id ica l guarantee, no recogn ized existence
as own ing class, which it cou l d extend to every one of its members. I ts
real property is d issimu lated; the bureaucracy became proprietor
through the path of fa lse consciousness. F a l se consciou sness preserves its
a bso l u te power o n l y by means of a bso l ute terror, where a l l real motives
are fina l l y lost. The mem bers of the bu reaucratic class in power have a
right of ownersh i p over society on l y co l lectively, as part i c i pants in a
fu ndamental l ie : they have to pl ay the role of a lea d i ng pro letariat in a
socia l i st society ; they have to be actors loyal to a scr ipt of ideo l ogical
d i sloya lty. But effective participation in this lying bei ng m u st see itself
recogn ized as a rea l participation. No bu rea ucrat can support h i s right
to power ind ividu a l ly, si nce provi n g that he ' s a social ist proletarian
wou l d mea n presenting h i mself as the opposite of a bureaucrat, and
prov ing that he's a bureaucrat is i m possi ble since the official truth of
the bureaucracy is that it does not ex ist. Thus every bureaucrat depends
a bso l u tely o n the cen tral guaran tee of the ideology which recognizes
the co l l ective participation in its "social ist power" of all the bureaucrats
it does not annihilate. I f a l l the bu reaucrats taken together d eci de
everyth i ng, the cohesion of their own cl ass can o n l y be assured by the
concentration of their terrorist power in a single person . I n th i s person
resides the o n l y practica l truth of fa l sehood in po wer: the i nd isputable
permanence of its constantly adj usted frontier. Sta l i n deci des without
appea l who is f i na l ly to be a possessi n g bureaucrat; in other words who
shou ld be named "pro l etarian in power" or "traitor in the pay of the
M i kado or of Wa l l Street." The burea ucratic atoms find the common
essence of their r ight o n l y i n the person of Sta l i n . Sta l i n is the wor ld
sovere ign who in th is man ner k nows h i mself as the a bsol ute person for
the co nsciousness of wh ich there is no higher sp irit. "The sovere i gn of
the world has effective consciousness of what he is-the u n iversa l power
of eff icacy-in the destructive v io lence w h ich he exerts a ga i nst t he Se lf
of h is su bjects, the contrasting ot hers." Just as he is the power that
def i nes the terra in of domi nation, he is "the power wh ich ravages th is
terra i n . "
1 08
Between the two world wars, the revo l u tionary workers' movement
was a n n ih i lated by the j o i n t action of the Sta l i n ist bu reaucracy a nd of
fascist tota l i tari a n i sm which had borrowed its form of orga n i zat ion from
the tota l itarian party tried out i n R u ssia. Fa scism was a n extre mist de
fense of the bou rgeois econ omy threatened by crisis and by pro letar ian
su bversion. Fasc ism is a state of siege in capita l ist soc iety, by means of
which t h i s society saves i tse lf a n d gives i tse lf stop-gap rat ion a l izat i o n by
ma k i n g the State intervene massive l y i n its management. B u t th is ra
tiona l ization is itse lf marked by the i m mense i rratio n a l ity of its mea ns.
Fasc is m ra l l ies to the defense of the m a i n po i n ts of a bourgeo is ideology
wh ich has become co nservative (the fa m i ly, property, the mora l order,
the n a ti o n ) , reu n it i n g the petite- bou rgeoisie and the u n empl oyed routed
by crisis or dece ived by the i m potence of social ist revo l ut i on . H owever,
fasc ism is not i tself fu ndamenta l l y i d eologi ca l . It presents itself as it is:
a v io l e n t resurrect ion of myth which demands part i c i pa t i o n in a com
mu n ity d ef i ned by archa ic pseu do-va l u es : race, bl ood , the l eader. F as
cism is technically-equipped archaism. I ts decom posed ersatz of myth
is rev ived i n the spectacular co ntext of the most mod ern m eans of con
d ition i n g and i l lu sion . Thus i t is one of the factors in the formation of
the modern spectacle, an d its role in the destru ction of the o l d wo rkers'
movement makes it one of the fu ndamen ta l forces of present-day so
ciety. H owever, since fasc ism is a l so the most costly form of preserv i n g
t h e cap ital ist order, i t m u st natura l l y leave t h e front of t h e stage t o t h e
great ro les p layed b y cap ita l ist States; i t i s e l i m i nated by stronger a n d
more rati onal f o r m s of the sa me order.
1 10
111
At the present moment of its devel opment, the bu reau cracy's t itle
of i deo logica l property is a l ready co l l apsi n g i n terna t i ona l l y. The power
w h i c h esta b l ished itself nationa l ly as a fu ndamenta l l y i nternational ist
model m u st a d m i t that it can no lo nger pretend to u ph o l d its fa l se co
hesio n beyond every nationa l fro n tier. The u nequ a l econom i c dev el op
ment of some bu reaucracies with compet i n g i nterests who succeeded i n
possess i n g t h e i r " soc i a l ism " outs ide of a si ngle cou ntry h a s l e d t o the
pu b l i c and total confrontation between the R u ssian l ie and t he C h i n ese
l ie. From t h i s po int on, every b u reaucracy i n power, or every tota l i
tar i a n party w h i c h is a cand idate to the power left beh i nd by the Sta
l i n ist per i od in some nationa l work i n g c lasses, must fo l low its own pat h .
The g l oba l deco m posi t i o n o f t h e a l l iance o f bureaucrat i c m ystifi cat ion
is fu rther aggravated by manifesta tions of interna l negation w hich began
to be v is i ble to the worl d w i th the E ast Berl i n workers' revo l t, o pposi ng
the bu reau crats with the demand for " a govern ment of steel workers,"
man ifestations wh ich a l ready once led a l l the way to the power of work
ers' cou n c i l s in H u ngary. H owever, the g l o ba l deco m posi t i o n of the
bureau cra t ic a l l iance i s i n the l ast a n a l ysis the l east favorable factor for
the present deve l o pment of capita l ist society. The bo u rgeo isie i s i n the
process of losi ng the adversary wh ich objectively supported it by pro
v i d i ng an i l lusory u n ificatio n of a l l negation of the ex isting order. This
d ivision of spectacu lar labor comes to an end when the pseudo-revo lu
tionary role in tu rn d ivides. The spectacu lar element of the col la pse of
the workers' movement wi l l itself col lapse.
