The Immense Accumulation of Spectacles: Crisis Capitalism or Crisis 
                                                                     Exceptionalism 
                     
                    Marco Briziarelli* 
                    University of New Mexico, Mexico 
                    E-mail: mbriziarelli@unm.edu 
                     
                    Abstract 
                             Drawing  on  Debord’s  Society  of  Spectacle,  this  paper  explores  the  relationship  between  the  broad 
                    neoliberal  capitalism  spectacle  and  the  specific  representations  of  the  economic  crisis  mediated  by  an  Italian 
                    newspaper,  Il  Sole  24  Ore.  In  the  contest  of  informational  capitalism  and  based  on  a  theme  analysis  of  the 
                    newspaper front-page articles in the period of 2010-11, the paper maintains that the crisis should be understood as 
                    a contradictory enactment: being in between a necessary and functional aspect of neoliberal capitalism as well as a 
                    genuine, potentially subversive, exception from it. 
                     
                    Keywords: Crisis, Debord, Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy, Gramsci, Schmitt, Agamben 
                     
                     
                             It is difficult to not think at the recent global        plotlines:  it  is  impossible  to  avert  Black  Friday, 
                    financial  crisis  as  a  marching  parade  of  mediated          everything is collapsing, everything will collapse. 
                    images  depicting  people  on  the  streets  protesting                     However, before Badiou,  almost  fifty  years 
                    austerity policies, home evictions, the semiotic impact           ago,  Debord  (1967)  in  The  Society  of  the  Spectacle 
                    of  rating  agencies  on  the  markets  and  altisonant           claimed  that  under  the  conditions  of  late  capitalism 
                    statements of politicians. As Alain Badiou (Le Monde,             ―all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation 
                    17/10/08, p.A1) very eloquently illustrates:                      of  spectacles:  everything  that  was  directly  lived  has 
                             As  it  is  presented  to  us,  the  planetary           moved  away  into  a  representation‖  (thesis  5).  The 
                    financial  crisis  resembles  one  of  those  bad  films          spectacle,  described  as  a  formidable  mediation 
                    concocted by that factory for the production of pre-              standing  in  between  people‘s  ―actual‖  life  and  how 
                    packaged  blockbusters  that  today  we  call  the                they  perceived  it,  represented  a  radical  attack  to 
                    "cinema".  Nothing  is  missing,  the  spectacle  of              modern  Western  life,  which  informed  most  of  the 
                    mounting  disaster,  the  feeling  of  being  suspended           radical  cultural  theory  produced  later  on.  In  this 
                    from  enormous  puppet-strings,  the  exoticism  of  the          respect, the main question this paper tries to address is 
                    identical  –  the  Bourse  of  Jakarta  placed  under  the        whether the notion of the Spectacle still provides valid 
                    same  spectacular  rubric  as  New  York,  the  diagonal          interpretive categories to understand current times and, 
                    from Moscow to Sao Paulo, everywhere the same fire                more  specifically,  the  recent  economic  crisis.  The 
                    ravaging the same banks – not to mention terrifying               answer  offered  here  maintains  that  a  contextualized 
                                                                                      and  qualified  version  of  that  spectacle  can  indeed 
                                                                                      deliver a useful perspective through which understand 
                    the rich production of meanings and cultural practices              On the other, the crisis is also potentially working as a 
                    generated by the recent economic predicament.                       de-alienating  dynamic,  especially  in  the  contest  of 
                              Accordingly,  in  this  paper  I  explore  the            social  media  and  the  way  crisis-related  social 
                    relationship  between  the  broad  neoliberal  capitalist           movements have taken advantage of them. In fact, the 
                    spectacle  and  the  specific  representations  of  the             identified themes also suggest a potential breach in the 
                    economic crisis mediated by the Italian newspaper Il                spectacle caused by cultural and material implications 
                    Sole 24 Ore. In the contest of informational capitalism             of   the    economic  downturn,  which  show  the 
                    and based on a theme analysis of the newspaper front-               contradiction  between  the  natural  condition  of  the 
                    page articles in the period of 2010-11, I claim that the            spectacle— its predisposition to ever change— and its 
                    crisis  should  be  understood  as  a  contradictory                natural inclination, i.e. to appear as eternal. Thus, the 
                    enactment  of  the  spectacle:  being  in  between  a               crisis   is   ultimately     understood     as   dialectical 
                    necessary  and  functional  ―state  of  exception‖  of              phenomenon caught in between social reproduction of 
                    neoliberal capitalism, as well as a genuine, potentially            the spectacle as well as opening up opportunities for 
                    subversive, rupture.                                                social change (Dutta, 2011). 
