Trump, the State of the Union & the Society of the Spectacle
The Society of the Spectacle was a book by Guy Debord (1967) that argued that capitalist society was now focused on images rather than reality. Hence advertising provided a framework for what was ‘real’. Beyond this was a political movement, Situationism. Verso (2024) have recently published writing on the Situationists, Leaving the Twentieth Century by McKenzie Wark.
An essay in a recent issue of the London Review of Books, argues that the second Trump Presidency is all about image and smartphones rather than political substance. Politics has always had an element of theatre but on this analysis Trump is taking it to a new level.
Hence the Oval Office meetings as reality TV, including the bullying of Zelenskyy.
In his first weeks back in the Oval Office Trump has issued a slew of reactionary and regressive diktats, including an attempt to re-name the Gulf of Mexico, and a fresh attempt to ‘buy’ Greenland. A lot of the diktats will have a harsh impact- as they are designed to do. What Trump is interested in is the spectacle of the pronouncements and keeping himself firmly in the news.
It’s not the only analysis of Trump of course but it’s a more interesting perspective than is likely to be found in most of the MSM
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