112
The Leni nist i l lusion has no contemporary base outside of the various
Trotskyist tendencies. H ere the identification of the pro l etarian project
with a h ierarch ic organization of ideology unwaveri ngly survives the
experience of a l l its resu l ts. The distance which separates Trotskyism
from revo lutionary critique of the present society also f,Jerm its the re
spectable d istance which it keeps with regard to positions which were
a l ready false when they were used in a rea l com bat. Trotsk y remained
basica l l y in sol i darity with the h igh bureaucracy u nt i l 1 927, seek ing to
capture it so as to make it u ndertake a genu inely Bolshevik action ex
ternal l y ( it is k nown that in order to d i ssi mu late Len in's fam ou s "testa
ment" he went so far as to slanderously disavow h is supporter Max
Eastman, who had made i t publ ic) . Trotsky was condem ned by his
basic perspective, because at the moment when the bureau cracy recog
n izes i tself in its resu lt as a counter-revolutionary class i n terna l ly, it
must a lso choose to be effectively counter-revo lutionary externa l l y in
the na me of revolution, just as it is a t home. Trotsky's subsequent
struggle for a Fou rth I nternational contains the same inconsistency. A l l
h i s l i fe h e refused t o recognize the power of a separate class i n the bu
reaucracy, because d u ring the second R ussian revolution he became an
u ncond itional su pporter of the Bolshevik form of organ ization. When
Lukacs, in 1 923, showed that th is form was the long-so u gh t m ed iation
between theory and practice, in wh i ch the proletarians are no longer
" spectators" of the events wh ich happen i n their organization, but con
sciously choose and l ive these events, he described as actua l merits of
the Bolshev i k party everything that the Bolshev i k party was not. Ex
cept for h is profound theoretical work , Lu kacs was sti l l an ideologue
speak ing in the name of the power most grossly externa l to the prole
tarian movement, bel ievi n g and mak i n g bel ieve that he fou nd h imself,
with h is entire personal i ty within this power as if it were his own. The
rest of the story made it obvious just how this power disowns and sup
presses its lackeys. Lukacs, repud iati ng h i mse l f wlthout end, made v is
i ble with the clarity of a caricature exactly what he had identified with :
with the opposite o f h i mself and of what h e had su pported i n History
and Class Consciousness. Lu kacs is the best proof of the fu ndamental
rule wh ich j udges a l l the intel lectua ls of th is century : what t hey respect
exactly measu res their own despicable rea l ity. However, Len i n had
hard ly ca l led for this type of i l l usion about h is activity; in h is view " a
pol itical party cannot examine its members to see if there are contrad ic
tions between their phi losophy and the party program . " The real party
whose i maginary portrai t Lu kacs had presented was cohere nt only for
one precise and partial task : to seize State power.
1 13
114
116
"The pol itical form at last discovered i n which the economic l i bera
tion of labor cou ld be rea l ized" has in this century acqu i red a clear out
l ine in the revol utionary workers' Counci ls which concentrate in them
selves a l l the fu nctions of decision and execution , and federate with
each other by means of delegates responsible to the base and revocable
at any moment. Their actu al existence has as yet only been a brief
sketch, i m mediately fought and defeated by different forces of defense
of the class society, among which one must often count the i r own fa lse
consciou sness. Pannekoek rightly insisted on the fact that the cho ice
of a power of workers' Councils "poses problems" rather than bri nging
a so lution . But th is power is precisely where the problems of the revo
lution of the proletariat can f i nd their rea l so lution . Th is is where the
objective cond itions of historica l consciousness are reu n i ted. This is
where direct active commun ication is rea l ized, where specia l ization,
h ierarchy and separation end, where the existi ng cond itions are tra ns
formed " i nto cond itions of u ni ty." Here the proletarian subject can
emerge from h is stru ggle agai nst contemplation : h i s consciou sness is
equ a l to the practical organization wh ich it u ndertakes �ecause this
consciousness is itself i nseparable from coherent intervention in history.
117
The a ppearance of the Councils was the h ighest rea l i ty of the p ro
letarian movement i n the first q uarter of th is century, a reality which
was n ot seen or was travestied because i t disappeared with the rest of
the movement wh ich was denied and e l i mi nated by the enti re h istorical
experience of the time. In th is new moment of proletarian critique,
this resu l t returns as the only u ndefeated point of the d efeated move
ment. The h istorical consciousness which k nows that this is the only
m i l ieu where it can exist can now recogni ze it, no longer at the peri phery
of what is ebbing, but at the center of what is rising.
1 19
1 20
The revo l u tionary orga n i zation can be n oth ing less tha n a u n itary
critique of society , namely a critiqu e w h i ch does not comprom ise with
any form of separate power anywhere i n the wor l d , and a c r itique pro
clai med globa l l y aga i n st a l l the a spects of a l ienated soc ial l ife_ I n the
struggle of the revo l u tionary orga n i zation aga inst the cl ass society,
wea pons are noth ing oth er than the essence of the com batants them
selves : the revol u tionary orga n i zation cannot reproduce w ithin itse l f
t h e cond itions o f se paration and h ierarchy o f t h e dom inant society.
I t m ust struggle consta ntly aga i n st its deformation in the r u l i ng spec
tacle. The o n l y l i m it to partici pation in the total democracy of the
revo lut ionary orga n i zation is the recognition and self-appro pr iation of
the coherence of its critique by a l l its members, a coh erence which must
be proved i n the critical theory as such and i n the relation between the
theory and p ractica l activity.
