Debord Sometime after this first meeting and this by Pierre Guillaume memorable demonstration, by what was not really chance, I again met Guy Debord, this time accompanied by Michele Bernstein, sitting outside a small cafe (gone I first met Guy Debord on October 27, 1960. now) on St. Germain Boulevard, near St. We had called each other two days before Guillaume Street. They had just visited an to fix a meeting date. A demonstration artist's exhibition, on Pre-au-Clerc Street, in against the war in Algeria that looked like it the summarily outfitted cave of a building. would be particularly important was This building happened to belong to the scheduled to take place two days later. It family of a childhood friend of mine, whom was to start at Mutuality Hall. I lived with I had not seen in many years. I met him my parents, near the Pantheon, not so far again with pleasure. He had come to Paris from the Mutuality. Debord and I had for his studies, as I had done. I had received arranged to meet at my place, and then go an invitation to this exhibition, and had together to the demonstration. We talked believed, looking at the address, that it had for about an hour, before joining the crowd, been sent by this friend. In fact, it had been where we were soon separated by riots and addressed by Debord and the situationists. police charges. This first meeting was to be When I met Debord and Michele Bernstein followed by many others. outside this cafe, I had visited the exhibition the day before, but didn't know I was nineteen. I had just joined Socialisme that they had been or were still in contact ou Barbarie through Jean-Francois Lyotard. with this artist, despite the fact that they I had arrived from my province and thrown had just come out of the exhibition, which myself body and soul into "revolutionary" they told me in order to explain their being activity, passionate and naive as are youth. there. Socialism ou Barbarie opened to me the perspective of a radical critique of the It was thus with all liberty that I declared to capitalist world, in its Western as well as its them how indifferent I was to this kind of "Soviet" pattern. The very idea of getting activity; and that I despised decomposing involved in politics without adopting that art, in a society that I didn't yet know that minimum platform was to me unthinkable, was [in Debord's terms] "decomposing." Of and I believed the "communist" party to be this exhibition, which could have displayed a far right party, much like the others. a kind of plastic and pictoral talent, I don't remember anything except for the fact that David Blanchard , alias Canjuers, who somewhere in a remote place where preceded me at S.ou B., had joined the everybody didn't go -- and that my friend national service as a civilian volunteer in had shown me uneasily -- was a Christ on Guinea. Before he left, he had been in touch the cross, blasphemous in that He was with Guy Debord. From their meeting was painted naked and in that a little electrical born a collective text called "Preliminaries engine behind the canvas made his toward a definition of the revolutionary cardboard arms raise, pumping up the program." Canjuers had passed this text biceps, while the usual Saint Sulpician G- round, but S. ou B. had only paid distant string slip (made of cardboard as well) was and even condescending attention to it. I falling down. had nevertheless been appointed and very officially put in charge, at the demand of I told Guy Debord and Michele Bernstein Canjuers, to keep in touch with Guy that this blasphemous intention seemed to Debord, who had himself been informed. me the exact oposite of a critical revolutionary activity. Not only was it of Debord in S. ou B. -- despite the fact that counter-productive, but it revealed an issues of Internationale Situationniste obession with Christianity, even though it constitute a rather exhaustive and reliable looked like a protest. I remember telling chronicle of what needed to be known of them about the Italian and Spanish people the situationists' lives and thoughts. This for whom blasphemy goes together with friend even asserted that, as far as he knew, Christian impregnation, of which it is only, most situationists were unaware of and nothing but the ransom, or rather, the Debord's membership in S. ou B. other side of the coin. Guy Debord and Nevertheless, this membership was the Michele Bernstein agreed immediately, origin of a real change in the S.I., which can with perhaps some reserve from Michele be easily ascertained by reading the review; Bernstein, as far as I remember. this membership alone explains the audience the review acquired. In the many subsequent meetings I had with Debord, the topic at hand was never Anyway, I insist on the fact that Debord again the question of art or artists. You can was a member of S. ou B. He took part in verify, by simply reading issues of the group's meetings at Le Tambour cafe, Internationale Situationniste, the change of on Bastille Place, and at the review's Debord's attitude toward art as a separate editorship committees, as well as at those of activity, the need to go beyond art -- the Pouvoir Ouvrier Bulletin. starting with the 5th issue (December 1960), in which an advertisement for the I can't specify exactly when this publication of the joint text by Debord and membership took shape. But on December Canjuers appears (page 11). I'm not sure if 20, 1960 powerful strikes started in my own positions on this matter had any Belgium. After the 1953 strikes in East influence at all on Debord, but I doubt it. Germany, of which I'd heard by reading the Even if I had some influence, it would have back issues of S. ou B. , and the great 1956 appeared at the end of a well-broached Hungarian uprising, in which worker's process, if not completely finished before councils played a major part (see S. ou B. , we met. #20 and #21), we had no doubts about the ineluctable breakdown of the Stalinist After that, my meetings with Debord regime and were waiting for the European multiplied. Traces of their influence can working classes to wake up, so that we easily be followed in the 5th, 6th and 7th could "hang [French Communist Party issues of Internationale Situationniste. Thus, I Secretary General] Maurice Thorez to a brought Debord to formally join S. ou B. street lamp with the guts of [C.G.T. Secretary General] Benoit Frachon." As I was evoking those memories in answer to the questions of a friend who happens to The group met on Saturday, December 31, be a great expert in the history, 1960 with an English comrade from publications, and polemics surrounding the Solidarity, who had just come back from Situationist International, he displayed a Belgium, and the group decided to send me real amazement. He thought he knew there, to "cover" the events and to make as almost everything on the matter, but was many contacts as I could. Guy Debord took unaware of this episode. He then thought part in that meeting. He had himself just that Debord had tried to hide or erase this received a letter from a Belgian, addressed fact. It was this expert's amazement that to the review Internationale Situationniste. made me think that no text or anything Debord imparted to me both this letter and exists that refers to the formal membership the task of meeting the author, on behalf of the S.I. as well as that of S. ou B. That Tambour" cafe, gave his official resignation, author was Raoul Vaneigem. (By the way, payed his contribution for the earlier month much later -- when Vaneigem had and the current, and said in a few words hurriedly left Belgium with one of his that he appreciated that the group existed, female students, because the police were but that for himself he had no will to be after him for the "abduction of a minor" -- involved in it! He thanked us for all he had my wife loaned clothes to this quite adult learned. And disappeared. "minor." But if I sometimes liked Vaneigem's articles in I.S. , I can't remember It was a nice bit of a scandal. As soon as he any interesting conversations -- I mean, that had left, rumors started spreading. I was interested in -- with Vaneigem, and I Sarcasms, suspicions of the most incredible never read his book). Sometime later, kind, were given free rein. As for me, I Debord took part in a collective trip declared that Debord looked faultless. Full sponsored by the group, a trip in which we stop! But it was then that I discovered tried to structure an "organisation" out of there's nothing worse than being faultless! our contacts in Belgium and met Robert Dehoux. The escapade had been rather In small groups (and Socialisme et Barbarie loony, and disappointing, but this is off the was nothing but a small group, though the subject. Spirit was still blowing in at this time), resignations and secessions are real As for the date of Debord's intent to resign divorces, in which each side needs to treat from S. ou B., it is unquestionable: May 22, the other as "absolute evil." Both splitting 1961 -- in the evening, at the end of a