Guy Debord Quotes

With the generalized separation of the worker and his products, every unitary view of accomplished activity and all direct personal communication among producers are lost. ~ Guy Debord

Tourism, human circulation considered as consumption is fundamentally nothing more than the leisure of going to see what has become banal. ~ Guy Debord

He will essentially follow the language of the spectacle, for it is the only one he is familiar with. ~ Guy Debord

The spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living. ~ Guy Debord

The language of the spectacle consists of signs of the dominant system of production - signs which are at the same time the ultimate end-products of that system. ~ Guy Debord

The spectacle is capital accumulated to the point where it becomes image. ~ Guy Debord

The more he identifies with the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own life and his own desires. The spectacle's estrangement from the acting subject is expressed by the fact that the individual's gestures are no longer his own; they are the gestures of someone else who represents them to him. ~ Guy Debord

The need to imitate that the consumer experiences is truly an infantile need, one determined by every aspect of his fundamental disposession. In terms used by Gabel to describe quite another level of pathology, "the abnormal need for representation here compensates for a torturing feeling of being at the margin of existence". ~ Guy Debord

Cyclical time already dominates the experience of nomadic populations because they find the same conditions repeated at every moment of their journey: Hegel notes that "the wandering of nomads is only formal because it is limited to uniform spaces." The society which, by fixing itself in place locally, gives space a content by arranging individualized places, thus finds itself enclosed inside this localization. The temporal return to similar places now becomes the pure return of time in the same place, the repetition of a series of gestures. The transition from pastoral nomadism to sedentary agriculture is the end of the lazy liberty without content, the beg inning of labor. The agrarian mode of production in general, dominated by the rhythm of the seasons, is the basis for fully constituted cyclical time. Eternity is internal to it; it is the return of the same here on earth. Myth is the unitary construction of the thought which guarantees the entire cosmic order surrounding the order which this society has in fact already realized within its frontiers. ~ Guy Debord

In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation. ~ Guy Debord

The loss of quality that is so evident at every level of spectacular language, from the objects it glorifies to the behavior it regulates, stems from the basic nature of a production system that shuns reality. The commodity form reduces everything to quantitative equivalence. The quantitative is what it develops, and it can develop only within the quantitative. ~ Guy Debord

There is nothing more natural than to consider everything as starting from oneself, chosen as the center of the world; one finds oneself thus capable of condemning the world without even wanting to hear its deceitful chatter. ~ Guy Debord

What is false creates taste, and reinforces itself by knowingly eliminating any possible reference to the authentic. And what is genuine is reconstructed as quickly as possible, to resemble the false. ~ Guy Debord

People who personify the system are indeed well known for not being what they seem to be; they have achieved greatness by embracing a level of reality lower than that of the most insignificant individual life- and everyone knows it. ~ Guy Debord

In a world that has REALLY been turned on its head, truth is a moment of falsehood. ~ Guy Debord

Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit. ~ Guy Debord

The reigning economic system is a vicious circle of isolation. Its technologies are based on isolation, and they contribute to that same isolation. From automobiles to television, the goods that the spectacular system chooses to produce also serve it as weapons for constantly reinforcing the conditions that engender lonely crowds. ~ Guy Debord

Conversely, real life is materially invaded by the contemplation of the spectacle, and ends up absorbing it and aligning itself with it. ~ Guy Debord

With the destruction of history, contemporary events themselves retreat into a remote and fabulous realm of unverifiable stories, uncheckable statistics, unlikely explanations and untenable reasoning. ~ Guy Debord

It is hardly surprising that children should enthusiastically start their education at an early age with the Absolute Knowledge of computer science; while they are unable to read, for reading demands making judgments at every line. Conversation is almost dead, and soon so too will be those who knew how to speak. ~ Guy Debord

Of the small number of things which I have liked and done well, drinking is by far the thing I have done best. Although I have read a lot, I have drunk more. I have written much less than most people who write; but I have drunk more than the majority of the people who drink. ~ Guy Debord

