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Continue reading →: Return of the Concentrated Spectacle?
In Society of the Spectacle, Debord argued that the spectacle of the Cold War period manifested in two ways–the concentrated spectacle and the diffuse spectacle. The concentrated spectacle was the spectacle of totalitarian power, grand military pageantry, and cult-like fidelity to a demagogic “dear leader.” The diffuse spectacle was the…
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Continue reading →: The Epstein Files: A Black Hole in a Spectacular Universe
The internet has been abuzz this summer with rumor and speculation about the place of Donald Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein files and the extended universe of lascivious corruption and perversion they represent. Indeed, the current hullaballoo is an extension of the sturm und drang that began with the announcement…
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Continue reading →: Trump, Musk and the Spectacle
June 5th, 2025 may go down an an historic day in history. This was the day the day when Donald Trump and Elon Musk began their internecine feud to determine the essence of reactionary politics in the United States. On one side, the MAGA multitudes arrayed behind their infallible dear…
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Continue reading →: Joseph Nye and the Power of the Spectacle
Earlier this month, the American scholar and diplomat Joseph Nye passed away. Nye was an pivotal scholar in the study of American power and how media and information were important elements in the success of the United States exercising its hegemony in the aftermath of World War II. Nye’s most…
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Continue reading →: Celebrity in the Integrated Spectacle
As the reality of a new Trump presidency begins to be processed around the world, the mundane details of the transition of power unfolds on a customary schedule common in all years where a new regime transitions to office, including the naming of the new presidential cabinet. Yet as with…
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Continue reading →: October Surprises
The previous post explored the changing nature of the “October Surprise” phenomenon and how this idea of a single late-breaking event having a profound impact on the election may be passé in a media environment that now mass produces ostensible landmark signature events the way a modern factory produces cookies…
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Continue reading →: October Surprise
The idea of an “October Surprise” is a common trope in US politics. First coined in the 1980s, the idea refers to the possibility that some major unforeseen event elapsing within a month of the a scheduled US presidential election will be of such an impactful consequence it will alter…
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Continue reading →: Excerpt from forthcoming book, Caesarism in the 21st Century: Crisis and Interregnum in World Order
Stages in the Revolution of Digital Affairs Gramsci talked about how changes in the basic building blocks of material production, institutional management and ideologies can have seismic impacts on the legitimacy of a hegemonic order. In the Prison Notebooks, he spends a substantial amount of space discussing the industrial innovations…
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Continue reading →: The Queen of Spectacle
The death of Queen Elizabeth II has been a potent reminder that despite all the turmoil and crisis in the world, the society of the spectacle still reigns supreme and remains a phenomenon of power that genuinely thrives in the current environment. Ever since the death of the British monarch…
Dr. Eric Fattor 