three- factions, or the resigner and the day-long "international conference" (a big organisation, charge each other with all the name for a small thing) that was held in sins of the world. Unless the resigner Paris with three or four comrades from leaves, with a hang-dog look. In that case, Solidarity (see S.ou B. #33, page 95; the so- he will be granted, at the most, indulgence called Italian and Belgian delegations to the and commiseration. "Man over-board! The conference coming under the category of struggle must go on!" Providing it is made ectoplasms). Debord took part as per clear that the resigner will set out for a normal, breaking little into the debate, but deplorable fate. The split and then the properly when he did. Then, in the end, he scapegoating of the other is the necessary announced calmly and firmly to Chaulieu process by which each part restores its self (alias Cardan, alias Castoriadis, which is his image, putting all evil on the other's back. real name), then to Lyotard and then to all, his intention to resign. All attempts by The behaviour of Debord, whose head was Chaulieu to make him reconsider his not down, and did not manifest any decision, this evening and the next day, aggressivity, deprived the group of this remained in vain. Chaulieu displayed all therapeutic. He left, leaving viruses in the the treasures of seduction he could; he revolutionaries' programming. His outlined great perspectives: "if only the behaviour raised the question of the group's bureaucratic and retrograde defects illusions that we may harbour about were transformed, etc., etc." Debord was ourselves, and the question of listening, without a word. When Chaulieu revolutionary morals, and then the question had finished, he only said, "Yes ... but ... I of the activist's relationships with the don't feel I'm up to this task," and also, "It proletariat, on one hand, and with the must be very exhausting [to build a workers, on the other. The group reacted revolutionary organisation]." And Debord with a more and more absolute censorship came to the following meeting at "le and a total inhibition. After some more jolts and a bid by Richard Dabrowsky to create a on my intentions, though I was "situationist trend" in the group, completely undisputably a pillar, and the activist of the disapproved by Debord, everything came new generation in the group, and my in order. For S. ou B., Debord and the faithfulness was absolute. I told him of my Situationist International had ceased to be, determination to stay in Socialisme ou to have been; it was not allowed to exist. Barbarie, because, unlike the Situationist One can't find any trace of it nor any International, it was the frame that fitted to mention of it in the S. ou B. review! End of my activity and that "I still had a lot to learn the show! in it." As we had been spending time making gibes at the University, students This "blind spot" and the structural and and studies in general, he answered me, congenital incapability to see it, to analyse "Yes, of course, no one will blame you for it, would lead to the decay of Socialisme ou studying, if you choose Socialisme ou Barbarie, foreseen and then verified by the Barbarie as your University!" It struck me S.I. (see I.S. #9 page 18), which would because, sometime before, Lyotard, who proceed to the final execution ("Socialisme was also teaching at the Sorbonne, seeing ou Planete," in I.S. #10 page 77), becoming that I was always ready for anything at any in the meantime heir of the best Socialisme time, and that I didn't bother about lessons, ou Barbarie had produced. Debord, by lectures, or practical matters, told me, doing absolutely nothing, unleashed a "You've got a scholarship to study Political gangrene that would undermine the whole Science, but your university is S. ou B." group! But whatever outrages Debord didn't commit, the members of S. ou B. After that, I didn't meet Debord so would invent. frequently. But we came to meet spontaneously more often, simply because I On the contrary, from 1960, the influence of moved to Rollin Street, near the "social-barbarian" theses and knowledge Contrescarpe, and I used to meet him in the (more or less recomposed) didn't cease to neighbourhood and at the Cinq Billards grow in the situationists' publications: it Cafe. In the years 1963-64, I was busy with appeared as a reference to the workers' the clearing out, then the fight and the split movement. This incorporation was to inside Socialisme ou Barbarie -- between, constitute, to me, the main interest of the on the one hand, the Chaulieu-Cardan- S.I. and determined the broadening of its Castoriadis "trend," and, on the other, audience. But I had been deeply disturbed Pouvoir Ouvrier, the "traditionalistes" or by the group's behaviour, as it revealed this "paleo-marxists" (in the words of "blind spot," in which our collective Castoriadis), with Lyotard, Brune (alias analytic abilities were suddenly Souyri), Vega, and the majority of the annihilated. It germinated the question of group. the nature of the social link that brought us together, as I was going to realize Moreover, my first daughter was born on gradually. February 15, 1963. Working as prefect was not enough anymore to make a living, and For the time being, I let Debord know of my so I worked as a clerk at a buildings perplexity because of the echo of syndicate. I was still involved in Pouvoir unbelievable calumnies cast upon him that Ouvrier, that was about to follow, after the came down to me, though my attitude span of a few years, the same fate as S. ou would discourage them from repeating B. (the same causes bringing the same them, and though my friendly relationship effects). It was at this time that we met the with Debord continued and cast suspicion most frequently. Issues numbered 8, 9 and 10 of I.S. reflected and gave an exact exaggerated, though it had been great on account of the reality of the Situationist many points, but, in 1972, when I decided International, that is to say, mainly, I keep to close the first La Vieille Taupe bookshop, thinking so, of Guy Debord, and the I was still thinking that our own surpassing evolution we shared. The theoretical announced a proletarian rise at short notice, effervescence was rather extraordinary. But as could be seen on the poster, "Lease for a I'm not yet capable of estimating those take due to a move urbi et orbi," with which times: the part of our intuition, our faults I announced the end of the bookshop's and our illusions being only thinkable in existence. the light of May 68 and its aftermath. But the game not being completely over, and Anyway, when I started thinking out the different ends, only differing by the nature creation of a bookshop toward the end of and the width of the disappointment falling 1964 and the beginning of 1965 -- even upon us, being possible, a few decisive though I was already snowed under with criterion are still suspended from our problems and clearly out of money -- appreciation. Debord was about the only one to support and to understand my plan. Together, we Anticipating what followed, I could say chose the name La Vieille Taupe at my that the practice of La Vieille Taupe [The proposal, and decided what books to stock. Old Mole] in 1968 was different from that We discussed some presentation "details" of the situationists, who were still imbibed and decided not to sell Sartre, nor with "councilist" illusions that definitely Althusser, nor Simone de Beauvoir, but as came from Socialisme ou Barbarie and that "documents," in a trash can. It was again I had shared with them, but started with Debord that we decided on the poster criticizing in 1967, when discovering the edition of the Theses on Feuerbach. work of Bordiga and the "Italian communist Situationists did the main part of the left" that, until then, I had only known, like postering job when the bookshop opened. Debord, through the crudely falsified They were of course present at the representation S. ou B. had given of it and inauguration and met members of Pouvoir what Chaulieu-Cardan-Castoriadis and Ouvrier who had just split with Socialisme Vega, himself a former "Bordigaist," had let ou Barbarie. A common critic of what us know. Socialisme ou Barbarie had become brought us together. Vega greeted Debord by asking I don't mean that La Vieille Taupe had with a large smile, "I can't remember if somehow rallied Bordiga's analysis, but we've been quarelling, or if we should have real knowledge of the Communist left's done so?" Debord shook his hand with an analysis had opened our eyes to some answer as subtle as the question, and they realities of the social movement that we sat around a table at the back of the shop. couldn't see before. Mustafa Khayati, the But I don't remember Vega ever coming only situationist that partially witnessed La again to the bookshop and he was just Vieille Taupe's activity in 1968, thought that about to pick a quarrel with me, which we had been more realistic and deeper than would lead to the final implosion of Pouvoir the situationists. That