Urban spectacle serves as a political weapon for both control and revolt.
Evidence
‘Bread and circuses’ is an ancient and well-tried formula for social control. It has frequently been consciously deployed to pacify restless or discontented elements in a population. But spectacle can also be an essential aspect of revolutionary movement (see, for example, Ozouf’s, 1988, study of festivals as a means to express revolutionary will in the French Revolution). Did not even Lenin, after all, refer to revolution as ‘the festival of the people’? The spectacle has always been a potent political weapon. How has urban spectacle been de ployed these last few years? — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 551
Categorization
- XREF: The ambivalent politics of spectacle echoes Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, a natural cross-reference for the reader’s postmodernity project. — connects to: Urban spectacle historically serves both social pacification and revolutionary mobilization. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 551; Preindustrial cities staged punishments as popular public spectacles in their busiest sectors — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 179; The spectacle’s crowd could invert terror into revolt against the punitive power — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 115 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Preindustrial cities staged punishments as popular public spectacles in their busiest sectors
#exemplifies(0.85) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 179 - The spectacle’s crowd could invert terror into revolt against the punitive power
#expands(0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 115 - Preindustrial cities publicly punished merchants and criminals with shocking displays
#exemplifies(0.80) - The spectacle of colonial commerce could convert even armed resistance into political submission.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 505 - Political revolt could be rerouted into mere crime by the penal apparatus
#expands(0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 435