Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Imaginary
Author(s): Stephen Hastings-King
Source: SubStance, Vol. 28, No. 3, Issue 90: Special Issue: Guy Debord (1999), pp. 26-54
Published by: University of Wisconsin Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3685432 .
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StephenHastings-King
26 Substance#90, 1999
revolutionaryprojectwerecentralcomponentsinDebord'scollageapproach
toMarxismand culturalcritiqueas deployedinthe1967Society oftheSpectacle
and as dismantledin the1975filmofthesame name.Debord's use ofSB is
curiousforitsexternalviewpoint.He maps SB's notionsofthehistoryofthe
workers' movement,bureaucratic capitalism and socialism as direct
democracyontoa Marxistframework closerto Lukacs and Althusserin its
abstractrelationto theworkingclass and revolution.In thispaper,I argue
thatDebord's reversiontodialecticalMarxismis a responsetotheimplosion
of SB. Debord's collage approach to revolutionarypolitics makes him
interestingas an actorwithinand symptomof the crisis of the Marxist
Imaginary.
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PublicationWars: IS and SB
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Debord in SB
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Critiqueis thatwhichwritesintospectacleitsstateofspectatorship.
[The]
andtherefore
specializedspectator, theidealspectator,
elaborateshisideas
beforea workinwhichhehasnorealparticipation. He rehearses,
re-situates
(remeten scene)hisownnon-intervention inthespectacle.Theweakness
offragmentary judgments, haphazardandlargelyarbitrary, on spectacles
thatdo notconcern us is ourfateinmanybanaldiscussions inprivatelife.
Butthecritiqueofartmakesa showofsuchweakness,madeexemplary.
("Pourunjugement" ? 5)
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is socializedintopatternsofinteraction withcultureinwaysthatonlypermit
theirrecapitulation.Here,Debordmakesa cleardistinction betweenspectacle
and "life,"butthelattercategoryseemsempty, likea purelyformalnegation
oftheformer.
This proposal would expand the purview of the revolutionary
movement,particularlywith respectto the dominantcultureand to the
definitionof who were militantsand what militantsdid. A new kind of
politicalorganizationwould seek "somethingpositivein modernculture,
which appears in its self-liquidation, its movementof disappearance,its
testimony againstitself"("Pour un jugement ..." ? 2). Militantsin existing
revolutionary organizationswould have to overcomethetendency
...toopposeallinterventionincultural forfearofnotappearing
questions
tobe serious.On thecontrary,therevolutionarymovement shouldaccord
a centralplaceto thecritiquesofcultureand everyday life.Butitis first
necessary thatall visionofthesefactsbe disabusedandnotrespectful of
givenmodesofcommunication. Theverybasesofexisting cultural
relations
mustbe challenged bythecritiquethattherevolutionarymovement must
bringtobearonallaspectsofhumanlifeandrelations. ("Pourunjugement
..."? 8)
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Guy:Weareunrealisticbecause,notbeingpartoftheworkingclass,we
comeup withsolutionsforworking withtheworkersas iftheproblem
was resolved.Therevue(SB) is good,buttheorganization
shouldexistin
accordwiththeprinciplesthatitexpresses,whichis notthecase.
Mothe:How to recruit
theworkers? continueas in thepast
Practically
whilesimplymodifying ofourwork(...)25
certainelements
Guy:TheideasofSBaremisunderstood. I havehadmorethan200students
withwhomI have directeddiscussions. Theywantto breakeverything
and succeedat nothing. Wedo notcarrytheworkers' movement.Pouvoir
Ouvrieris inaccessibleandindirect.
Concreteactionsarewhatareneeded.
In conclusion:crisis.
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organization]."
revolutionary at le
AndDebordcametothenextmeeting
Tambour gavehisofficial
cafM, paidhisduesfortheearlier
resignation,
monthand thecurrent, and said in a fewwordsthathe appreciated that
butthat,forhimself,
thegroupexisted, he hadno willtobe involvedinit.
He thankedus forall he had learned.Anddisappeared.(Guillaume3)
FromArtto Politics
Retracingthe Trajectory:
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DiscreditingSB
forwhichtheproletariat
Socialismeou Barbarie, is a sortofHiddenGod
ofHistory, itselfwithclosedeyesforitsowndisarmament,
congratulates
whichcan onlycorrespond to a pinnacleofclassconsciousness,to a too-
lateliberation
fromthenefarious influenceofpartiesandtradeunions.(IS
2, 10)32
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emergingfromvariousdirections.One would
applicableto social conflicts
also need tomultiplytheanalysesofsocialconflicts: theworkingclass could
no longerprovidemilitantswitha templatethattheycould use as a sortof
overlaytobreaka new socialmovementintoitscomponentstages.And one
would have to rethinkthewhole notionofthemilitantas a functionofthe
definitionsof the political arrived at through the reconstructionof
revolutionary theory.ThedebateabouttheseissuessplitSB downthemiddle.
It revealed the affectwithwhichmanySB membersinvestedthe idea of
being-Marxist, and theirrelianceon proletarianstrugglesas a kindofmagic
key for understandingall social conflict.It also revealed the material
limitationsfora small group like SB, whichfounditselfconfrontedwith
whatmusthave seemedlikethecall fora 1:1 map ofthesocial world.39
ForDebord,thiswas heresy.Withthelead articleinlS no.9, "Maintenant
L'I.S." Debord announcedthattheSituationist International had assumed
SB's mantleas therevolutionary vanguard(despiteSB's sustainedcritique
of thenotionof a "VanguardParty").He coupled thiswitha campaignto
throw SB out of the Left.From the outset,Debord had surveyed and
resurveyedtheParisianscene,drawinglinesthatseparatedwhathe thought
acceptablefromwhatwas not.ThejournalArguments had longbeenDebord's
preferred of
example empty revisionism:special ridicule was reservedfor
Edgar Morin and Kostas Axelos. "Argumentiste" was a epithethurledat
formerMarxistswho gave in to thelure of incoherenceonce theypassed
beyondthebordersof theImaginary, patrolledby Guy Debord. In posing
thealternative-onecan either"be Marxistor be revolutionary"-SB slid
fromleaderoftherevolutionary movement into"Argumentiste" revisionism.
Despite thisbanishment, Debord continued his close observation of the
group.The IS reproduced(withnear-audibleglee) an editorialdisclaimer
thataccompanieda reviewof Christianisme et revolution by Maximillienne
Gautrat,as proofofSB's slide intodilettantism:40
Editorialnote:It is perhapsusefultonotethat,forthevastmajority
of
Socialismeou Barbariemembers,the Kingdomof God is essentially
meaningless,andalso thattheydo notsee anyreasonwhysomeonewho
thinksotherwise shouldbe prevented fromself-expression.
The revolutionary
critiqueofall existing
conditions does not
certainly
havea monopoly on intelligence,
butdoeson itsuse.In thepresentcrisis
ofcultureandofsociety,
thosewhodo nothavethisusagedo not,in fact,
have any discernible Stoptalkingto us aboutintelligence
intelligence.
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Conclusion
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NOTES
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WORKSCITED
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