1 22
1 23
Pro letarian revo l u tion depends entirely on the condition that, for
the first t i me , theory a s i n te l l i gence of hu man practice be recogniz ed
and l ived by the masses. I t requ ires workers to become d ia l ecticians
and to i nscri be their thought i nto practice. Thus it demands more of
men withou t quality than the bou rgeois revolution demand ed of the
qual ified men which it delegated to its task ( the parti a l ideological con
sciousness bu i l t by a part of the bou rgeois class had the economy at its
basis, th is central part of soc ia l l ife in wh ich th is class was already in
power ) . The very development of cl ass society to the point of the spec
tacu lar orga n i zation of non - l ife thu s leads the revolutionary project to
become visibly what it a l ready was essen tially.
1 24
H istorica l movement as such, though sti l l h i dden, beg ins i n the slow
a nd i nta ngible formation of the "real nature of man," th is "nature born
wi th i n h u man h i story-w ith i n the generating action of hu man society-",
yet the society, which has developed a technol ogy and a language, is
conscious only of a perpetua l present, though it is itself a l ready the pro
duct of its own history. A l l k n owledge l i m ited to the memory of the
oldest is a l ways carried by the living. N either death nor procreation a re
grasped as a law of ti me. Time remains immobile, l i k e a closed space.
When a more com plex society becomes conscious of t i me, its task is
rather to negate it because it does not see in time that wh ich happens,
but that which is repeated. A static society organ izes time in terms of
its i mmediate experience of nature, on the model of cycl ical time.
1 30
" F rozen soc iet i es" are those w h ich slowed d ow n their h i storical ac
tiv ity to the l i m it, th ose w h ich k ept their opposition to the natura l a nd
h u ma n environ ment, and their i nternal o ppositions, i n a constant equ i
l i br i u m. If the extreme d iversity of i nst itutions establ ished for this pur
pose demonstrates the f lex i b i l ity of the self-creation of h u man natu re,
th is demonstration becomes obvious o n l y for the externa l observer, for
the eth nolog ist who returns from h i storica l t i me. I n each of these so
ciet i es a defin it ive stru ctu ring excl u d ed change. Abso l ute conformism
i n existing social practices, w ith w h i ch a l l h u m an possi b i l ities are identi
fied for a l l t ime, has no externa l l i m it other than the fear of fal l ing back
i nto form less a nim al ity. H ere, in order to remai n h u m a n , men must
remain the same.
1 31
The b i rth of pol itica l power, which seems to be related to the last
great tec hnolog ica l revo lutions (cast iro n ) , at the thresh o l d of a period
wh ich wou ld not experience profo u nd shocks u n t i l the ap pearance of
industry, a lso marks the moment when blood ties beg i n to d isso lve.
From then on, the succession of generations leaves the sphere of pure
cyc l i ca l nature and becom es oriented to events, to the succession of
powers. I rreversi b le t i m e i s now the ti m e of those w h o rule, and dynas
t ies are its f irst measure. Writi ng is its weapon. I n writi ng, l anguage at
tains its fu l l independent rea l ity of med iating between consciousnesses .
But this in d ependence is identical to the gen era l i ndependence of sep
arate power as th e med iation which forms soc iety. With writing th ere
a ppears a co nsciousness which is no longer carried and transm itted d i
rectl y among the l iv i n g : a n impersonal memory, the m em ory of the
adm i n istration of soc iety. "Writings are the thou ghts of th e State; ar
c h ives are its memory." ( N ova l is ) .
1 32
1 33
1 34
R ea so n i ng about h i story is inseparab ly reasoning about power.
G reece was the moment when power a nd its change were d i scussed a nd
understood : the democracy of the masters of society. Greek cond itions
were the i nverse of the cond itions k nown to the despoti c State, where
power settles its accou nts o n l y with itself with in th e i naccessible o b-
scu r ity of its densest poi n t : t h rough palace revolution, w h i c h is p laced
beyo nd t h e pa l e of d iscu ssion by success or fa i l u re a l i ke. H owever, the
power shared a mo n g th e G reek co m m u n i ti es ex isted only w ith the ex
penditure of a social l ife whose production rema i ned separate a nd static
w i t h i n the serv i l e class. O n l y those who do not work l ive. I n the divi
sion among t h e G reek com m u n it i es, a n d i n the struggle to exploit for
e i gn c i t i es, the principle of separation w h i c h i n terna l l y gro u nded each of
them was exter na l i zed. G reece, w h i ch h ad d ream ed of u n iversal h istory,
d id not succeed in u n ifying itself in the face of i nvasio n ; or even in u n i
fy i n g the calendars of its i ndependent cities. I n G reece h istorica l time
beca m e consci ous, but n ot yet co nscious of itself.
1 35
1 36
The monotheistic rel igions were a com prom ise between myth a nd
h ; story, between cycl i ca l t i m e w h i c h sti l l d o mi nated production a nd ir
reversible ti m e where popu lat i o ns confront each other and regrou p. The
rel igio ns wh ich grew o u t of Judai sm are a u n iversal abstract recog n it i o n
o f i rreversible t i m e w h ich is democratized, opened to a l l , but i n t h e
r ea l m o f i l l usion. T i m e i s total l y oriented toward a single final event:
"The K in gd om of God is near. " These rel ig ions were born on the thres
hold of h i story, a nd esta b l i shed themselves there. But there they sti l l
preserve t h e mse lves i n radical opposition to h istory . Sem i-h istorical
rel i g ion esta bl ishes a qual itative po i nt of departure in t i m e : the birth
of Christ, the fl i ght of M oham med, but its i rreversible time- i ntroducing
a n actual accu m u latio n w h ich in I slam can take the shape of a conquest,
or in C h r istian ity of the Reformation the shape of an i ncrease of capital
-is in fact i nverted in rel igious thought: the expectation, in the time
which d i m i n ishes, of entrance to the genu i ne other worl d; t h e expecta
tion of the last Judgment. E ternity came out of cyclical t i m e. I t is out
side. It is the element which holds back the i rreversib i l ity of t i m e,
wh ich suppresses h i story with i n h istory i tself by placing itself on the
other side of irreversible time as a pure pu nctual e l em ent i n w h ich cy
cl ica l time entered a nd abo l ished itself. Bossuet w i l l sti l l say : "And by
means of the time that passes we enter i nto the eternity w h ic h does not
pass."
