Debord, Marx, and Freud walk into a bar...

Yeah, so... in the world divorced from the infinite nexus of data, i.e. the real world, I've been working my ass off (not really) on preparing for the ACT. Yesterday, I received my scores from my second practice test: English, 30; Math, 26; Reading, 30; Science, 25; Composite, 28;

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The concept of spectacle unifies and explains a great diversity of apparent phenomena. The diversity and the contrasts are appearances of a socially organized appearance, the general truth of which must itself be recognized. Considered in its own terms, the spectacle is affirmation of appearance and affirmation of all human life, namely social life, as mere appearance. But the critique which reaches the truth of the spectacle exposes it as the visible negation of life, as a negation of life which has become visible. (Debord)

Capitalism commodifies existence, but it goes one step further. Capitalism commodifies fantasy and sells it by the billions — million dollar paintings, shows exploring survivalism [Survivor, Lost], television exploring superhuman powers [Superman, X-Men, The 4400], etc. Like all commodities produced by capitalism, commodified-fantasy possesses two values, use-value and exchange-value.

The utility of a thing makes it a use-value. But this utility is not a thing of air. Being limited by the physical properties of the commodity, it has no existence apart from that commodity. A commodity, such as iron, corn, or a diamond, is therefore, so far as it is a material thing, a use-value, something useful.(Marx)

The use-value of film and television, as opposed to its exchange-value of commercials and product placements, is the actualization of some human need. To say that some commodity does not actualize a human need is to place capitalism "...itself as an independent realm in the clouds."
But what need does film and television actualize?

It is easy to show that the wish-fulfillment in dreams is often undisguised and easy to recognize, so that one may wonder why the language of dreams has not long since been understood. There is, for example, a dream which I can evoke as often as I please, experimentally, as it were. If, in the evening, I eat anchovies, olives, or other strongly salted foods, I am thirsty at night, and therefore I wake. The waking, however, is preceded by a dream, which has always the same content, namely, that I am drinking. (Freud)

The use-value of television is wish-fulfillment. I watch Teal'c kick Goa'uld ass because in real life, I would like to experience the bodily satisfaction — adrenaline — of kicking Goaass.

( Indeed. )

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Debord, Guy. “Society of the Spectacle” Marxists Internet Archive. 1967. 20 June 2006.
<http://marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm>.

Freud, Sigmund. “The Interpretation of Dreams” Biblomania. 1899. 20 June 2006.
<http://www.bibliomania.com/2/1/68/115/frameset.html>.

Marx, Karl. “Capital Vol. I” Marxists Internet Archive. 1867. 20 June 2006.
<http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm#S1>.