Powers of Deception

The spectacle is the acme of ideology because it fully exposes and manifests the essence of all ideological systems: the impoverishment, enslavement and negation of real life. The spectacle is the material “expression of the separation and estrangement between man and man.” The “new power of deception” concentrated in it is based on the production system in which “as the mass of objects increases, so do the alien powers to which man is subjected.” This is the supreme stage of an expansion that has turned need against life. “The need for money is thus the real need created by the modern economic system, and the only need it creates” (Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts). Hegel’s characterization of money as “the self-moving life of what is dead” (Jenenser Realphilosophie) has now been extended by the spectacle to all social life.

Society of the Spectacle (1967), Guy Debord; a segment from the last pages, Number 215. (In the book pages themselves are not numbered and on the Information notice readers are advised: No Copyright, No Rights Reserved.)
The receipt chit from Kinokuniya confirmed the reading was begun in Singapore three weeks ago and the slim volume completed after supper at Reaz Corner looking at the darkened shop of Teck Seng Undertaker opposite, Johor Bahru Malaysia.
Reading as always was for requirements and prompted by place and time.