In the era of late capitalism, where all images are equal, this phrase from the French director, screenwriter and producer Abel Gance particularly resonates. Obviously, in The entertainment society, Guy Debord addressed this subject since in our societies, images are goods and goods are equivalent to each other through their exchangeability thanks to their value. We can also extend this reflection to information.
On the other hand, images and information are also equivalent in a different way. With the flood we are facing today, information is only one piece of information among many others. They are equivalent since they are all units stuck one after the other, the unit of information presented at a given moment represents a single unit, like the one which preceded it as well as the one which will follow it. One thing we can be sure of when receiving information is that it will be followed by other information soon, even if the broadcaster is no longer the same.
For the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, information is “a set of watchwords”, the “controlled system of watchwords” and communication is the circulation of information. From the introduction of televisions into every home in the West to the proliferation of portable screens in the pockets of almost every human being, images as well as sounds, along with the written word, are part of what we calls for information. In the flood of information and images, a television news, a radio column, an advertisement, a podcastthe last hit music, a sequence of tweets, a TikTok video and so on, are all part of this controlled system of watchwords.
But the exponential multiplication of these products contributes to the movement of their equivalence. This equivalence leads to blindness in the face of the meaning of the images shown, the information conveyed, and what is communicated. Between the number one sporting event of the American empire, the Super Bowl, the various specially conceptualized advertisements, the halftime show of an American music star, it is raining in Rafah. Between all these images of light, crowd shouts, products for sale, bombs.
In a poem written by Palestinian Rafeef Ziadah, we read: “Today my body was a televised massacre that had to fit into sound bites and a limited number of words. » The coverage of various events in our time reflects this well, a TV series, an advertisement, a TV massacre, and the flow never stops. On the other hand, with social media, since Israel’s intense attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli soil, we are witnessing a population being razed under our noses. eyes.
The international community has done very little to prevent this annihilation and we can only wonder what will be done to stop it. Faced with this massacre, it is imperative to strengthen international solidarity with the Palestinian people in order to oppose the destruction and the attempted colonization of the Gaza Strip, to oppose the apartheid policies of Israel and oppose Western support for this massacre, including the Canadian government. It is also imperative to cultivate hope for the decolonization of Palestine, just as international solidarity nourished hope for decolonization in Africa and Asia in the 20th century.e century.
As Rafeef Ziadah says, “Palestinians get up every morning to teach the whole world about life.” We must listen to their teaching through the constant flow of information that governs us. In this great Spectacle in which the goals, the advertising slogans, the expectation of a high note, the electoral results and the sound of bombs participate, we must distinguish the meaning, take a position and act in the face of such a massacre. They made a circus out of it. There is no more bread for the Palestinians. Will we ask them to eat buns?