I have written much less than most people who write; I have drunk much more than most people who drink. ~ Guy Debord

Whereas during the primitive stage of capitalist accumulation "political economy considers the proletarian only as a worker," who only needs to be allotted the indispensable minimum for maintaining his labor power, and never considers him "in his leisure and humanity," this ruling-class perspective is revised as soon as commodity abundance reaches a level that requires an additional collaboration from him. Once his workday is over, the worker is suddenly redeemed from the total contempt toward him that is so clearly implied by every aspect of the organization and surveillance of production, and finds himself seemingly treated like a grownup, with a great show of politeness, in his new role as a consumer. ~ Guy Debord

None of the activity stolen by work can be regained by submitting to what work has produced. - The Society of The Spectacle ~ Guy Debord

Like lost children we live our unfinished adventures. ~ Guy Debord

Ideas improve. The meaning of words participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It embraces an author's phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea. ~ Guy Debord

The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images. ~ Guy Debord

Just as early industrial capitalism moved the focus of existence from being to having, post-industrial culture has moved that focus from having to appearing. ~ Guy Debord

Plagiarism is necessary, progress implies it ~ Guy Debord

Stars - spectacular representations of living human beings - project this general banality into images of permitted roles. As specialists of apparent life, stars serve as superficial objects that people can identify with in order to compensate for the fragmented productive specializations that they actually live. The function of these celebrities is to act out various lifestyles or sociopolitical viewpoints in a full, totally free manner. They embody the inaccessible results of social labor by dramatizing the by-products of that labor which are magically projected above it as its ultimate goals: power and vacations - the decisionmaking and consumption that are at the beginning and the end of a process that is never questioned. On one hand, a governmental power may personalize itself as a pseudostar; on the other, a star of consumption may campaign for recognition as a pseudopower over life. But the activities of these stars are not really free, and they offer no real choices. ~ Guy Debord

All that was once directly lived has become mere representation. ~ Guy Debord

Looting is a natural response to the unnatural and inhuman society of commodity abundance. It instantly undermines the commodity as such, and it also exposes what the commodity ultimately implies: the army, the police and the other specialized detachments of the state's monopoly of armed violence. ~ Guy Debord

Work is only justified by leisure time. To admit the emptiness of leisure time is to admit the impossibility of life. ~ Guy Debord

System, as the advanced economic sector which directly shapes a growing multitude of image-objects, the spectacle is the main production of present-day society. ~ Guy Debord

Everyone accepts that there are inevitably little areas of secrecy reserved for specialists; as regards things in general, many believe they are in on the secret. ~ Guy Debord

The spectacle is nothing more than the common language of this separation. What binds the spectators together is no more than an irreversible relation at the very center which maintains their isolation. The spectacle reunites the separate, but reunites it as separate. ~ Guy Debord

The worker does not produce himself; he produces an independent power. The success of this production, its abundance, returns to the producer as an abundance of dispossession. All the time and space of his world become foreign to him with the accumulation of his alienated products. The spectacle is the map of this new world, a map which exactly covers its territory. The very powers which escaped us show themselves to us in all their force. ~ Guy Debord

Revolution is not 'showing' life to people, but making them live. A revolutionary organization must always remember that its objective is not getting its adherents to listen to convincing talks by expert leaders, but getting them to speak for themselves, in order to achieve, or at least strive toward, an equal degree of participation. ~ Guy Debord

But real adults - people who are masters of their own lives - are in fact nowhere to be found. And a youthful transformation of what exists is in no way characteristic of those who are now young; it is present solely in the economic system, in the dynamism of capitalism. It is things that rule and that are young, vying with each other and constantly replacing each other. ~ Guy Debord

Basketball is not a collection of jams, but a social relation among players, mediated by Michael Jordan. ~ Guy Debord

... in the case where the self is merely represented and ideally presented (vorgestellt), there it is not actual: where it is by proxy, it is not. -Hegel, Phenomenology of Mind ~ Guy Debord

