Meaning of DEBORD, GUY (1931-94):
A leading figure and chief theorist of the Situationist movement, Debord argued that capitalism had commodified all relationships and spread alienation in the public and private spheres. People are distracted from this loss by the false allure of the ‘spectacle’ new needs and possibilities manufactured and maintained by advanced capitalism and purveyed by mass media. Debord was strongly influenced by surrealism and much of his work displays a lively and caustic humour. It is said, for example, that his earliest book was bound with sandpaper covers so that it would destroy the books next to it on the shelves. His themes are picked up in the work of Jean Baudrillard, particularly in relation to the latter’s ideas about simulacra.