Spectacular!

The Debord/Marcuse reading answered a lot of questions that have been against my teeth for a while. Why does facebook, in its purpose to unite and connect people, usually end up making me feel more isolated than I did when I first logged on? Why do I secretly want the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to continue?

The answer to the facebook question is obvious. Facebook is simply a part of Debord's Spectacle. It celebrates our isolation, for who ever updates one's facebook profile with a group of friends? It makes us compare ourselves to others by giving friend counts, creating space for public wall posts, and many other features. Facebook sings praises to the individual, or rather drones a tune along with millions of others.

The reason I fear for the end of the Occupation is that I fear that Palestinian areas will be rapidly overwhelmed by The Spectacle, in other words, capitalized. Although there is great poverty and desolation in Palestinian areas in the Occupied West Bank, I find it refreshing to go there because I get a breather from the constant onslaught of The Spectacle found in Israel proper and illegal settlement areas. In Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled West Bank, I actually feel like I'm in another country. Although there are some ads such as for Gauloises and Cadburry's, there are no chain stores. God, that is refreshing! And of course, there are political posters advertising candidates for the Palestinian elections that put Hamas in power. In Dheisheh Refugee Camp, where I stay, as in all Palestinian refugee camps, graffiti and posters grow on the walls overnight. Posters are glued over poster, slogan written over slogan. What I like about it is that I know that each one of those graffito was written by a person who made a decision to cover his face, take a can of spray paint, and voice his political opinion or alert his community members to a piece of news that just happened. Although I may not agree with all the opinions expressed, I am refreshed by the thought that their writers put into them. True, Palestinians are born into politics by virtue of the fact that they are Palestinian but by the same token, why wouldn't the typical American teenager draw a donkey or an elephant on a wall or quote a famous writer of their political party?





One of my favorite pictures on a wall in Dheisheh is a mural piece of Ghassan Kanafani, a Palestinian writer who edited the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine newspaper. Somebody put his face up and a quote, (rough translation) "I will not stop until I work my land." (This quote is especially meaningful because most of the refugees in the Camp are from farming families that fled the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.) By 2005, there were some bullet holes over Kanafani's face, political party tags, stencils of a dead man from the Camp, and election posters. This wall, covered with images tells a story of the life of the Camp. Unlike an image of a capitalist "Spectacular" society, it, itself is not the life of the Camp.

Also, in Ramallah some enterprising people have made a café in the central roundabout called Star and Bucks Café. As I mentioned before, no major chain stores have branches in Palestinian areas (as opposed to Israel where you have chains like Home Depot and McDonald's). I am not sure if this is really détournement because most Palestinians I know think it's cool to go to something "American." It is this image of the spectacle that attracts.





I know that this discussion is monstrously simplified and is pretty much just a few anecdotes, but what DO I have time for in a blog? In conclusion I would like to restate my fear for post-Occupation Palestine. I fear that the society will "Westernize" (as I used to think of it) or "capitalize" or "totally become a Society of the Spectacle." Now, once I cross a checkpoint into a Palestinian Authority (PA) Area (Green Line? what Green Line?), I relax because I have never seen a homeless person begging for money--despite soaring poverty and unemployment and home demolitions I have never seen a Palestinian begging for money in a PA area. The extended family or friends take care of the others in more need than they are. I am afraid that McDonald's and Starbucks will fragment the family and community (not that that those units haven't taken a severe beating under Occupation) and I will see people walking around talking to themselves, smelling like their waste and their un-pitied condition because they do not have a family or community that will take care of them. I am scared I will see people without homes.