Economic growth has liberated societies from the natural pressures that forced them into an immediate struggle for survival; but they have not yet been liberated from their liberator. The commodity's independence has spread to the entire economy it now dominates. This economy has transformed the world, but it has merely transformed it into a world dominated by the economy. ~ Guy Debord

The erasure of the personality is the fatal accompaniment to an existence which is concretely submissive to the spectacle's rules, ever more removed from the possibility of authentic experience and thus from the discovery of individual preferences. Paradoxically, permanent self-denial is the price the
individual pays for the tiniest bit of social status. Such an existence demands a fluid fidelity, a succession of continually disappointing commitments to false products. It is a matter of running hard to keep up with the inflation of devalued signs of life. Drugs help one to come to terms with this state of affairs, while madness allows one to escape from it. ~ Guy Debord

The historical moment when Bolshevism triumphed for itself in Russia and social democracy fought victoriously for the old world marks the inauguration of the state of affairs that is at the heart of the modern spectacle's domination: the representation of the working class has become an enemy of the working class. ~ Guy Debord

Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs. ~ Guy Debord

In the zone of perdition where my youth went as if to complete its education, one would have said that the portents of an imminent collapse of the whole edifice of civilization had made an appointment. ~ Guy Debord

We still have some time to take advantage of the fact that radio and television stations are not yet guarded by the army. ~ Guy Debord

The economic system founded on isolation is a circular production of isolation. The technology is based on isolation, and the technical process isolates in turn. From the automobile to television, all the goods selected by the spectacular system are also its weapons for a constant reinforcement of the conditions of isolation of 'lonely crowds.' . . .
'With the present means of long-distance mass communication, sprawling isolation has proved an even more effective method of keeping a population under control,' says Lewis Mumford in The City in History, describing 'henceforth a one-way world.' But the general movement of isolation, which is the reality of urbanism, must also include a controlled reintegration of workers depending on the needs of production and consumption that can be planned. Integration into the system requires that isolated individuals be recaptured and isolated together: factories and halls of culture, tourist resorts and housing developments are expressly organized to serve this pseudo-community that follows the isolated individual right into the family cell. The widespread use of receivers of the spectacular message enables the individual to fill his isolation with the dominant images―images which derive their power precisely from this isolation. ~ Guy Debord

Separation is itself an integral part of the unity of this world, of a global social practice split into reality and image. The social practice confronted by an autonomous spectacle is at the same time the real totality which contains that spectacle. But the split within this totality mutilates it to the point that the spectacle seems to be its goal. ~ Guy Debord

Dont tout «avoir» effectif doit tirer son prestige immédiat et sa fonction dernière. ~ Guy Debord

The status of celebrity offers the promise of being showered with 'all good things' that capitalism has to offer. The grotesque display of celebrity lives (and deaths) is the contemporary form of the cult of personality; those 'famous for being famous' hold out the spectacular promise of the complete erosion of a autonomously lived life in return for an apotheosis as an image. The ideological function of celebrity (and lottery systems) is clear - like a modern 'wheel of fortune' the message is 'all is luck; some are rich, some are poor, that is the way the world is...it could be you! ~ Guy Debord

Images detached from every aspect of life merge into a common stream, and the former unity of life is lost forever. Apprehended in a partial way, reality unfolds in a new generality as a pseudo-world apart, solely as an object of contemplation. The tendency toward the specialization of images-of-the-world finds its highest expression in the world of the autonomous image, where deceit deceives itself. The spectacle in its generality is a concrete inversion of life, and, as such the autonomous movement of non-life. ~ Guy Debord

Capital is no longer the invisible center governing the production process; as it accumulates, it spreads to the ends of the earth in the form of tangible objects. The entire expanse of society is its portrait. ~ Guy Debord

As specialists of apparent life, stars serve as superficial objects that people can identify with in order to compensate for the fragmented productive specialisations that they actually live. ~ Guy Debord