difference in the Ouvrier . analysis and the practice would spare La Vieille Taupe the shame of being compared When my shopwindow was greeted with to the students of 1968 and later, which was its first Molotov cocktail, it was again with an assimilation that, as far as S.I. was Debord and Michele Bernstein that we concerned, was only partially unjustified. defined the attitude to assume, far from Besides, our lucidity should not be democratic snivelling and by a maximum advertising books that upset Stalinists, the It was just a "detail," apparently probable aggressors. The local police officer insignificant, but it shows quite well the had summoned me, "You're looking for ethical demand Debord made: to put theory trouble!" It took me some pains to convince into practise, and practise in theory, down him that showing our aggressors they to details, without compromise. didn't frighten us was the best way to dissuade them from doing it again. This I now renounced this way of writing. total symbiosis between Debord and La Deliberately. I think today that a Vieille Taupe lasted more than a year, in "revolution" is deep, lasting and popular 1965-66. I also met Alice Becker-Ho and only if it keeps with a tradition. And the Rene Vienet, though their situationist French Revolution was a bourgeoise contributions were not very identifiable at revolution. And there was more that time. Vienet mostly looked like he communism under the Ancient Regime conceived the "situationist" designation as a than under Robespierre. The reign of virtue by itself, which seemed opposed to ideology shows a deeper and more the ideas I had discussed with Debord, i.e., murderous alienation than religion. The bringing into relationships a regrettable "revolution" that is still to be done has no "show off" dimension. Anyhow, this precedent. Traditions stemming from the symbiosis materialised in the 10th issue of bourgeois and Bolshevik revolutions carry the review, the same one that included a only the techniques of the diversion of final critique of Socialisme ou Barbarie, proletarian energy. with the announcement: But if this symbiosis between Debord and I S.I. publications can be found or ordered at existed in the store's orientation and "La Vieille Taupe" bookshop 1, rue des perspectives, I alone had the responsability Fosses Jacques, Paris 5, Odeon 39-46. and the material burden of running the bookshop, and it was unbearable. Just The suppression of the word "Saint" in the keeping the bookshop going was a problem address, on all documents from La Vieille that dictated to me a life packed with Taupe, was one of Debord's ideas. The real troubles, at the antipodes of the rather name of the street is "Fosses Saint Jacques." "hedonist" situationist principles. By the He made me notice the inscription way, I was the only one having a child, and engraved in the stone at the street's corner. I don't know of any situationist having one. The word "Saint" had been erased with a Debord had the gift of staying away from hammer during the French Revolution. I troubles of all kinds, and to observe with agreed, recalling the story of Lenin strolling irony. I used to envy him this capacity. But around in Paris, showing his interlocutor I didn't admit that it could be set up as a while coming to Cite island: "Leur-Dame de standard or a criteria, and Debord didn't do Paris." (Told by Trotsky, in My Life, I it, but some situationists in my opinion did. believe. [Author's note: The first reader of One day, at the corner of the Clotaire street, my draft made me notice that in My Life, as I was casually wheeling my daughter's Trotsky tells a similar anecdote, but locates stroller, he told me, "Here's a photo for the it in London. I don't know if the Paris story review's next issue, near the Jutland is the product of a deformation or comes butcher, and the Dusseldorf vampire. With from an autonomous oral tradition in our this legend: the Estrapade's Maniac." circles, in which the ancients had met Lenin and Trotsky.]) My agreement with Debord on the matters we talked about was total, but I felt that, with the situationists, there was a difference that I couldn't explain. Debord had always convince myself that their engagement in his estimating of people an extraordinary would last if things stopped being perspicacity. He knew how to derive from a gratifying. Debord's personality counted for tiny detail implications that led him to fix something in this situation. And the each and every one his ineluctable fate. situationist ethics, too. But I then had no Nevertheless, I had asserted to him that my means to elaborate and express critiques criteria were more sensitive! Except that I that had more to do with intuition. All the wouldn't set up my criteria as rules. I more because, in their critiques of me, the considered that people are what they are, situationists and Vienet were far from and that you have to get on with them. I wrong according to our own criteria at the had given him a few examples of cases in time. which I didn't put in some people the same hopes that he did. The Georges brothers At the time of those questionings, I was had been one of the most obvious struggling with inextricable financial and examples. From my second meeting with family troubles. I mention them because them, at Les Cinq Billards Cafe, when they were the context for my relationship Debord introduced them to me, I told him with Debord and the situationists during what I thought: "grand bourgeois the short periods of time when those intellectuals at the end of their lineage, relations cooled and then stopped. They trying to sow their wild oats and find a stopped without any disagreements being promising ideology. We would see. . . ." The raised about either theoretical, political or article about them, "On two books and their existential issues by Debord or any other authors" ( I.S. #10, pages 70-71), and also the situationist. My last meeting with Debord preceding article ("The ideology of and Vienet took place, with Anne dialogue"), are reflections of some Vanderlove, at the bookshop, around 10 conversations we had. I gave him other p.m., in Pirandellian conditions caused by a examples in the past where I had been more mythomaniacal boaster, crook, liar and shrewd than he had been (Kotanyi, Jorn), kleptomaniac, without any relation to the and examples in the present of people activities and the concerns that had brought hanging around the S.I. with his agreement. us together. As far as I was concerned, I only awarded the benefit of the principle no Without pretending to totally reconstruct condemnation without a prior law (Frey, the situation, and describe the interference Garnault, et al). of different persons in this short period of time, and far from being sure, if it is On the other hand, I never mentioned it possible to do it, that it would lead to one- because it wasn't elaborated enough, a sided conclusions, the situation a few question that kept bothering me, about the months after the opening of the bookshop members of the S.I. except Debord. It as far as I am concerned was as follows: I looked to me like they didn't fit in the role had nothing left of the money I had that only Debord could play. Michele borrowed through the second-row Bernstein, for example, was indeed mortgage of my parents' flat! I thought I charming, subtle, and far better-read than I would get a breather by settling an was, but she didn't seem to be a agreement with a "bookseller" from Gay- "revolutionary" as I conceived it. Same Lussac Street, who had a huge stock of about Alice, and in a different way about ancient books, and had to move from his Vienet. They looked like they found place. He had proposed me to take his stock pleasure asserting themselves. And they in my back shop and in my cellar. This did it with a kind of gift. But I couldn't agreement was against Vienet's plans, and I was myself far from underestimating the In the beginning of 1966, a conference of the inconveniences. It happened that this SI was held in Paris, in a cafe on "bookseller" was unable to do anything Quincampoix street ( I.S. # 10). The nature of and, in the end, he appeared to be a our relationship was such that I had been mythomaniac and a crook. The stock formally invited. That didn't mean simply wasn't his. The real owner, a true becoming a member, but to be part of it. bookseller with whom I was going to work Vienet had come to announce the later, made himself known through a conference and Alice also came in a rush to process officer! And last but not least, this remind me that "we would meet tonight"; "bookseller" forged my signature and she said it in a way that made me think she added with my own typewriter sentences wanted to make sure that Vienet had done to a letter I had actually written and signed, his job. I inferred that the invitation had with the intent of building a file in order to been discussed, that Vienet had opposed to prove that he and I were associates and that it, but that the decision was approved he was the co-owner of