The Commodity as Spectacle

Chapter 2

“The commodity can be understood in its undistorted essence only when it becomes the universal category of society as a whole. Only in this context does…

Ideology Materialized

Chapter 9

“Self-consciousness exists in itself and for itself only insofar as it exists in and for another self-consciousness; that is, it exists only by being…

Territorial Domination

Chapter 7

“Whoever becomes the ruler of a city that is accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it can expect to be destroyed by it, for it can always find a…

Negation and Consumption Within Culture

Chapter 8

“Do you really believe that these Germans will make a political revolution in our lifetime? My friend, that is just wishful thinking. . …

The Proletariat as Subject and Representation

Chapter 4

“Equal right to all the goods and pleasures of this world, the destruction of all authority, the negation of all moral restraints —…

The Culmination of Separation

Chapter 1

“But for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, representation to reality, appearance to essence…

Spectacular Time

Chapter 6

“We have nothing of our own except time, which even the homeless can experience.”

—Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Unity and Division Within Appearances

Chapter 3

“A lively new polemic is unfolding on the philosophical front in this country, focusing on the concepts ‘one divides into two’ and ‘two fuse…

Time and History

Chapter 5

O, gentlemen, the time of life is short! . . .
An if we live, we live to tread on kings.

—Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I