As long as necessity is socially dreamed, dreaming will remain a social necessity. The spectacle is the bad dream of a modern society in chains and ultimately expresses nothing more than its wish for sleep. The spectacle is the guardian of that sleep. ~ Guy Debord

The passions have been sufficiently interpreted; the point now is to discover new ones. ~ Guy Debord

Tourism is the chance to go and see what has been made trite… the same modernization that has deprived travel of its temporal aspect has likewise deprived it of the reality of space. ~ Guy Debord

The spectacle presents itself as a vast inaccessible reality that can never be questioned. Its sole message is: "What appears is good; what is good appears." The passive acceptance it demands is already effectively imposed by its monopoly of appearances, its manner of appearing without allowing any reply. ~ Guy Debord

Where the real world changes into simple images, the simple images become real beings and effective motivations of hypnotic behavior. ~ Guy Debord

The spectacle cannot be understood as an abuse of the world of vision, as a product of the techniques of mass dissemination of images. It is, rather, a Weltanschauung which has become actual, materially translated. It is a world vision which has become objectified. 6. The spectacle grasped in its totality is both the result and the project of the existing mode of production. It is not a supplement to the real world, an additional decoration. It is the heart of the unrealism of the real society. ~ Guy Debord

So far from realizing philosophy, the spectacle philosophizes reality, and turns the material life of everyone into a universe of speculation. ~ Guy Debord

Art ... can become the direct organisation of more highly evolved sensations. ~ Guy Debord

The first stage of the economy's domination of social life brought about an evident degradation of being into having - human fulfillment was no longer equated with what one was, but with what one possessed. The present stage, in which social life has become completely dominated by the accumulated productions of the economy, is bringing about a general shift from having to appearing - all "having" must now derive its immediate prestige and its ultimate purpose from appearances. At the same time all individual reality has become social, in the sense that it is shaped by social forces and is directly dependent on them. Individual reality is allowed to appear only if it is not actually real. ~ Guy Debord

Boredom is always counter-revolutionary. Always. ~ Guy Debord

I wasn't that good you know. What I was was a guy who could write a little, publishing in magazines surrounded by people who couldn't write at all. So I looked pretty good. But I never thought I was that good at all. All that I thought was that I tried to tell the truth. ~ Cornell Woolrich

You feel it too, right?" As impossible as the world had become, this feeling between them, whatever it was, felt good. There was actually something good. She began to lean back, but he stopped her with both hands on her hips. Her entire lower half heated, and a pulse pounded between her legs. She could barely breathe with his hands on her.
"I feel it. Us." His hold tightened with definite strength. "I'm not the good guy who'll tell you to go once we get started, Vinnie. You give me one taste of you, and I won't let you leave until I'm done. Until I have all of you. I'm not that strong."
"You're strong."…
"Not strong enough to let you go. ~ Rebecca Zanetti

Eventually, we reach the point where we start to realize that we are not going to find peace, contentment, happiness, strength, fearlessness - all of the things that in our heart of hearts we wish we had - outside of us. ~ Guy Finley

You ever hear that old joke about the guy who jumped off the Empire State Building?" D.W. asked her. "Yeah. All the way down, you could hear him say, 'So far, so good. So far, so good. So far, so good.' That is George's life story in a nutshell. ~ Mary Doria Russell

They call it torture when our guys put underwear on a guy's head, stripped him naked, put an egg between his buttcheeks and made him do jumping jacks. You know, if it can't get you into a fraternity at Chico State University, it's not torture. ~ Christopher Titus

We're just going to have to wait for-" Then she saw us, and looked Ian over, in his flannel shirt and jeans. "The Brawny paper-towel guy. ~ Katherine Center

Dear Dan, I recently attended one of your lectures, and I was wondering why an Israeli guy telling Jewish jokes is wearing an Indian shirt?
D.A.: In general I am not someone who should be asked for fashion advice, but this particular case might be the one exception ... My solution? I figured that as long as I am wearing clothes from a different culture, no one is politically correct (and this includes almost everyone in the United States ) could complain that I'm underdressed. After all, any such critic could be offending a whole subcontinent. ~ Dan Ariely

