Our 'Augmented Survival'

Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle' addresses our current culture of consumerism. Though never directly referencing zombies at any point, the parallels between his description of our current economic structure and the undead are quite clear. What I took from this reading was the growth of the 'commodity' has overtaken us slowly through time and it is now not just an aspect of our lives, but a driving force in our very existence.

Debord uses the term 'augmented survival' quite a bit in the reading, in essence stating that the commodity has become so commonplace, so integrated in our lives, that our survival is contingent on it. He best describes this in the opening sentence of paragraph 44: 'The spectacle is a permanent opium war waged to make it impossible to distinguish goods from commodities, or true satisfaction from a survival that increases according to its own logic.' In other words, like a drug addict cannot function without a fix, we cannot function without our commodities or luxuries, and while some may consider our consumerism a result of fulfilling satisfaction, it can also be interpreted as a necessity of our continued existence.

These comments should largely familiar to us after previous Marxist readings, as this is yet another reading depicting capitalism as the great evil tyrant that we all are slaves too. But as it pertains to this class, the commodity is quite similar to the zombie in that it once was rare, in the pre-industrial era, but spread like a virus that all of us have apparently caught. And on another note, aren't we all fascinated with some sort of product (be it music, video games, movies, books, etc.)? Just like everyone in this class is so fascinated with zombies? Look, it's another parallel!

All joking aside, in society today, we all do rely on goods and luxuries, who wouldn't with what's out there? But to say we couldn't survive without them seems foolish. Admittedly, in a recession, I have witnessed far too many clinging to their own luxuries get bogged down in debt and lose sight of the important things of life. But most, including my family, have learned to cut costs and do without the luxury of satellite TV and going out to the movies all the time. So while, yes, we love our 'commodities', it's entirely possible for us to exist without them. We just don't like it very much. To be honest, making a comparison between commodities and zombies doesn't really make me less enthused about commodities. Because zombies are awesome.