                              First  of  all,  the  study  aims  at  illuminating                 In  order  to  advance  my  argument,  after  a 
                    how the idea of economic crisis operates at the same                brief contextualization of the crisis in Italy, I provide a 
                    time as a global grand narrative of capitalism and as a             thematization of the media coverage of the crisis by Il 
                    historic  specific  expression  manifested  in  the  Italian        Sole 24 Ore. Then, in the second part of the paper, I 
                    case.  In  fact,  the  crisis  acquires  culturally  specific       use Debord‘s Society of the Spectacle‘s investigation 
                    meanings,  which  resonated  with  particular  anxieties            as a framework through which expounding how those 
                    and  sense  of  urgency  of  the  country,  which  is               themes  play  out  together  in  the  context  of 
                    represented  by  themes  such  as  ―Italy‘s  Meta  Crisis:          informational  capitalism  and  how  the  ―exceptional‖ 
                    Dialectical  Modernity  and  the  South,‖  ―Crisis  as              status  of  the  crisis  may  produce  contradictory 
                    Social  Drama‖  Telos  and  Antagonism,‖  ―Market  as               phenomena.  
                    Historic  Agents,‖  and  finally  ―Technocracy  as                   
                    Redemptive Politics.‖                                               Italy’s Crisis Within the Crisis 
                              Second,  drawing  on  Schmitt  (2006)  and                          The  financial  crisis  of  2007-2008  hit  Italy 
                    Agamben‘s (2005) concept of the ―state of exception,‖               considerably  hard.  Whereas,  the  country  was  not 
                    the analysis shows how the crisis falls at the same time            directly affected by the bursting of US housing bubble, 
                    inside and outside the general spectacle. De facto, the             it  suffered  the  effects  of  the  general  neoliberal 
                    ―exceptional‖     condition     of   the   crisis   presents        environment that generated such a bubble in the first 
                    ambivalent outcomes. On the one hand, it creates a                  place. In fact, neoliberal-banking products such as the 
                    contest  of  social  panic  and  state  of  emergency  that         Credit Default Swamps (CDS), a JP Morgan creation 
                    allows taking exceptional measures that reproduce the               that works as insurance for capital investors, propelled 
                    general spectacle. In this regard, I will use Gramsci‘s             a predatory politics of financial speculations. In time 
                    understanding of crisis (1971) to underline the aspects             of  prospective  economic  issues,  CDS  became  a 
                    of continuity of the crisis in relation capitalism.                 powerful  speculation  tool  because  by  increasing  the 
                                                                                        risk of insolvency of the loaner, investors could raise 
                   the price of CDS, which then could be sold as higher             assumption  is  that  allegories  display  how  various 
                   value commodities. This was precisely the dynamic of             meanings are linked, integrated, and/or  reconstituted 
                   how the global crisis affected the Italian public debt in        apart  from  their  literal  sense  and  in  reference  to 
                   2010-11:  the  speculation  operated  like  as  a  self-         profoundly  established  culturally  material  imaginary 
                   fulfilling  prophecy,  which,  by  simply  betting  on  the      of a given community. 