The door opened. We all froze.
"Mom, this isn't what it looks like." Mom put her hand on her hip.
"It looks like a group of boys wrestling on the floor of your bedroom while you watch. Wearing a towel."
"Okay," I admitted, "it is what it looks like, but it's not - "
"Sexual?" She raised her eyebrows.
"Mom!" Luna stuck her head under Mom's arm and sucked in a breath. "She's gone from a love triangle to a kinky sex pentagon."
Blake lifted his head. "Vote for Team Blake!"
Mom rolled her eyes. "Boys, vacate. Now. Aurora get dressed. And everybody head downstairs. Breakfast is on. I made quiche. There's plenty for all."
"First edible breakfast in weeks," Luna said.
Blake smacked his lips. "Yum!" Mom checked behind the door.
"Ayden's not here, is he?" I shook my head. "Then there's no lust factor. Although, your father may not be as easy going as I am. So, gentlemen, get out."
As she left, Mom dragged Luna away with her. Blake shook off the other boys and stood. "That's offensive. I'm a very lustful guy."
"And a big blabbermouth." Logan whacked the back of Blake's head.
"But remember you can't tell - "
"Ayden!" Blake shouted.
"Right," Tristan said, "or - "
"No, it's…" Wide-eyed, Blake jerked his chin toward my door.

Our heads swiveled. Ayden filled the doorway, leaning against the frame, arms folded. "What can't you tell me?" He arched one eyebrow awaiting a reply. The sile ~ A. Kirk

I'm really hoping he's being genuine because I can already tell he isn't the kind of guy a girl gets a simple crush on. He's the kind of guy you fall hard for, and the thought of that terrifies me. I don't really want to fall hard for anyone at all, especially someone who's only making an effort because he thinks I'm easy. I also don't want to fall for someone who has already branded himself hopeless. But I'm curious. So curious. ~ Colleen Hoover

Others may sit around and wait for magic to happen… I like to get up early and work towards my goals and dreams. Every morning I plant the seeds of what the haters call 'luck.' Now, I love magic as much as the next guy, but I realized a long time ago that the magic that turns dreams into reality is YOU. When you are inspired by a dream, create a good plan. Creating that plan turns your dream into a goal. Then, take action! Live your life in a way that will bring that dream, that goal, to life. The magic is you. ~ Steve Maraboli

'One Week' changed my life because I used to be the Million Dollars Guy, and now I'm the Chickity China Guy. ~ Ed Robertson

People think I'm a freak or something, but I'm actually a really normal guy. ~ Rivers Cuomo

When I'm singing a song, I picture somebody in particular. A lot of it is to a guy. ~ Leighton Meester

So I'm not gorgeous?" Macey challenged. "Of course you are." He started away, turned back at the last minute. "But I'm the guy who figured out that's not all you are. ~ Ally Carter

I love living my life in flip-flops. I met a guy in the islands a while ago who told me he hadn't worn a pair of shoes in three years! I thought, 'Man, that's the life!' ~ Kenny Chesney

Vic, of course, clasped Max's hand, obviously sizing him up, doing that macho squeeze thing that drove Gina nuts. "He's younger than I remember," he said to Gina. Perfect. Thank you so much, Victor. Then, back to Max, "We met - very briefly - a few years ago. Looks like being shot has agreed with you."
"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say," Gina told the man who had just moved into first place as the most stupid of her three very stupid brothers.
"What?" Vic shrugged as he dragged over a chair. "I'm just saying - Max looks good. You know, for an older guy. What'd, ya lose weight while you were in the hospital?"
"Yes, Victor," Gina said. "They call it the Almost Dying Diet." She turned to Max. "My brother is an idiot."
"It's all right," he said, flexing his fingers - no doubt checking to make sure Victor hadn't broken his hand. ~ Suzanne Brockmann

One sometimes weeps over one's illusions with as much bitterness as over a death. ~ Guy De Maupassant

