The
contemporary culture and society in America are mainly under the control of
capitalism. For me, capitalism is overemphasizing the use of money in these
recent years. Money, and amount of products an individual has owned, now becomes
a measurement to judge his/her life quality and achievement. Living in the
system of capitalism also tells us that more money gains more power to control
the “spectacles”.
Guy
Debord, one of the famous participants in the Situationists movement, believed
that everyday life is connected with spectacles. As capitalism has became a part
of our society so far, this system is taking over the spectacles (mass media, advertisements, entertainment… etc.), furthermore,
limiting people’s creativity of art to their everyday life.
To fight against the modern capitalism, the Situationists applied
a technique called détournement. Personally, I think détournement is a very
effective way to transmit the message to the audience. My thought is similar
with Zack Malitz’s explanation about why détournement works well in his
article, Détournement or Culture Jamming.
Because people are sensitive with the familiar things around them, changing and
mocking a cultural image can more easily bring up public attention and trigger audience
to think about the related issue.
Another method I want
to talk about is Identity Correction. Its goal is to force the target to face
its problem by embarrassing it. This is also a powerful way; however, it can
cause some unexpected side effect. A perfect example is the Yes Men and their
impersonation to Dow Chemical. They successfully humiliated the company; yet
they might hurt the victims’ families again even though they did not show any related clips
in their documentary film.
The action of
Situationists helps us to rethink any issue existing in our modern society, and
it encourages everyone to participate. But people should be award of possible
negative consequences when practicing with the Situationists movement.
Certainly, the Yes Man did a great job on embarrassing Dow Chemical, but I
wouldn’t think the people that had suffered from the disaster enjoyed or
appreciated what they did.
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