La Vieille Taupe's collectively. But I had already refused the lease! -- All things that wouldn't let me invitation to Vienet. In fact, I think that if enjoy in my discussions with Vienet and Alice had come first, or Debord, I'd have the other situationists a perfect serenity. accepted it. I never had regrets about this decision, but I've kept on wondering about The real owner of the books happened to be the consequences of a different answer. The a certain Roujitch, sixth member of the decision probably implied -- but only a Yugoslavian Communist Party, twenty situationist could confirm it -- that Debord years before Tito. He had been during the had convinced the rest to get more involved war a covered agent for the Third in the bookshop. That would have fulfilled International, and was given top-secret my wishes. But Vienet passed it to me like missions concerning the clandestine leaders you tell an applicant that he has failed to of the French Communist Party. He had the pass the test, but will be accepted been the eye of Moscow, and was keeping thanks to the indulgence of the examining secrets that forced him to live in hiding board. from the Party and the Soviet services for many years after the war. And he was very I had declared to Debord some time before careful still. His silence on some episodes of that even ideally realised -- and I was far the party's "resistance" was the guarantee of from that -- my scheme wasn't to run a his tranquility. He had lost all illusions and "revolutionary bookshop," and even less a enjoyed reading the columns of Raymond "situationist bookshop." I made him notice - Aron in Le Figaro. In May 1968, he - turning over the decisions the SI applied witnessed what he called with a laugh "the to the artistic productions of its members first proletarian revolution done by (I.S. #7, page 27) -- that, even in case I could bourgeois' sons." And I don't mention some manage to do what I wanted with it, the other elements surrounding my relations bookshop (my artistic production, which with Debord, for I would have to bring in was already the main distribution point for the personality of another character of high the publications of the SI) should be colour, a boaster, mythomaniac and declared "anti-situationist." But a few smuggler -- the sculptor Carloti, of whom I situationists were puzzled by this, and learned much later, by the real owner, that Debord had to explain the "Hegelian" Carloti's was an usurped identity! Not to meaning of the remark: the materialisation mention a classical light comedy's situation, of the idea was also its alienation. It aspired and some other less important characters. to be overcome. It would have been somehow a good way of explaining to the public the nature of our anti-situationism! of Ceaucescu, the Romanian dissidents' And it would have put the SI's foes in a bookshop. By which virtue it was a rather amusing linguistical confusion. depository for a rich experience of struggles against censorship and totalitarianism. As for me, I needed help, understanding. I wouldn't admit that people didn't After that, I always rejected all hostile understand it, nor the ethics that require attacks against the SI, as many as there you to be strong and winning. But I got out were, because I never met one that was of my problems by myself. Moreover, I saw grounded. And I went on telling all the in their adhesion to "revolution" an ethic or good I thought of the Situationist even an aesthetic demand, rather than a International and its publications, and I still necessity. And it didn't lead to a real think -- notwithstanding the break in the organic connection with the working class. relations between the SI and La Vieille But my own ideas at the time were Taupe, and notwithstanding the more probably not free from some kind of general critiques of the understanding of "working-class" metaphysics. this historical stage, which would mean for me self-criticism. My relations with the situationists and Debord went on for a few months after the In the 11th issue of the I.S. , published in Quincampoix street conference. The October 1967, there was the following bookshop continued to circulate situationist annoucement -- publications. I couldn't be blamed for having declined the situationists' invitation, Misere de la librairie as it proved at least my autonomy. But I got We had to take back our publications from the impression of being kept under a La Vieille Taupe bookshop. Its owner had suspicious observation, waiting to see how too many revolutionary claims to be I would manage with what they knew of considered a neutral bookseller toward the my problems. It was then that the necessary writings he displayed, and not enough train of hazards took place and the rigour in his activity to be considered a situation cleared up, in an apparently revolutionary bookseller (allowing the absurd way, but in a way that always lasting presence and conversations of seemed as if it was the manifestation of a idiots, and even pro-Chinese). necessity. -- which I immediately postered on the At the end of May or the beginning of June door and inside the bookshop. 1966, Vienet came to the bookstore to take back, without any comment from me or I notice that if you "had to" do something, it him, the stock of situationist publications; means that you are not completely sure you he did not ask me the balance due. This have done the right thing; and that the next stock was then put at the Librairie du announcement begins with this sentiment: Savoir -- located at 5, Malebranche street, "More seriously." I also notice that this Paris 5e -- at a bookseller who looked more announcement contains absolutely nothing like a middleman and was practising a that I didn't myself tell Debord one day or "discounted" way of selling, and was another. I'll just add that no bookseller, in located less than fifty meters from La any circumstances, even without the Vieille Taupe. Which was, of course, a way troubles assaulting me and the of scoffing at me. Today this bookshop still psychological weariness they induced, exists. It became the Romanian bookshop in could have avoided the episodic presence Paris, after having been, long before the fall of idiots. As for the so-called pro-Chinese who was there: once when Vienet was that operated there. Then a rumour passing by, Americo was in the store: he informed me that Debord had some kind of had just turned up from Mozambique and relationship with Champ Libre. Under was discovering the bookshop. He had not those circumstances, I wrote him a short only ceased to be pro-Chinese, but had letter suggesting we meet, which remained became a friend, before he became an unanswered. academic to make a living -- which shows again that, as Trotsky used to say, When I decided to raise funds among La revolution is a great consumer of men and Vieille Taupe's friends for the publication of personalities. I notice, finally, that the list of the present review, I -- quoting the date of people, organizations or institutions the editor's postscript in Memoire en defense insulted by the SI -- published later by contre ceux qui m'accusent de falsifier l'histoire Raspaud [author's note: who, at the time, [Memoir in defense against those who was an electoral agent of the French accuse me of falsifying history], October 27, Communist Party] at Editions Champ Libre 1980 -- wrote in my circular, "Twenty years -- mentions neither La Vieille Taupe nor to the day after my meeting with Guy Pierre Guillaume. To my knowledge, there Debord." This mention had only come to are no texts in which Debord or any other my mind because, for the first time in situationist has criticized La Vieille Taupe nearly thirty years, I precisely thought of before, during, or after May 68. As for the bringing the wolf out of the woods, as it circumstances that provoked the ending of were, by writing a critique of Cette Mauvaise my relations whith Debord, I never heard reputation in the first issue of La Vieille that Debord himself or any situationist ever Taupe. Three days later, I learned that he talked about it publicly. So I won't say more commited suicide. I didn't read anything of than what I've said. The Situationist what the media reported, except an article International is no more. I think I'm one of cut from Le Figaro sent to me by a friend: the rare people who have been formally the testimony of his friend Ricardo Paseyro, asked to be part of it and refused the which looked true and well-disposed. It invitation. confirmed what I had been thinking:

