One misconception is that the situationists were incomprehensible Marxist intellectuals and therefore have nothing to offer the masses of people waiting for the simple and practical ideas of the anarchists. (The situationists, however, did not call themselves communists due to its popular association with Communist Parties.) Anarchists in the United States often have a number of misconceptions regarding the SI. The situationists could be termed anti-state communists: they were heavily influenced by Marx and did not identify with the anarchist tradition, yet shared the anarchist opposition to the state. “All kinds of recent experiences have shown the recuperated confusionism of the term ‘anarchist,’ and it seems to me that we must oppose it everywhere,” wrote Debord in 1968. The situationists, however, were not anarchists. The SI’s influence in the United States is most noticeable in the anarchist milieu. Another situationist claim, made in 1964 in IS #9, is in many ways far grander: “Ours is the best effort toward getting out of the twentieth century.” This essay will inevitably present some of the grounds on which to judge the validity of this latter claim. The British anti-state communist journal Aufheben, for example, feels that while it may not be this century’s Capital, it is one of the few books that could make such a claim. While Debord was certainly not known for his modesty, many who are familiar with his book, including myself, are tempted to agree with him. Debord said of The Society of the Spectacle: “there have doubtless not been three books of social criticism of such importance in the last hundred years.” Debord was perhaps thinking of Marx’s Capital, the first volume of which was published in 1867, exactly 100 years prior to the publication of The Society of the Spectacle. The two other texts that are essential to an understanding of the SI’s theory are The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord (the SI’s leading theorist throughout its existence) and The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem. Selections from the journal’s twelve issues have been translated and published by Ken Knabb as the Situationist International Anthology. The Situationist International (SI) published a journal called Internationale Situationniste (IS). The situationists are best known for their radical political theory and their influence on the May 1968 student and worker revolts in France.
The Situationist International (1957–1972) was a relatively small yet influential Paris-based group that had its origins in the avant garde artistic tradition. “Presented with the alternative of love or a garbage disposal unit, young people of all countries have chosen the garbage disposal unit.”
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