                   increasing unsustainability of the Italian public debt,                   In  order  to proceed with my examination, I 
                   indeed made the debt unattainable by increasing the              draw  on  Barthes‘s  (1979)  practical  strategies  to 
                   costs of financialization.                                       identify themes in a given text that I briefly summarize 
                             However,  Italy  entered  in  recession  even          here:  first,  themes  must  be  consistently  present; 
                   before  the  financial  crisis.  In  fact,  the  increasing      second,  they  are  repeated  in  a  number  of  different 
                   impoverishment of the middle class in the last decades           objects;  finally,  themes  are  frequently  linked  to  an 
                   had  heavily  contracted  the  domestic  consumption,            ideological  network.  Based  on  such  criteria,  I  have 
                   which, until mid 1990s, was compensated by a worthy              examined  1000  articles  (both  columns  and  leading 
                   rate  of  export.  When  the  exports  fell  the  economy        opinion) retrieved from the first pages of Il Sole 24 
                   started contracting and the public debt expanding. As a          Ore  during  the  period  between  January  2010  and 
                   result, in the period between 2008 and 2014 Italy lost           December 2011, the climatic phase of Italian financial 
                   9% of its  GDP,  with  an  unemployment  rate  that  is          crisis. Those are the themes that I identified: ―Markets 
                   currently approaching 13% (voxeu.org, 2014).                     as Historic Agents,‖ ―Italy‘s Meta Crisis: Dialectical 
                             Thus, to sum up, Italy has been experiencing           Modernity and the South,‖ ―Crisis as Social Drama: 
                   a twofold crisis, which comprises noticeable historical          Telos and Antagonism,‖ and finally ―Technocracy as 
                   shortcomings  of  its  economy  combined  with                   Redemptive Politics.‖  
                   experiencing the effects of a global financial crisis that                While  those  themes  can  be  analytically 
                   dramatically  aggravated  the  financialization  of  its         recognized  as  narratives  in  their  own  right,  in  the 
                   public debt. In the next section, through the lens of the        general  discourse  produced  by  this  newspaper,  they 
                   newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore‘s articles, I will show how             constantly overlap each other. Thus, their examination 
                   dominant neoliberal language of the market hybridizes            as separated subjects should be understood as a purely 
                   when intersecting historic specific narratives of Italy.         analytical moment that facilitates their discussion. Let 
                                                                                    us examine them in detail. 
                   Mediated  Crisis:  Il  Sole  24  Ore’s  Multiple                          The first  theme  I  identified  is  ―Markets  As 
                   Narratives                                                       Historic Agents,‖ which was especially present when 
                             In  this  section,  I  explore  how  the  crisis       Italy  felt  under  the  speculation  pressure  of  the 
                   contributes to create new meanings and re-signify pre-           financial  markets  and  the  spread  between  German 
                   existing ones in the Italian public discourse, which in          Bunds  and  Italian  debt  treasure  bonds  dramatically 
                   this  case  was  mediated  by  the  most  prestigious            increased.  This  theme  reveals  how  the  particular 
                   economic-oriented  daily  press  Il  Sole  24  Ore.  The         rhetoric of the newspaper personified the markets as 
                   examination of the text will be carried out through an           deliberative actors in their own right instead of being 
                   analysis  of  the  consistent  and  systematic  use  of          treated  as  the  resultant  of  complex  interactions  of 
                   figurative   language  condensed  in  themes.  My                human  practices.  Those  ―personas,‖  evaluate,  judge 
                     with  the  power  of  impersonal,  seemingly  objective              in respect to global capital: ―credibility,‖ and the fact 
                     arbitration (2010, May, 7, p.A1; Gaiani, 2010, March                 that  Italy  is  represented  as  an  unreliable  economic 
                     2, p.A1; Mingardi, 2010 April, 16, p.A1).                            system  that  requires  ―special  attention‖  for  its 