1 37
The m idd l e ages, this incomplete m yth ical world whose perfection
lay outside it, is the moment when cyc l ical t i me, w hich sti l l reigns over
the greater part of production, is rea l l y chewed away by h istory. A cer
tai n irreversible tempora l ity is recognized i nd ivid u a l l y in everyone, in
the succession of stages of l ife, i n the consideration of l ife as a journey,
a passage with no return through a world whose mea n i ng l ies else
where : the pilgrim is the man who leaves cycl ical time to be actu a l ly
this travel ler that everyone is symbo l ica l ly. Personal h i storica l life
sti l l finds its fu l fi l l ment in the sphere of power, with in participation
in the struggles led by power and in the struggles of d ispute over
power; but the irreversi ble t i me of power is shared to infinity u nder
the general u n i fication of the oriented time of the Christian era, in a
world of armed faith, where the game of the masters revolves around
fidelity and the cha l lenge of owed fidel ity. This feudal society, born
out of the encounter of "the organ izational structure of the con
quering army as it developed during the conquest " and of "the produc
tive forces found i n the conquered country " (German Ide % gy) -and i n
the organization o f these productive forces one m ust coun t their reli
gious language-divided the domination of society between the Church
and the state power which was in turn su bdivided i n the co mplex rela
tions of suzereinty a nd vassalage of territorial ten u res a nd urban com
munes. Within this d iversity of possible h istorical l i fe, the irreversible
time wh ich u nconsciously carried the u nd erlying society, th e t i me l ived
by the bourgeo isie in the production of commod ities, the foundation
and expansion of cities, the commercial d iscovery of the Earth-practi
cal experimentation wh ich forever destroyed a l l myth ical organization
of the cosmos-slowly reveal ed itself as the u nknown work of th is
epoch , when t h e great official h i storical u nderta k i ng of t h i s world col
lapsed with the Crusades.
1 38
At the decl ine of the m iddle ages, the irreversible time wh ich invades
society is felt , by the consciousness attached to the a ncient order, in the
form of an obsession with death. I t is the melanch o l y of the d isso lution
of a world, the last in wh ich the security of myth sti l l gave balance to
history; and for this melanchol y everything eart h l y ends up merely by
bei ng corrupted. The great revolts of tt'e E u ropean peasants are also
their attempt to answer history, wh ich violently pu l l ed them out of the
patriarchal sleep wh ich had guara nteed the feudal tutelage. This is the
m i l l enarian utopia of terrestrial realization of paradise, wh ich revives
what was at the origi n of sem i-historical rel igion, when Christian com
m u n ities, l i k e the Judaic messianism from which they arose (as answers
to the troubles and u n happi ness of the epoch ) expected the i m m i nent
rea l ization of the rea l m of God a nd added a disqu ieting and subversive
factor to a ncient society. When Christian ity reached the po int of shar
i ng power with i n the empi re, it exposed as a si mple superstition what
sti l l survived of this hope: that is the mea n i ng of the August i n ia n affir
mati on, archetype of a l l the satisfecit of modern ideology, accord ing to
wh ich the establ ish ed Ch urch has already for a l ong time been t h is k i ng
dom one spoke of. The social revolt of the m i l l enarian peasantry is
natura l l y defi ned first of a l l as a wi l l to destroy the Church. But m i l
lenarian ism plays itself out in the historical world, and not on the ter
ra i n of m yth. M odern revol utionary expectations are not irrational con
t i nuations of the rel igious passion of m i l l enarianism, as Norman Coh n
thought he had demonstrated in The Pursuit o f the Millenium. O n the
contrary, m i l lenaria n ism, revolutionary class struggle speak i ng the l a n
guage of rel igion for the l ast t i me, is a l ready a modern revolutionary
tendency which as yet lacks the consciousness that it is historical. The
m i l lenaria ns had to lose because they cou ld not recogn ize th e revo l ution
as their own operation. The fact that they waited to act on the basis
of an external sign of God 's decision is the translation i nto thought of a
practice in w h ich the insu rgent peasants fol lowed chiefs taken from out
side their ranks. The peasant class cou ld not atta i n a n adequate con
sciousness of the fu nctio n i ng of society and of the manner to l ead its
own struggle; it is becau se it lacked these cond itions of u ni ty in its ac
tion and i n its consci ousness that it expressed its project and led its wars
with the i magery of a terrestrial parad i se.
1 39
The new possession of h i storical l ife, the R ena issance which finds its
past a nd its l egit i macy in Antiquity, carries with it a joyous r u pture w ith
etern ity. I ts irreversible ti me is that of the i n f i n ite accu m u lation of
knowledge, a nd the h istorica l consciousness wh ich grows out of the ex
perience of democratic com m u n i ties and of the forces which ru i n them
w i l l take up, with M ach iave l l i , the analysis of desanctified power, saying
the u nspea kable a bout the State. I n the exuberant l ife of the I ta l ian
c ities, in the art of the festival , l ife is experienced as enjoying the pas
sage of time. But this enjoyment of passage is itself a passing enjoy
ment. The song of Lorenzo di M ed ici considered by Burc khardt to be
the expression of the "very spirit of the R en aissance" is the eul ogy
wh ich this fragile feast of h istory pronounces on itself: "How beautiful
the spring of l ife-which vanishes so qu ick ly."
1 40
1 42
Thus the bou rgeo isie made known to society and i m posed on it an
irreversible h istor ical ti me, but refuses society its use. "There was h is·
tory, but there is no more, "because the class of owners of the eco nomy,
wh ich cannot break with economic history, must a l so push back as a
d i rect menace a l l other irreversib l e use of ti me. The dom inant class,
made up of specialists in the possession of things who are themselves
therefore a possession of th i ngs, must l i nk its fate with the preservation
of this reified h istory, with the permanence of a new immob i l ity within
history. For the first time the worker, at the base of society, is not
materia l l y a stranger to history, because it is now the base that irrever
sib l y moves society. I n the demand to live the h istorica l time wh ich ii.
ma kes, the proletariat f inds the si m p l e u nforgetta ble center of its revo
l utionary project; and every o ne of the attempts u nt i l n ow broken to
rea l ize th is project marks a po i nt of possible departure for new h istori
cal l ife.