To be absolutely complete, in 1970 or 1971, Arranged since long, his suicide doesn't Gerard Lebovici came to La Vieille Taupe hide any secret: Debord refused to sickness bookshop (1, Fosses Jacques street) the right to ravish his independence. He accompanied by Gerard Guegan. The latter wasn't a "mysterious" man: he was a rare wanted to convince Lebovici to create, that person, impossible to tame, constrain or is, to finance a publishing house on a new manoeuvre. He wouldn't alienate his editorial line. I don't know what Guegan freedom to anything -- neither to life, which had said to him. But Lebovici wanted to he loved, nor to death, which he mastered. meet me, check out the extent to which such a thing was realistic and the existence I never thought it could be a desperate of a market for the kind of publications suicide. But a stoical suicide, since his they were thinking of. He spent almost an health was getting ruined, seemed to me in hour at the bookshop, and, it seems, our the logic of the life he wanted to live. conversation convinced him to go ahead with the establishment of Champ Libre I remembered our meetings at the Editions. Some time later, I decided to close Contrescarpe place. And the matchless and, La Vieille Taupe (1972) and thought of maybe, typical way he had to leave the publishing at Champ Libre Editions a book table, when the conversation's interest on the bookshop's history and the group declined, or, rather, threatened to decline. He suddenly greeted everyone. He usually Until 1979, this silence could be understood paid for all the drinks, and abruptly by La Vieille Taupe's enemies as being the disappeared. And all the guests felt consequence of mercy shown to an dismissed. Unlucky guests at life's banquet! insignificant thing, regarding the estimation of our respective forces since September Marxism knows neither "immortals" nor 1967. Or even as a manifestation of corpses. With those that are called so by the indifference, if not contempt. It's fairly common oratorical art, life converses. possible. It's true that La Vieille Taupe Bordiga, Dialogues with the Dead didn't put anybody in the shade. But the silence of Debord since 1979 (and the public The violence of passions raised by Debord, outbreak of the Faurisson affair), that is, and the hatred of the empty writings that during the last sixteen years is much less attacked him, has always stunned me. As easy to understand. Besides, I couldn't for me, in all the controversies I witnessed, understand it. And I couldn't find the and in all those whose echo reached me, I explanation anywhere. can't think of an instance in which Debord wasn't totally right! I then tend to believe For the improbable silence of Debord him in all those cases in which I personally doesn't concern only La Vieille Taupe, but don't have adequate information, before, of also the entire affair whose negative course, further verification has been made. presence dominated the media and all of society at the end of this century. It The silence of Debord and the SI on the concerns again the event that is said to subjects of me and La Vieille Taupe as well dominate this century's history, to the point has confirmed to me that the SI wouldn't of being the founding event of the "post- attack someone without reason or just to modern" society in which we live: hide from itself its own problems, and that Auschwitz and the gas chambers. The the SI had no reason to attack me. explanation of this silence cannot come Moreover, I never feared reproaches from from an impossible ignorance. More Debord or the SI. If justified, I would have precisely, Debord had among his close considered them. If unjustified, they would friends a few more or less consistent have revealed Debord's dead angle, his [historical] revisionists. blind spot. The end of his performance. That would have contributed to a Moreover, when the Faurisson affair broke surpassing, by oneself or others. out in the media (independently of La Vieille Taupe), I reminded Lebovici of our I wasn't unaware of the risk, clearly major meeting preceding the creation of Champ and humanly probable, that a justified Libre editions and went to meet him at his attack on me could be considered by me to huge office on Marboeuf Street to propose be unjustified. And that my reaction would the reissue of Le Mensonge d'Ulysse, written lead me in fact to join the crowd of my by Paul Rassiner, a deportee and member predecessors on the inexorable path into of the antifascist Resistance. Lebovici knew history's trashcan. But the question has the book and thought it was obsolete; but become academic. The Situationist he hadn't read it, and believed some of the International is dissolved. Debord is dead. I slanders that had been cast on Rassinier. don't see from whence an authorised voice Yet he was sensitive to my explanantions. I could come. And there is no public critique hoped at that time, through the publication of La Vieille Taupe by Debord! of this book by Champ Libre, to introduce a bit of reflection and wisdom into a debate that had become ineluctable. During our conversation, a man with white hair was doubted he was correctly informed, nor sitting beside his luxurious bureau, a man supposed that he could have become whom I identified much later, after seeing incapable of dialectically deciphering the his photo in one media or another. It was media's "news" about this affair. And so I Jorge Semprun, who didn't say a word in refrained from any initiative aimed at the conversation. I left with Lebovici a copy sending him the real facts, or requesting an of Le Mensonge d'Ulysse and some intervention. documents that he read. When Gerard Lebovici Editions published I learned later that the great Spanish the Comments on the Society of the Spectacle, I Stalinist bourgeois [Semprun] had used all didn't doubt for a second that the time had the means in his power, and lies to begin come, and that Debord had the facts of the with, to dissuade Lebovici from publishing situation, including the need to hide this edition, which he had actually temporarily his thought, which, moreover, considered. Three years later, Grasset he revealed at the beginning of the text. So, published What a Nice Sunday by Jorge I naturally published some carefully chosen Semprun, in which the great Stalinist extracts from this book in the 5th issue of bourgeois revealed to the general public, ad the Annals of Historical Revisionism, an issue usum Delphini, minimizing and forging the that was especially dense and explicitly interpretation, what Rassinier had revealed implicit. I didn't doubt for a moment that of the internal life of the camps and the those Comments should be followed, in the Stalinists' role, which couldn't for long stay spirit of Debord, by a gradual elucidation, totally ignored. This book was the occasion without which the text would remain for La Vieille Taupe to write a letter to some deprived of any meaning. The publication literary magazine edited by Maurice of those extracts in this issue of the Annals Nadeau, who had reviewed the book. This seemed to me like a contribution to the letter, buried in the archives of La Vieille elucidation for those who were capable of Taupe, will be found, rest assured, by the understanding it, and I didn't doubt that old mole in the end, when the time has Debord himself would before long provide come. In the meantime, Lebovici had let me the keys to the kingdom. In my know that it wasn't possible for him to understanding, this publication in any case publish Le Mensonge d'Ulysse at Champ called for either an approval that could be Libre editions. I then reissued it by myself, reasonably gradual and could for some creating again La Vieille Taupe, this time as time put up with an accompanying silence, a publishing house, in far worse conditions or an abrupt denial that never came! than those of the creation of the first bookshop. Published under such There was no comment at all. conditions, Le Mensonge d'Ulysse had no chance of reaching the general public, but But anyway, the very content of the extracts its substitute was launched, and the career published by me doesn't seem to be of the ex-Stalinist as spectacular deportee explainable without the hypothesis of an had started. implicit reference to the [Faurrison] affair. More. The totalitarian world that is Until 1985, I couldn't exclude the idea that described in those extracts -- without Debord was biding his time. Among all the reference to the lineaments of the affair, people life has separated me from, Debord lived from the revisionists' side -- would is absolutely the only one whose advice I only be a paranoid exaggeration. On the sometimes missed, even and mostly when I contrary. There are none of Debord's more feared it would be hostile. This is so. I never extreme proposals that couldn't actually be illustrated by the case of the revisionists, which first lost the ability to make itself and only by the revisionists, from the lot heard and then very quickly dissolved that has been cast on them. And none of altogether. This evidently has significant those proposals -- without reference to the consequences for politics, the applied lot really cast on revisionism -- wouldn't sciences, the legal system and the arts. . . . appear exaggerated or overly-systematic. Spectacular domination's first priority was to eradicate historical knowledge in Still, I never got from Debord any general; beginning with just about all corroboration of this hypothesis, but a rational information and commentary