Behind The Masks Of Total Choice, Different

In Societies Where Modern Conditions Of Productions Prevail, All Of Life Presents Itself As An Immense Accumulation Of Spectacles. Everything That Was Directly Lived Has Moved Away Into Representation. The Images Detached From Every Aspect Of Life Fuse In A Common Stream In Which The Unity Of This Life Can No Longer Be Re-established. Reality Considered Partially Unfolds, In Its Own General Unity As A Pseudo-world Apart, An Object Of Mere Contemplation . . . The Spectacle Is Not A Collection Of Images, But A Social Relation Among People, Mediated By Images.

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.

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.

Art Need No Longer Be An Account Of Past Sensations. It Can Become The Direct Organization Of More Highly Evolved Sensations. It Is A Question Of Producing Ourselves, Not Things That Enslave Us.

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.