Situationism: Difference between revisions

In the late 1950s, concurrently and geographically parallel to cultural movements in the US such as the "Beatniks", there was a constellation of European artists and political theorists who were fans of Marxism and Surrealism. Situationist International was initially founded in 1957 as a way for artists and revolutionaries to talk together about how surrealism is ideological, they concluded they should go out in the streets interacting with random people in surreal ways, in order to evangelize their culturally-liberated sensibility to others. This, they believed, would wake people up slowly, one by one, from the fever dream of their consumerist conformity. Hence, by creating interesting social situations, they hoped to promulgate more mental freedom and social/class consciousness.

In the 1960s, concurrent to exponential critical mass in social movements in the US, the Situationist Movement was considered a mass inspiration for youth protests in the May 1968 Paris general strike, which the de Gaulle government had characterized as an insurrection. The SI organization by then was not focused on artistic innovation, instead supporting artistic energy as applied to a culturally transformative youth movement, and achieving the political goal of social transformation.

Situationists philosophized about post-war modernity from a framework that Marx got it right with class but missed a few things, and assert that capitalism is beyond just materially vicious, but also philosophically insidious. It has sown alienation, commodification, and isolation of community in favor of fetishized corporate brands and a conception that excessive spending on consumption will bring the cure to that isolation. Their solution was to subvert the culture by sowing the seeds of what may be arguably called prototypical Post-Modernism.

The two seminal books to come out of the movement were Debord's Society of Spectacle and Raoul Vaneigem's book, translated literally as "Treatise on Manners for a Younger Generation". Debord's book was written as a set of aphorisms, a subversion of the Tao Te Ching that critiqued capitalism's emphasis on spectacle as replacing representation with reality and essentially gutting the cultural fabric that was the working classes' last respite. Whereas Vaneigem's book, possibly sarcastically titled, takes a more pro-active critique of how people fail to truly communicate with each other, encouraging the youth to engage in being more socially open.

A ''détournement'' is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and consist in "turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself," like turning slogans and logos against the advertisers or the political status quo. ''Détournement'' was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic called situationist prank that was reprised by the punk movement in the late 1970s and inspired the culture jamming movement in the late 1980s.

The Situationist International, in the 15 years from its formation in 1957 and its dissolution in 1972, is characterized by a Marxist and surrealist perspective on aesthetics and politics, without separation between the two: art and politics are faced together and in revolutionary terms. The SI analyzed the modern world from the point of view of everyday life. The core arguments of the Situationist International were an attack on the capitalist degradation of the life of people and the fake models advertised by the mass media, to which the Situationist responded with alternative life experiences. The alternative life experiences explored by the Situationists were the construction of situations, unitary urbanism, psychogeography, and the union of play, freedom and critical thinking.

The situationists observed that the worker of advanced capitalism still only functions with the goal of survival. In a world where technological efficiency has increased production exponentially, by tenfold, the workers of society still dedicate the whole of their lives to survival, by way of production. The purpose for which advanced capitalism is organized isn't luxury, happiness, or freedom, but production. The production of commodities is an end to itself; and production by way of survival.

The Chilean Poet society that Alejandro Jodorowsky was involved in, documented in his film Poesia sin Fin, is a roughly contemporaneous example of Situationism. The protagonist and his poet friend decide to begin walking in a straight line no matter what and encounter a series of home owners as they march through doors, climb through windows, amble over public barriers and so on, which causes a variety of fun social interactions and blurs property boundaries. However these Chileans do not qualify as Situationists as they are not French, thus they are merely Sparkling Surrealists.

Situationism is *fun*. Then, maybe Situationism is a bit too heavy. Situationism likes to get dense on theory as a flex. Situationism is almost what you'd get if you took Egoist and made him more of an artist, and dramatically more passionate about community, combined with unorthodox Marxism. Situationism is prone to random utterances of a cryptic nature, including riddles, samplings of poetry, lytotes, satire and sarcasm. Situationism likes to take long walks through private property, and when told "excuse me, this is private property," Situationism might respond with quips such as: "What isn't?", "Super Profundo on the early eve of your day" or "Can a rabbit own property?" followed by simulated rabbit noises.

* [[File:Councom.png]] [[Council Communism]] - The only true road to working class emancipation.

* [[File:Honk.png]] [[Satirism]] - While you do little to find remedies to issues, your masterful execution of détournement is vital to our cause.

* [[File:Ormarxf.png]] [[Marxism]] - You came up with an excellent means of dissecting human constructs, it would be stupid of us to not continue your analysis.

* [[File:Anpostleft.png]] [[Post-Leftism]] - I enjoy critiquing consumerism with you brother, but please develop a view on economics. <s>(Please shower though, It is becoming really hard to deal with the smell..)</s>

* [[File:Hegel.png]] {{PHB|Hegelianism}} - Possibly even better than Marx. Immanent critique is the greatest contribution to systematic philosophy the world might ever know.

* [[File:LeftCom.png]] [[Italian Left Communism]] - You influenced me in some points, but you're basically [[File:Councom.png]] [[Council Communism]] without the cool.

* [[File:Ancom.png]] [[Anarcho-Communism]] - A great one! But disrespect for [[File:Ormarxf.png]] [[Marxism]] is intolerable.

* [[File:Accel.png]] [[Accelerationism|Every Accelerationist]] - So similar, yet you drown in the spectacle's politics.

* [[File:Fut2.png]] [[Futurism]] - Essentially a situation, might as well let it happen.

* [[File:Baudrillard.png]] [[Accelerationism|Jean Baudrillard]] - While you may be influenced by me, I don't know why you rejected Marxism. Capital relations are part of the real!

* [[File:Bckchn.png]] [[Libertarian Municipalism]] - We have seen you support the liars while you were in Paris. Your suspicious efforts to act as a mediator in New York in favor of pathetic Ben Morea and his mystical associate have finished you off. You are only spit in the horrible communitarian soup in which everyone scorns everyone else, as you all merit. Never more hope to meet a situationist (if you see one, it will be a false one), STOP.

* [[File:Mediastocracy_flair.png]] [[Mediacracy]] - The spectacle that I wish to shatter.

* [[File:Cap.png]] [[Capitalism]] - The one who wishes to uphold the spectacle.

* [[File:Ford.png]] [[Fordism]] - Ok, this is my worst nightmare.