The Decline of the Circus and the Marching Band Is Permanent and Final

Will Bradley considers Situationism and reality TV, and how they intersect in the 21st century. The Situationists believed that everyday life should be studied and critiqued. But it is too late for that now. Everyday life as a real subject is over – it lasted a century or so but that was all. Today ‘everyday life’ is another fantasy that we consume. Of course, for the fantasy of everyday life to be consumable, someone somewhere must be producing it, but that is different to living it. And even that trick is wearing thin. For all of you who are not going to read past the second paragraph of this article, the argument proceeds in reverse, starting from the unsubstantiated general conclusion and ending with the specific example that suggested it. Here is the conclusion: meaningful community life in the West is disappearing; the everyday remains mostly as something constructed by advertising and the media; privatised individuals consume the fantasy of everyday life; everyday life is theatricalised and performed; and the everyday in art has become a historical genre.