At what point in your life did you decide you were the sort of guy who wanted to be fisted? ~ Lisa Henry

Somehow in the course of sixty seconds, this guy has managed to swoon me, then terrify the hell out of me. ~ Colleen Hoover

Why are you easily replaceable at one venue but not the other? Are you charming when you go on a date or meet a handsome guy at a party? But not at a meeting at work? ~ Seth Godin

My mother gave me this book called Feature Films at Used Car Prices by a guy named Rick Schmidt. I gotta credit the guy, cuz he gave me the most practical advice. It empowers you. ~ Vin Diesel

Being the father of girls is a kind of illness, in its own way - since any guy who has tried to live in a house with a wife and two daughters is, without any doubt, going to go certifiably nuts. ~ Steve Schirripa

Hey, I'm like the Wayne Gretsky of the entertainment biz - I have other people do my dirty work while I skate around and get to be a nice guy. What can I say? I'm a coward. ~ Paul Feig

What possible good does it do to resent any moment for unfolding as it does, to wish it didn't happen? Does it change the moment in any positive way? No it does not. ~ Guy Finley

Don't say you don't know! It's because of Kim. Meaning there's no photo that I would have put up by myself, or next to one of my smarty friends, that would have got that amount of likes. So now you take this photo that has that amount of likes, and it has a flower wall from the same guy who does the Lanvin shows, and it has a couture Givenchy dress and Givenchy tuxedo in it. That's the point. Now the thing that is the most popular is also communicating the highest level of creativity. The concept of Kimye has more cultural significance than what Page Six could write. ~ Kanye West

This beer is good for you. This is draft beer. Stick with the beer. Let's go and beat this guy up and come back and drink some more beer. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

Bear!" he
cried into my ear. "What‟s going to happen to me? Oh, Bear, I‟m just a little
guy! I‟m not big like you! What‟s going to happen to me? ~ T.J. Klune

He was the kind of guy who was always telling you what kind of guy he was. ~ John Jeremiah Sullivan

I'm searching for the perfect swing. I'm searching for something that's not there. I tried twetny different things today and nobody else out there would have done that. This game is too tough. If I'd have known, I'd have taken up tennis or something. I have a chance. But if you're a betting guy don't bet on me. ~ Johnny Miller

There's no worse feeling than being in front of a guy with six-pack abs, muscles popping out of his shoulders, veins popping out of his arms, and you know he's swinging for the fences, in front of all your friends and family, and you can't breathe. You can't breathe no matter how much moves you know. You start to panic. You start to feel a drowning sensation. It's the worst feeling in the world. ~ Jon Jones

I hate to see a guy who insults a girl or is bad with her. Immediately I think she would be better if she was with me. ~ Niall Horan

One day my wife went and saw the accountant and said she's pulling the plug. She said you guys are done. I said, how bad can it be? 10 grand? She said you're not even close. It came out to almost $50,000 in alcohol for two months. ~ Zakk Wylde

I would work with him to make Knight's troubles go away. In the meantime, I could jump a hot guy whenever I felt like it.
This was not a bad deal. ~ Kristen Ashley

You guys just here to blame someone. You never look yourselves in the mirror, eh? You're always good. You never make the mistakes. Your articles are always perfect. In reality, what have you done for this city? If you ask yourself, what have you done besides only criticize? Not much. ~ Ilya Bryzgalov

Anyway, shes still getting to know you," Mike says. "Chicks are like that. They base how much tey like on you an emotional level. They have to be into your personality first, and then they decide they want you. But if a guy thinks a girl is hot, he'll learn to like her personality later. It's two different worlds, man. ~ Susane Colasanti

I don't want to do the show anymore. I've had enough exposure. It was sort of fun the first season but then Boyd went and ruined everything. He completely humiliated me.
Boyd - as in Boydell Hampton - the preacher's son with the baby face and the mile-wide naughty streak. The kind of guy who talked poetically about being a missionary but who was really far more interested in exploring the missionary position. And every other position he could think of. ~ Tracy Brogan