on silence that became deafening as time the most recent past. The evidence for this passed. A silence uninterrupted by the is so glaring it hardly needs further passage of the Anti-revisionist Supplement explanation. With consummate skill the to the Press Law, known as the Fabius- spectacle organises ignorance of what is Gayssot Law, which was published in the about to happen and, immediately Journal Officiel on 14 July 1990 and afterwards, the forgetting of whatever has promulgated by Rocard. nonetheless been understood. The more important a thing is, the more hidden. . . . On the contrary, instead of getting the How drastically any absolute power will expected sign confirming my hypothesis, I suppress history depends on the extent of much later got -- through revisionists its imperious interests or obligations, and hanging around Debord's immediate circle especially on its practical capacity to -- echos of an undeniable hostility toward execute its aims. Ts'in Che Hoang Ti had me, without any reason mentioned, except books burned, but he never managed to get the categorical expression of this hostility. rid of all of them. In our own century Stalin went further, yet despite the various (Under these circumstances, I can't help but accomplices he managed to find outside his get lost in conjectures on the interpretation empire's borders, there remained a vast to be given of the passages in Comments on area of the world beyond the reach of his the Society of Spectacle that I published in the police, where his schemes were ridiculed. famous 5th issue of Annales d'histoire With its new techniques now adopted revisionniste (the "little red book"), and that I globally, the integrated spectacle has done publish again here to let the reader make much better. Ineptitude compels universal up his mind. These passages were printed respect; it is no longer permitted to laugh at under the heading "Chronicle of Present it. In any case, it has become impossible to Times," with the subtitle "Selected show that one is laughing. excerpts." We invite the reader, in order to History's domain was the memorable, the understand the context, to refer to the "little totality of events whose consequences red book" itself, in which nothing was left would be lastingly apparent. And thus, to chance.) inseparably, history was knowledge that should endure and aid in understanding, at Guy Debord (selected excerpts from least in part, what was to come: "an Comments on the Society of the Spectacle everlasting possession," according to The simple fact of being unanswerable has Thucydides. In this way history was the given what is false an entirely new quality. measure of genuine novelty. It is the At a stroke it is truth that has almost interest of those who sell novelty at any everywhere ceased to exist or, at best, has price to eradicate the means of measuring been reduced to the status of pure it. When social significance is attributed hypothesis. Unanswerable lies have only to what is immediate, and to what will succeeded in eliminating public opinion, be immediate immediately afterwards, always replacing another, identical, expert is there to offer an absolute immediacy, it can be seen that the uses of reassurance. Once there were experts in the media guarantee a kind of eternity of Etruscan art, and competent ones, for noisy insignificance. Etruscan art was not for sale. But a period The precious advantage which the spectacle which, for example, finds it profitable to has acquired through the outlawing of fake by chemical means various famous history, from having driven the recent past wines, can only sell them if it has created into hiding, and from having made wine experts able to con connoisseurs into everyone forget the spirit of history within admiring their new, more distinctive society, is above all the ability to cover its flavours. . . . own tracks -- to conceal the very progress One aspect of the disappearance of all of its recent world conquest. Its power objective historical knowledge can be seen already seems familiar, as if it had always in the way that individual reputations have been there. All usurpers have shared this become malleable and alterable at will by aim: to make us forget that they have only those who control all information: just arrived. information that is gathered and also -- an With the destruction of history, entirely different matter -- information contemporary events themselves retreat which is broadcast. The ability to falsify is into a remote and fabulous realm of thus unlimited. Historical evidence that the unverifiable stories, uncheckable statistics, spectacle does not need to know ceases to unlikely explanations and untenable be evidence. When the only fame is that reasoning. For every imbecility presented bestowed by the grace and favour of a by the spectacle, there are only the media's spectacular Court, disgrace may swiftly professionals to give an answer, with a few follow. An anti-spectacular notoriety has respectful rectifications or remonstrations. become something extremely rare. I myself And they are hardly extravagant, even with am one of the last people to retain one, these, for besides their extreme ignorance, having never had any other. But it has also their personal and professional solidarity become extraordinarily suspect. Society has with the spectacle's overall authority and officially declared itself to be spectacular. the society it expresses makes it their duty, To be known outside spectacular relations and their pleasure, never to diverge from is already to be known as an enemy of that authority whose majesty must not be society. threatened. It must not be forgotten that A person's past can be entirely rewritten, every media professional is bound by radically altered, recreated in the manner of wages and other rewards and recompenses the Moscow trials -- and without even to a master, and sometimes to several; and having to bother with anything as clumsy that every one of them knows he is as a trial. Killing comes cheaper these days. dispensable. Those who run the spectacle, or their All experts serve the state and the media, friends, surely have no lack of false and only in that way do they achieve their witnesses, though they may be unskilled -- status. Every expert follows his master, for and how could the spectators who witness all former possibilities for independence the exploits of these false witnesses ever have been gradually reduced to nil by recognise their blunders? -- or false present society's mode of organisation. The documents, which are always highly most useful expert, of course, is the one affective. Thus it is no longer possible to who can lie. With their different motives, believe anything about anyone that you those who need experts are falsifiers and have not learned for yourself, directly. But fools. Whenever individuals lose the in fact false accusations are rarely capacity to see things for themselves, the necessary. Once one controls the mechanism which operates the only form of We believe we know that in Greece history social verification to be fully and and democracy entered the world at the universally recognised, one can say what same time. We can prove that their one likes. The spectacle proves its disappearances have also been arguments simply by going round in simultaneous. . . . circles: by coming back to the start, by Once it attains the stage of the integrated repetition, by constant reaffirmation in the spectacle, self-proclaimed democratic only space left where anything can be society seems to be generally accepted as publicly affirmed, and believed, precisely the realisation of a fragile perfection. So because that is the only thing to which that it must no longer be exposed to attacks, everyone is witness. Spectacular power can being fragile; and indeed is no longer open similarly deny whatever it likes, once, or to attack, being perfect as no other society three times over, and change the subject; before it. . . . knowing full well that there is no danger of Wherever the spectacle has its dominion, any riposte, in its own space or any other. the only organised forces are those which For the agora, the general community, has want the spectacle. Thus no one can be the gone, along with communities restricted to enemy of what exists, nor transgress the intermediary bodies or to independent omerte which applies to everything. We institutions, to salons or cafes, or to workers have dispensed with that disturbing in a single company. There is no such place conception, which was dominant for over left where people can discuss the realities two hundred years, in which a society was which concern them, because they can open to criticism or transformation, reform never lastingly free themselves from the or revolution. Not thanks to any new crushing presence of media discourse and arguments, but quite simply because all of the various forces organised to relay it. argument has become useless. From this Nothing remains of the relatively result we can estimate not universal independent