1 44
1 45
Balthasar G RACIAN
L'Hom me de cour.
VI . SP ECTAC U LA R TI M E
1 47
1 48
1 49
1 50
1 52
1 53
1 54
This epoch which shows itsel f its time as being essential l y the sudden
retu rn of m u ltiple festivities is at the sa me time an epoch wi thout festi
vals. What had been the m oment of partici pation of a co m m u n ity i n
t h e luxurious expenditure o f l if e wit h i n cyc l ical t i m e i s i m possible for
the society without com m u n ity and without l u x u ry . When its v u l gar
ized pseudo-festivals, parod ies of the d ia l ogue and the g i ft, incite a
surplus of economic expen d itu re, they o n l y l ead to d ecepti on a lways
com pensated by the pro m ise of a new d ecept ion . The m ore its use
valu e- is red u ced, t he h igher the claims of modern survival time are i n
t h e spectacle. The rea l ity of time h as been rep laced by the advertise
men t of t ime.
1 55
W h i l e the consum ption of cycl ical time i n ancient societ i es was con
sistent with the real labor of these soc i e ti es the pse udo-cyc l i ca l con
,
sum ption of the d eveloped economy is in contrad iction w ith the ab
stract irreversible t i m e of its produ ction. While cycl ical t i m e was the
time of i m mobile i l l usion, real ly l ived, spectacu lar time is the t i me of
changing reality, l ived in i l lusion.
1 56
Another side of the defi ciency of general h i stori cal l ife is that i n d i
vidual l ife as yet has no h i story. The pseudo-events which take place i n
the spectacu lar dramatization have not been l ived b y those i nformed of
them ; f u rthermore they are lost in the i nflat i o n of their sudden replace
ment at every p u l se of the spectacu l ar mach i nery. F u rthermore, that
wh ich i s rea l ly l ived has no relat i o n to the off i c i a l irrevers i b l e t i m e of
society and is in d irect opposition to the pseudo-cycl i cal rhythm of the
consu mable subproduct of this t i m e. Th i s i nd iv i d u a l exper i ence of
seperate d a i l y l ife rem a i ns without l a nguage, without concept, without
critical access to its own past w h i c h has been left nowhere. It is not
com m u n i cated. I t i s not u nd erstood and is forgotten to the profit of
fa lse spectacu lar memory of the u n m emorab l e.
1 58
T h e cond ition req u ired for red ucing workers to the status of " free"
produ cers and consu mers of com mod ity t i m e was the violen t expropria
tion of their time. The return of t i m e as spectacu l ar t i m e d id not be
come poss i b l e unt i l after t h i s fi rst depossession of the produ cer.
1 60
The irred u c i b l e biological part wh ich rema ins w ith i n lab or, as much
in the dependence on the natural cycle of wak i ng and sleep as in the fact
of i nd ividua l l y irreversible t i m e i n the expend iture of a l i fe, beco me no
more than incidental from the viewpo i n t of m od ern prod uction . As
su ch , these e l e m ents are negl ected i n the off i c i a l proclamations of the
movement of prod uction and i n the consu mable troph ies w h ich are the
ava i l a b le translation of t h i s i n cessant v i ctory. I m mob i l i zed i n the fa lsi
fied center of the movement of its worl d , the consci ousness of the
spectator no l onger k nows i n its l i fe a passage towards i ts rea l i zation and
towards its d eath . W h oever has renounced the expend iture of h is l i fe
can no l onger adm it h i s death . L i fe- i nsurance advertisements m erely
suggest that he is gu i l ty of d y i n g w ithout hav i n g i nsu red the regu lation
of the system after this econ o m i c l oss; and the advertisem ent of the
american way of de,3 th in sists on his capacity to mai ntain in t h is en
cou nter the greatest poss i b l e n u m ber of appearances of l i fe. On a l l
other fronts o f advertising bom bardm ent, it i s str ictly forb idden to
grow o l d . O ne wo u l d have to a rrange, for each and for a l l , a "youth
cap ita l " wh i c h , for having been used i n a med iocre way, ca n not pretend
to acqu i re the d u ra b l e and c u m u l ative rea l i ty of fi nanci a l ca pita l . This
social a bsence of death is i d entical to the social absence of l i fe.
161
1 63
1 64
The world a l ready possesses the dream of a time wh ose consc ious
ness it must now possess in order to actu a l l y l ive it.
1 65
Capita l ist prod u ction has u n ified space, which is no l onger bound ed
by externa l societies. This u n ification is at the sa me time an extensive
and inten sive process of banaliza tion . The accum u l ation of commod i
.
t ies prod u ced o n the assembly l i ne for the abstract space of the market,
w h i ch broke through a l l regional and l egal barriers and a l l th e corporate
restrictions of the m i d d l e ages that preserved the quality of craft pro
duction, a lso destroyed the autonomy and q ual ity of places. This pow
er of homogen i zat ion is the heavy art i l l ery wh ich brought about the
fal l of al l the wal ls of China.
1 66
1 67
This society which e l i m i nates geograph ical d istance reprod uces d is
tance i nternal l y as spectacular seperation.
1 68
1 69
The soc iety w h ich shapes its ent i re environ ment has constru cted its
specia l tech n i q u e for work ing the concrete base of this co l lect ion of
tasks- its own territory. U rban ism is this tak i ng hold of the natu ra l and
h u ma n environ ment by capita l ism; develop i ng log ica l l y into abso lute
d o m i nation, it can and m ust now rema k e the tota l ity of space as its
o wn stage-setting.
1 70
171
I f a l l the tech n ical forces of cap ita l ism can be understood as too ls for
the mak i n g of separatio ns, in the case of u rban ism we confront the
basis of these tec h n i ca l forces, the treatment of the earth w h ich is su it
able for their deployment, the very tech ni que of separa tion.