                               Concretely,  their  distance  from  humanity               enormous public debt (2011, November 5, p.A1) and 
                     depicts them as capricious and never really predictable              the lack of budget rigor (2011, June, 02, p.A1). The 
                     (Riolfi, 2010 May, 7, p.A1) classic Greek gods who                   climax of such a dysfunctionality theme concerns the 
                     are capable to shake global economies with the speed                 possible resurgence of political violence (as it already 
                     and stroke of a ―lightning‖ (Roubini; 2011, June 18,                 happened in 1970s) due to the exacerbation of internal 
                     p.A1).  Accordingly,  the  markets  are  often  seen  as             issues  (Pesole,  2010,  May,  9,  p.A1).  The  general 
                     ―attacking,‖ ―sieging‖ a given country (2011, August                 implication of such a theme is that capitalism acts as a 
                     9,  p.A1).  Moreover,  because  of  their  power,  the               containment factor of an otherwise overflowing chaos 
                     markets  demand  to  be  ―flattered,‖  ―courted‖  and                reigning in Italy (Sorrentino, 2010, April 30, p.A1). As 
                     ―praised,‖ (2011, December, 10, p.A1).                               matter of fact, such chaos can only be controlled by 
                               A second theme that I identified is  ―Italy‘s              neoliberal ―structural reforms‖ (Cerretelli, 2010, April, 
                     Meta  Crisis:  Dialectical  Modernity  and  the  South,‖             17, p.A1).  
                     which describes how the global crisis was translated                           A third theme consistently present in Il Sole 
                     into  Italy‘s  specific  narratives  and  concerns.  In  this        24  Ore  is  ―Crisis  as  Social  Drama:  Telos  and 
                     case, two main aspects seem to be constantly linked                  Antagonism.‖ This is a theme that closely resonates 
                     together:  the  idea  of  Italy  as  a  dysfunctional  model         with  the  idea  of  crisis  as  an  unfolding,  dramatic 
                     capitalism  and  its  most  pronounced  exemplification:             spectacle  in  which  people  maybe  become  victims, 
                     Southern  Italy.  As  a  result,  Italy  is  depicted  as  a         villains and heroes. The general narrative conveyed by 
                     psychotic  country  that  presents  two  antithetic  faces:          this theme depicts the crisis as a traumatic interruption 
                     the  industrious,  modern  and  rational  North  and  the            of  the  teleology  of  capitalist  progress  (i.e.  capital 
                     socially  parasite,  anti-modern  and  mafioso  South                accumulation), which creates chaos and antagonisms. 
                     (Campiglio, 2010, March 20, p.A1).                                   In  the  die-  hard  modernist  driven  imaginary  of 
                               The  dichotomy  between  ―North‖  and                      progress, capitalism is consistently being associated to 
                     ―South,‖  considered  to  be  most  important  source  of            ―dynamism,‖ ―action,‖ ―energy,‖ and ―(labor) force,‖ 
                     dysfunctionality,  is  frequently  expressed  by  articles           powerful     machineries      and    entrepreneurship       is 
                     that  describe  how  northern  cities  business  ―fight,‖            understood  as  the  effort  to  constructively  transform 
                     ―defeat‖ the crisis by willingness and entrepreneurship              those resources into wealth. In this sense, the crisis is 
                     (Rossi,  2010,  May  5,  p.A1;  Basile,  2010,  April  18,           perceived to be congealing and wastefully consuming 
                     p.A1;  Casadei,  2010,  March  02,  p.A1).  Some  other              those vital energies (Scozzari, 2010, May 18, p.A1).  
                     times,  political  authorities  such  as  President  of  the                   The crisis constitutes an inertia resisting any 
                     Italian Republic reproaches il Sud (Southern Italy) for              motions ahead or any steering towards a meaningful 
                     not adequately responding to the crisis (Pesole, 2010                direction. Thus, the variable macro political economic 
                     March 4, p.A1).                                                      indexes  such  as  GDP,  the  rate  of  employment  and 
                               Such a deep running contradiction according                unemployment, the  markets,  the  stock  exchange,  all 
                     to Il Sole 24 Ore creates one major problem for Italy                measure the  presence  or  absence  of  the  teleological