judgement of those who once happiness, but the redoubtable strength of made up the world of learning; of those, for tyranny's tentacles. example, who used to base their self-respect Never before has censorship been so on their ability to verify, to come close to an perfect. Never before have those who are impartial history of facts, or at least to still led to believe, in a few countries, that believe that such a history deserved to be they remain free citizens, been less entitled known. There is no longer even any to make their opinions heard, wherever it is incontestable bibliographical truth, and the a matter of choices affecting their real lives. computerised catalogues of national Never before has it been possible to lie to libraries are well-equipped to remove any them so brazenly. The spectator is simply residual traces. It is disorienting to consider supposed to know nothing, and deserve what it meant to be a judge, a doctor or a nothing. Those who are always watching to historian not so long ago, and to recall the see what happens next will never act: such obligations and imperatives they often must be the spectator's condition. . . . accepted, within the limits of their The primary cause of the decadence of competence: men resemble their times more contemporary thought evidently lies in the than their fathers. fact that spectacular discourse leaves no When the spectacle stops talking about room for any reply; while logic was only something for three days, it is as if it did socially constructed through dialogue. not exist. For it has then gone on to talk Furthermore, when respect for those who about something else, and it is that which speak through the spectacle is so henceforth, in short, exists. The practical widespread, when they are held to be rich, consequences, as we see, are enormous. important, prestigious, to be authority itself, the spectators tend to want to be just Should I specify? Some Jews have been the as illogical as the spectacle, thereby proudly victims of persecution. Nothing was more displaying an individual reflection of this legitimate than to take it into account and authority. And finally, logic is not easy, and to account for it. Nothing was more no one has tried to teach it. Drug addicts do legitimate than compassion and, as far as not study logic; they no longer need it, nor possible, reparation of the victims. I call are they capable of it. The spectator's "victim ideology" the one-sided laziness is shared by all intellectual representation system, apologetic and functionaries and overnight specialists, all mythological, through which organisations of whom do their best to conceal the that pretend to represent the Jewish narrow limits of their knowledge by the victims, use, for their own profit and to the dogmatic repetition of arguments with benefit of their political plans, the real illogical authority. . . . victims, who become twice victimized! In January 1988 the Colombian drug Mafia issued a communique aimed at correcting To repeat: the substitution mentioned public opinion about its supposed above, and this substitution alone, gives existence. Now the first requirement of any meaning to Debord's sentences. Mafia, wherever it may be, is naturally to prove that it does not exist, or that it has Mister Jean-Marie Le Pen, who does not been the victim of unscientific calumnies; claim to be a rebel, has been and apparently and that is the first thing it has in common is still being sued in front of the Republic's with capitalism. law court by members of a B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Alliance) section for having The publication of these extracts in Annales carelessly mentioned the existence of a d'histoire revisionniste was followed by no "Jewish international"! B'nai B'rith is, as it comment from Debord! claims, a powerful international freemasonry, exclusively intended for Jews. The last extract, from page 72 of the original, is especially interesting. A These Comments are sure to be welcomed financial newspaper was and still is called by fifty or sixty people; a large number Le Capital. Capitalism has never denied its given the times in which we live and the own existence. On the contrary, as soon as gravity of the matters under discussion. But it becomes conscious of itself, through the then, of course, in some circles I am works of Smith and Ricardo, far from considered to be an authority. It must also denying its existence, Capital proclaims be borne in mind that a good half of this itself natural and eternal. Debord and I interested elite will consist of people who discussed this precise point, and Ricardo's devote themselves to maintaining the work. But this sentence by Debord would spectacular system of domination, and the take on its full meaning if you replaced the other half of people who persist in doing word "capitalism" by words referring to the quite the opposite. Having, then, to take ideology and the mono-ethnic account of readers who are both attentive organisational structures that pretend to be and diversely influential, I obviously representatives of the Jewish "community," cannot speak with complete freedom. but who seem to have tied their fate to the Above all, I must take care not to give too development of capitalism, and are much information to just anybody. nowadays widely involved in its moral Our unfortunate times thus compel me, rearmament, thanks to a victim ideology of once again, to write in a new way. Some their own. elements will be intentionally ommitted; and the plan will have to remain rather unclear. Readers will encounter certain the Spectacle. Those writings are decoys, like the very hallmark of the era. As indissolubly related to a perspective and an long as certain pages are interpolated here attempt at the revolutionary transformation and there, the overall meaning may appear: of society, heir to the revolutionary just as secret clauses have very often been movement of the nineteenth century and added to whatever treaties may openly the work of Marx, which will remain its stipulate; just as some chemical agents only symbol, despite the "Marxists." Debord's reveal their hidden properties when they writings will remain unappreciated and are combined with others. However, in this incomprehensible outside of this tradition. I brief work there will be only too many have no specific authority nor any wish to things which are, alas, easy to understand. comment on those texts. Nothing that can't be understood by those who can Debord will remain one out of this understand. And those who don't century's writers whose writings have not understand have an interest in not been totally in vain. The public will understanding. No explanation can ever remember this writer for the work of art he change the nature of their interests, and made out of his life. And not an ordinary therefore improve their understanding. One art, but the art of subverting society. It will can hardly wish to provide them with no doubt be his greatness, even if this explanations, as the interests they serve are inversion keeps him apart from the not ours. We should take care not to proletariat's way of being subversive. It will improve their understanding. be his limit as well. But nowadays, only stupidity and flabbiness know no I didn't read Debord's Panegyrique. It's a boundaries. It would be pure nonsense to good reason not to talk about it. I'm sure I'll reproach Debord for his limits, as long as enjoy reading this book, one day. he doesn't try to impose his own limits upon anyone, and particularly not on the About Considerations sur l'assassinat de social movement, and it doesn't seem that Gerard Lebovici, there isn't much to say, he ever did. It would be even more aside from the fact that it tells a lot about nonsensical to blame him for the Guy Debord, but absolutely nothing about boundaries of his time. For this reason, I Gerard Lebovici, except for Debord's have always refrained from any criticisms reaffirmation of the reality of their of him or of the Situationist International. friendship. As far as I'm concerned, it was a The only critique it calls for, is to do better kind of a surprise. I mentioned my and not to say better. meetings with Lebovici. I found absolutely nothing wrong with him. I don't know Apart from the personal and direct anything about him, other than what I relations I had with him from October 1960 learned during those encounters. This was to May or June 1966, and the indirect not enough for me to find in him the reality relations since then -- about which I believe of a subversive or revolutionary passion. I have revealed the essential of what should The use he made of his means doesn't tell be remembered -- I had with Debord the us anything about the reality of his passion. relations of a reader to a writer. As He indeed backed the excellent Editions anybody does. He will continue to last in Champ Libre and he backed Guy Debord. the twelve issues of Internationale But, considering his means, his passion Situationniste, a collective work in