1 72
U rban ism is the mod ern acco m p l ishment of the u n interru pted task
w h i ch safeguards class power : the preservation of the ato m i zatio n of
workers whom urban cond itions of prod uction had dangerou sly brought
together. The constant strugg l e w h ich had to be fought agai nst a l l as
pects of the possibi l ity of encounter fi nds i ts priv i l eged field i n urban
ism. The exertion of a l l estab l ish ed powers, after the ex per iences of the
F rench R evo l ut io n, to en large the means of m a i nta i n ing o rder in the
streets, fi nal l y cu l m i nates i n the su ppress ion of the street . " W ith the
mass med ia of com m u n i cation over great d i stances, the iso lation of the
population showed itself a much more efficient means of contro l , " says
Lewis Mumford in The City in History, descr i b i ng " hen ceforth a one
way worl d . " But the general movement of isolation, which is the real ity
of urbanism, m ust a l so contai n a control l ed rei ntegration of workers i n
terms o f t h e necessit ies of production a n d consu m pt ion subject to
pla n n i ng. I ntegratio n i nto the system must recapture iso lated indi
viduals as i nd iv id uals isolated toge ther: factories as wel l as cu lture
houses, resort towns as wel l as grand ensembles are especia l l y orga n i zed
for the ends of this pseudo-co l l ectivity wh ich a l so acco m pa n ies the iso
l ated i nd ividual with i n the family cell. The genera l i zed use of receivers
of the spectacu lar message makes it possible for the i n d iv idual to re
po pulate his iso lat ion w ith d o m inant i mages, i mages wh ich acqu ire their
fu l l power only because of this isolation.
1 73
1 74
1 75
U n iversa l h i story is born i n the cit ies and comes of age at the mo
ment of the decisive v i ctory of city over country. Marx considers i t one
of the greatest revo l u tionary m erits of the bourgeoisie that " it subjected
the vi I l age to the city" whose air emancipates. B u t if the h istory of the
city is the h istory of l i berty, it is a l so the h istory of tyran ny, of state
ad m i n istration w h i ch contro ls the country and the city itse l f . As yet the
city was o n l y able to be the terra i n of the str uggle for h istorica l l i berty,
and not its possess ion. The c ity is the milieu of history because it is at
once concentration of soc i a l power wh ich makes the h i sto rica l u nd er
tak i n g possible , a nd consciousness of the past. The presen t tendency
toward the l i q u i dation of the city thus expresses i n a d i fferent way the
retardation of the subord i nation of the economy to h istorical con
sci ousness, the u n i fi cation of soc iety tak i ng back the powers w h ich be
ca m e detached from it.
1 77
The h istory wh ich threatens this twi l ight world is also the force
wh ich could su bject space to l ived ti me. Pro letarian revol ution i s the
critique of human geography through wh ich i nd ividuals and comm uni
ties must construct the places and the events correspond ing to the ap
propriation, no l onger o n l y of their labor, but of their total h i story.
Within this moving space of the game and of freely chosen variations of
ru les of the game, the autonomy of place can be rega ined without re
i n trod ucing an excl usive attachment to the land , th us bri ngi ng back the
rea l i ty of the jou rney a nd of l ife u nd erstood as a journey conta i n i ng
within i tself a l l of i ts sense.
1 79
The greatest revolut ionary idea with reference to u rban ism i s not it
self urbani stic, technological or esthetic. It is the d ecision to recon
struct the environ ment com p letel y in accordance with the n eed s of
the power of t he Workers' Counci l s, ()f the an ti-statist dictatorship of
the proletar iat, of enforcea ble d ia l ogue. A nd the power o f the Coun
c i ls, wh ich can o n l y be effective by transforming the tota l ity of ex isting
con d itions, cannot assign itself a smaller task if it wants to be recog
n ized and to recognize itself i n its world .
VI I I .
N E GATI ON AND CO NSUMPT I O N
W I TH I N CU LTU R E
..
'
· ·""!!'4 • -- -- !I
. I
.J
I
We're going to live long enough to see a poli
tical revolution? we, the contemporaries of those
Germans? My friend, you believe what you desire
• • • Since I judge Germany in terms of its present
history, you cannot object that its whole history is
falsified and all its present public life does not re
present the real condition of the people. Read any
newspaper you want, convince yourself that one
does not cease-and you will concede that censor
ship stops no one from ceasing-to celebrate the
liberty and national happiness we possess. • .
R uge,
letter to Marx
March 1 844.
1 80
1 81
1 82
The rise of stud ies of soc iety wh ich contain the u nderstanding of
history as the heart of culture, takes from itself a k nowled ge without
retu rn, wh ich is expressed by the d estruction of God. But this " first
cond ition of a l l critique " is a l so the f irst obligation of a cr itique with
out end. When it is no longer possible to ma intain a single ru le of con
duct, every result of cu lture forces cu lture to advance towards its d is
sol u t ion. L i ke ph i losophy at the moment when it ga i ned its fu l l auto
nomy, every d iscipl ine which becomes autonomous has to fal l a part,
first of a l l as a pretention to explain social tota l ity coherently, and
fina l l y even as a fragmented instrumentation wh ich can be used i n its
own bou ndaries. The lack of ra tionality of separate culture is the ele
ment wh ich condemns it to d isappear, because within it the victory of
the rationa l is a l ready present as a req u i rement.
1 83
Cu lture grew out of the h istory wh ich abol ished the ty pe of l ife of
the o ld world, but as a separate sphere it is sti l l no more than sensible
inteUigence and com m u nication, which remai n partial in a partially his
torical society. I t is the sense of a world which has too l ittle sense.
1 84
The end of the h istory of culture man ifests itself on two opposite
sides: the project of its transcendence in total history, and the organ
ization of its preservation as a dead object in spectacu lar contemp lation.
One of these movements has t ied its fate to social critique, the other to
the defense of c lass power.
