The spectacle is Socrates’ model of philosophic vision; this vision is both affective and cognitive. The spectacle is something whose meaning does not depend upon the conventional perspective of the knower; i.e it cannot be something that is recognised as a generic object. The journey to see the spectacle is presented in The Republic by means of the analogy of the cave. It is a journey by which the traveller escapes from the bondage of conventional habits. A spectacle an event that brings about change. Changes produces feelings.
Nothing could be more unlike the contemporary spectacles presented by commodities, which are fashioned in order to satisfy conventional opinion. The new commodity is intended to disrupt, but to disrupt and displace those commodities currently in good currency and in so doing reinforce the conventional perspective of the consumer. For many people the English landscape offers a relaxing alternative to consumerism, but for others the landscape halts the traveller and puts the commodity culture into question.
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