which his didn't go beyond maintaining a mistress as share was great, indissociable from the if he were a more classical bourgeois. I group's activity; the book Society of the would have better understood if Debord Spectacle and the Comments on the Society of had told us, though I don't share this point- of-view, that the needed money was to be moral order (Tribunal de Lyon). And the taken wherever it might come from. If such revisionists soon were left without any was not the case, let's take note of it. All in means by which to answer in the media. all, I prefer the reality of this friendship to And even their confidential answers were the weird relations the contrary would made at the risk of a fine and jail. mean, i.e., where the alleged subversive end seems to be used to excuse profitable In this context, Debord's evocation of his compromises. But those who never sinned own miseries looked slightly out of may throw the first stone at Debord. Unlike proportion, and I remember closing his him, I never proclaimed nor thought that it excellent book, from which I learned the would be possible to live without town he now lived in, thinking, "He plays compromises. I even don't know what it Arles Faurisson." [Translator's note: this is a means. pun on "Faurisson/saucisson d'Arles," that is, Arles sausage]. Everybody knows that Without any further explanation or Arles gave its name to the famous mass- elucidation, the relations between the very producted sausage, which, though offered rich producer of spectacle, on the one hand, to a large public at a discount, was a and the subverter of the society of spectacle satisfying product, cheaper than the "pure and theorist of the proletarian revolution, pork" products from the small-scale pork on the other, will remain rather mysterious, butcher tradition. and doesn't remove the suspicion of a disturbing ambiguity that justifies Then came the opuscule Cette mauvaise legitimate questions. reputation. Alas! It was the first time a book by Debord fell from my hands. Not that If you don't learn anything about Lebovici Debord wasn't again totally right in his and very little about Debord, the Comments remarks against many of his critics. But on the Society of the Spectacle provide the crossing swords with too many petty opportunity for an amusing review of adversaries can make you waste your talent contemporary journalistic abjection and its and lose its mastery. And even when you unlimited inventive capacities. The have killed all the adversaries that dared to descriptions and illustrations given by talk about the Situationist International and Debord are worth remembering. As a Guy Debord . . . what a glory! But, for the matter of fact, Debord could force a kind of first time, I felt that Debord wasn't restraint on those loathsome outbursts by completely right on the subject he treated. bringing an action against the filthiest, and The critics of whom he disapproves are not getting reparation in front of the court. all at the same level and their mixture is not Then he had the opportunity to answer relevant. As for the only critic among those them, through the publication, not he summons of whom I had a direct confidential, of the Comments. knowledge, the extracts Debord gives are not judicious and the image he gives is not At the same time, Faurisson and the comprehensive. Thus his refutation is revisionists were the objects of attacks far illusory. more dangerous, and the same sordid media displayed toward them a unanimous But, in the meantime, Debord had found a and not less dangerous vindication. But the new publisher. The Society of the Spectacle, revisionists were denied by the courts even the Comments, and the Considerations on the the right to reply, because their answers, Assassination of Gerard Lebovici had been even those dealing with verifiable facts, republished by Gallimard -- even though, at would affect the public order, and also the the end of a text entitled "Correspondence with a publisher," published in the 12th and been persecuted and of the media's last issue of I.S. in answer to a rather well- vindictiveness towards him -- and, at the packaged letter from Claude Gallimard, the same time, by occulting the infinitely more S.I. concluded, "We told you, you won't get serious, constant and systematic any more situationist books. That's it. Screw persecution of the revisionists -- he you. Forget us." collaborated with the totalitarian coherence of the spectacle. It was just enough for a crowd of neo- situationist larks to believe that they had This bad reputation he claimed he had in proof of Debord's treason. Still, for the last his last text was nothing but a pose. It was twelve years, there had been no more S.I. artificially maintained. Debord didn't see in and no more situationists. Even if the time that as a matter of fact, he no longer choice of his new publisher was an explicit had a bad reputation. Others had a "bad denial of the position collectively taken up reputation" and were anathematized by the in 1969, I think that Debord was right to no media, but they needed no artificial effort longer maintain a radical pose that had lost to become one its victims. The society of all justification and base, and that, even at spectacle is not looking for lucidity about the time, was already artificial. It would itself, but it can identify its enemies. have been more useful to think about the reasons that allowed a famous publisher to Debord no longer had a "bad reputation." have an open mind about the S.I. In general, a truly subversive writer doesn't Society has been thankful to him because he have to insult a potential publisher to meet had the wisdom not to see, or not to with a refusal. Gallimard agreed to publish mention, the central role of Auschwitz in those texts without censorship and became the spectacle. There is no other explanation. by this simple fact a far better publisher Let's think for a moment of what his than any other, given its reputation. Full situation and what his condition would stop. Gallimard didn't protest against the have been if he had taken it upon himself, censorship law published by the Journal not to publicly assert a revisionist opinion, Officiel on 14 July 1990, but no publisher but simply to apply to the commemoration did. of the Holocaust and to the Shoah business the principles of his critique of the Back to Cette Mauvaise Reputation, which fell spectacle. from my hands. In the same way that Marx's descriptions of capitalist society and There is no text by Debord or by any other the movement of value, separated from the historical situationist that attacks or perspective of the inversion of this society, criticizes La Vieille Taupe! doesn't bother anybody, Debord's description of the society of spectacle could There is no text by Debord or any other only be mere lucidity. A lucidity that we historical situationist that attacks or won't deny to Guy Debord and that is rare criticizes Faurisson! enough to bring him fame, but not sufficient to transform the world. He knew There is no text by Debord or any other that. And he could, in his time -- this may historical situationist that attacks or be the S.I.'s main lesson -- be pitiless criticizes "revisionism"! towards those who didn't know how to put into acts a would-be opposition to society, But neither is there the slighest criticism or which was very fashionable in those days. public protest against the persecutions of But by making a show of the way he had La Vieille Taupe, Faurisson, and the revisionists. Neither can we find the Translation edited and commented upon by slighest trace of a deference to the NOT BORED! Holocaust or a commemoration of genocide in any of his writings!

To date, two historical situationists have personally and discretely shown me sympathy.

At the end of this century, Debord was able to leave behind him a work whose lucidity is praiseworthy, but which nevertheless missed the "Holocaust" and its negation! In this he realised an uncommon prowess, of which the equivalent might have been in the XIIth, XIIIth or XIVth centuries to describe the social heart of power, but to refuse to see the role of the Catholic Church! He has been the deepest critic of the society of spectacle, and yet without seeing Auschwitz's role in the reign of the Cathodic Church.

An anti-spectacular notoriety has become something extremely rare. I myself am one of the last people to retain one, having never had any other. But it has also become extraordinarily suspect. Society has officially declared itself to be spectacular. To be known outside spectacular relations is already to be known as an enemy of society. Comments on the Society of the Spectacle.

These sentences could be signed today by those revisionists who have some notoriety, and the only notoriety a revisionist has ever had has been negative and anti-spectacular.

Written in French February 1995 by Pierre Guillaume

Published in La Vieille Taupe No. 1, Spring 1995

Translated 17 October 1997 by D.A.

Translation re-published at AAARGH website