185
Each of the two sides of the end of cu lture-al l the aspects of the
sciences as wel l as a l l the aspects of tangible representat ions-ex ist in a
u n itary manner in what u sed to be art in the most general sense. I n the
case of the sciences, the accum u lation of fragmentary learni ngs, wh ich
become unusable because the approval of existing cond itio ns m u st fi
nal l y renounce knowledge of itself, confronts the theory of praxis wh ich
alone holds the truth of them a l l by being the only one that holds the
secret of their use. I n the case of representations, the critical self-de
struction of society's ancient common language and its artif icial reco m
position in the commod ity spectacle confronts the i l l usory representa
tion of the not- lived.
186
187
When art wh ich has become independent represents its world with
dazzling colors, a moment of l ife has grown o ld and it ca nnot be re
juvenated with dazzl ing colors. I t can only be evoked i n memory. The
greatness of art only begins to appear at the fa l l of l ife.
1 89
1 90
Art i n the epoch of its d isso l u tion, a negative movement wh ich seek s
the transcendence of a r t i n a h i storical society where h istory is n ot yet
l ived, is s i m u l ta neously an art of change a nd the pure expression of i m
possible change. The m ore gra nd iose its reach, the more its true rea l i
zat i o n is beyond it. Th is art is forci b l y in the vanguard, and it is not.
I ts vanguard is i ts d isa ppearance.
191
Dada ism and surrea l ism are the two cu rrents w h ich cou ld mark t h e
end of modern art. Thou g h on ly i n a relatively conscious m a n n er, they
are contemporaries of the last great assa u l t of the revol u t i o nary pro l e
tar ian move ment; and the defeat of this movement, w h i c h l eft them
i m pr isoned i n the sa m e artist i c field whose d ecay they had a n nou nced ,
is the basic reaso n for their i m m ob i l ization. Dad a i sm and surrea l ism
are at o nce h istorica l l y related and opposed . T h i s opposition, wh ich
const itutes the most i m porta nt and rad ical part of the contr i bu t i o n of
each , revea ls th e i nterna l i nadequ acy of their critique, develo ped o n e
s ided ly by each. Dadaism wanted to suppress art witho ut realizing it;
surrea l i sm wanted to realize art without suppressing it. The critical
positi o n later elaborated by the situa tionists has shown that the su p
pression a nd the rea l izat i o n of art are i n separa b l e aspects of the same
o vercoming of art.
1 92
Spectacular co nsu mption which preserves con gea l ed ancient cu Itu re,
i nc l u d i ng the recu perated repetition of its negative man ifestat i o n s,
open l y becomes i n the cu ltural sector what it is i m p l ic i t l y i n its total ity;
the communication of the incommunicable. The extreme destru ction
of lan guage ca n here be fou nd acknow l edged flatly as a n offi cial posi
tive va l u e, s i nce the task is to advertise a reco nc i l iation with the dom i
nant state of t h i ngs, where a l l c o m m u n ication is joyousl y procl a imed
abse nt. The crit ica l truth of t h i s d estruction w it h reference to the real
l ife of poetry a nd modern art is obv iously h idden, si nce th e spectac l e,
whose fu nction i s to make history forgotten within culture, appl ies i n
the pseu do-novelty o f its moder n i st means t h e very strategy wh ich con
st itutes it in dept h . T h u s a school of neo- l iterature, wh ich si m p l y a d m its
that it co ntemplates what is written for its own sa ke, ca n present itself
as so met h i ng new. F urther more, a l ongside the s i m p l e proc lamation of
the suff ic ient beauty of the d isso l u t io n of the co m m u nica b l e, the most
modern tendency of spectacu lar cu l tu re-and th e one most close l y t i ed
to the repressive practice of the general orga n i zation of society-seeks to
reco m pose, by means of " i ntegral workS," a com p lex n eo-artist i c en
viro nm e n t made up of d ecom po sed elements; nota bly in the researches
of i ntegration of artistic garbage o r of est h etico-tech n i ca l hybrids i n
u rba n ism. T h is is a tra nslation o n the level o f spectacu lar pseud o-cu l
ture of the gen era l project of d evel oped cap ita lism, wh ich a i m s to re-
capture the fragmented worker as a "personal ity wel l integrated in the
group, " a tendency recently described by American sociologists ( R ies
man, Whyte, etc. ) . I t is everywhere the same project of a restructuring
without community.
1 93
1 94
1 95
1 97
The soc io logy wh ich bega n, fi rst of a l l i n the U n ited States, to focus
d i scussion on the cond itions of existence brought about by present
development, was able to b r i ng to v i ew much empirical data, but cou ld
i n no way know the truth of its own object because it does not f i nd
within it the critique immanent to it. The resu l t is that the sincerely re
formist tendency of this sociology lea ns on moral ity, on com mon sense,
on completel y senseless a ppea ls with regard to measure, etc. Becau se
t h is type of critlq u e is not fam i l iar with the negative which is at the
heart of its world, it only i nsists o n the descript ion of a type of negative
surp lus which seems d eplora b ly to h inder it on the surface, l i k e an ir
rationa l parasitic pro l iferation. Th is ind ignant good w i l l , wh ich even
as such arrives at bla m i n g o n l y the externa l consequences of the system ,
t h i n ks itself critica l , forgetting t h e essentia l l y apologetic character of
its assu mptions and its method.
1 98
1 99
The soc iology wh ich thinks it can isolate from the w ho le of soc i a l
l ife an ind ustr ial rational ity functioning a part can g o s o far a s t o i so late
from the general i nd u strial movement the techn iques of reprodu ct ion
and transm ission. It is thus that Boorst in finds that the resu lts he de
picts are caused by the u n happy, a l most fortu itous encou nter of an
oversized tech n ica l apparatus for the d iffusion of i mages w ith an ex
cessive attract ion to the pseudo-sensational on the part of the people of
our epoch. Thus the spectacle wou ld be cau sed by the fact that modern
man is too much of a spectator. Boorsti n does not understand that the
pro l iferation of the pre-fabricated " pseudo-events" wh ich he denou nces
f lows from the s i m p l e fact that, in the massive rea l ity of p resent social
l ife, men do not themsel ves l i ve events. I t is because h i story itself
hau nts modern soc iety l i ke a spectre that one finds the pseudo- h istory
constructed at every level of co nsu mption of I ife, to preserve the threat
ened equ i l ibr i u m of the present frozen time.
