Spectacle of 9/11: Through the Lens of deBord

"The spectacle is able to subject human beings to itself because the economy has already totally subjugated them. It is nothing other than the economy developing for itself. It is at once a faithful reflection of the production of things and a distorting objectification of the producers."

--Guy deBord




















Josiah and I discussed how deBord's conception of Spectacle related to the events of 9/11. The above aphorism is a suitable commentary on the commodification of the event. As deBord indicates, the actual occurrence of people dying in the collapse of buildings has been obfuscated by the economy of spectacle. Instead, what has become preeminent are the appearances, political maneuverings, and capitalization of power that has occurred in response to the terrorist attacks.

There has certainly been an "objectification of the producers," both of the incident itself and of the ensuing spectacle. Blame for the tragedy gets mercilessly thrust upon political adversaries or maligned ethnicities, but the blame for the spectacle is so far-reaching and all-encompassing that it's difficult to truly assign responsibility or authorship for the circus to any one entity.


















Who is to blame for the endless media cycle that regurgitates tragedy as entertainment and masquerades spectacle as information? news networks? the public, hungry for the consumption of the spectacle as a facet of the economy they are used to and subjected by?