201
The affirmation o f the def i n itive sta b i l ity of a short period of frozen
h i stor i ca l time is the u ndeniable basis, u nconsc iously and consciously
procla i med , of the present tendency toward a structuralist systematiza
tion. The vantage poi nt from wh ich anti-h istorical structu ra l ist thought
v i ews the wor ld is that of the eternal presence of a system which was
never created a nd wh ich w i l l never end . The d rea m of the d ictatorsh i p
of a pre-existing unconscious structure over a " social praxis was abusive
ly d rawn from models of structures elaborated by l ingu ist i cs a nd eth
nology (see the analysis of the funct ion ing of capita l ism) , models al
ready abusively understood in these circumstances, simply because the
academic imagination of average functionaries, q u ickly f i l l ed, an i ma
g ination completely entrenched in the celebration of the existing sys
tem, flatl y reduces a l l real ity to the existence of the system.
202
203
204
205
206
207
Ideas i m prove. The mea n ing of words part i c i pates in the i m prove
ment. Plagiarism is n ecessa ry. Progress i m p l i es it. It sq ueezes the
phrase of a n author, makes use of its expressions, rubs out a fa lse idea,
replaces it w ith a true idea.
208
209
210
21 1
I n the langu age of contrad ict io n, the critique of cul ture presents it
self unified: in the sense that it d o m i n ates the whole of cu ltu re-its
k nowled ge as wel l as its poetry-, and i n the sense that it no l onger
separates itself from the critique of the soc ial total ity. It is this uni
fied theoretical critique which goes a lone towards the encounter with
unified social practice.
212
I d eology is the basis of the thought of a cl ass society with i n the con
fl ictua l cou rse of h istory. I deol og ical facts have n ever been simple chi
maeras, but d eformed consciousness of rea l i ties, and as such t h ey have
been real factors in turn exerting rea l d eform ing act i on. A l l the more
reason why the materializa tion of ideo lo gy brought about by the con
crete success of autono m i zed eco no m ic prod uction, in the form of the
spectacle, is i n pract ice confused with the soc ial real ity of an ideo logy
wh ich was able to red uce everyth i ng rea l to its own model .
213
214
217
The para l lel between ideo l ogy and sch izo phren ia establ ished by
Gabel (La Fausse Conscience) m u st be pl aced with i n the econom ic pro
cess of materia l i zation of ideology. Soci ety has beco me what ideology
a lread y was. The remova l of prax is and the anti-dia lect ica l false co n
sc iousness which acco m pa n ies it are i m posed d u r i n g each hour of d a i l y
l i fe subj ected t o the spectacl e ; th is must b e u n derstood a s a systematic
orga n i zation of the "fa i l u re of the facu lty of enco u nter " and as its re
placement by a hallucina tory social fac t: the fa l se co nscio usness of the
enco u n ter, the " i l lusion of the enco u n ter." I n a soc iety where no o ne
can any lo nger be recognized by others, every i nd ividual becomes u n
able to recogn ize h is own rea l ity . I d eo l ogy is at home; separation has
b u i lt i ts own world.
218
" I n the c l i n ica l b u l letins of sch izophren ia," says Gabel, "the d eca
dence of the d ia lectic of tota l i ty (with i ts extreme form in d issociatio n )
a nd t h e d ecad ence of t h e d ia l ectic of beco m i n g (with i ts extreme
for m in catato n ia ) seem so l id l y u n ited ." The consciousness of the spec
tator, prisoner of a fl attened u n iverse, l i m ited by the screen of the spec
tacl e, beh i nd wh ich h is own l ife has been deported , k n ows o n l y the fic
tional speakers who en terta i n h i m u n i latera l ly with their com mod ity
a nd w i th th e pol i t i cs of their commo d ity. The spectacle, in a l l i ts ex
tent, is h is "sign in the m i rror." The stage is h ere set with a false ex it
from a genera l i zed aut ism.
219
The spectacle, which i s the e l i m i nation of the l i m its between self and
world through the destruction of the se lf besieged by the presence
absence of the world, is equa l l y the el im ination of the l i m its between
true a nd fa l se through the repression of a l l truth l ived u n der the real
presence of the l ie ensu red by the orga n ization of appeara nce. O ne who
subm its passively to his al ien d a i l y fate is thus pushed toward a fo l ly
wh ich reacts i l lusor i l y toward this fate by turn ing to magica l techn iques.
The accepta nce a n d consu mption of com mod it ies are at the heart of
this pseud o- respon se to a co m m u n icat ion without response. The need
to i m itate wh ich is felt by the consumer is prec isel y the i nfa nt ile need
cond itioned by a l l the aspects of h is fu ndamental d ispossession. I n the
terms appl ied by Gabel to a co m pletel y d ifferent pathological level,
"the abnormal need for representati o n h ere compensates for a tortur
i ng fee l i ng of being o n the margin of ex istence. "
220
I f the logic of fa lse consciousness ca nnot tru l y k now itself, the search
for critica l truth about the spectacle must also be a true critique. I t
m ust stru ggle i n practice among the irreconc i la ble enem ies of the spec
tacle a nd admit that it is absent where they are absent. I t is the laws of
the r u l i ng thought, the exclusive point of view of the here and no w,
that accept the abstract w i l l of im med iate efficacy when the rul i ng
thought throws itself i nto the comprom ises of reform ism or i nto the
common act ion of pseudo- revolutionary garbage. I n this way delirium
reco nsti tutes itself with i n t h e very position wh ich pretends to co mbat
it. On the contrary, the critique which goes beyo nd the spectacle must
kno w how to wait.
221
Chapter I I I , Title page: the second sentence of the quotation from The
Red Flag of Peking should read: "This debate is a struggle between
those who are for and those who are against the materialist dialectic, . . . "