The Situationist International strongly resisted use of the term "situationism", which Debord called a "meaningless term", adding "[t]here is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine for interpreting existing conditions". The situationists maintained a philosophical opposition to all ideologies, conceiving of them as abstract superstructures ultimately serving only to justify the economic base of a given society; accordingly, they rejected "situationism" as an absurd and self-contradictory concept.Raoul Vaneigem (1967) Traité du savoir-vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations . (Paris, June 1967). Chapter 1: The Insignificant Signified. In The Society of the Spectacle, Debord asserted that ideology was "the abstract will to universality and the illusion thereof" which was "legitimated in modern society by universal abstraction and by the effective dictatorship of illusion".Guy Debord (1967) Society of the Spectacle. (Paris, June 1967). Chapter IX: Ideology in Material Form.
The Situationist International strongly resisted use of the term "situationism" which Debord called a "meaningless term", adding "[t]here is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine for interpreting existing conditions". The situationists maintained a philosophical opposition to all ideologies, conceiving of them as abstract superstructures ultimately serving only to justify the economic base of a given society; accordingly, they rejected "situationism" as an absurd and self-contradictory concept.Raoul Vaneigem (1967) Traité du savoir-vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations . (Paris, June 1967). Chapter 1: The Insig,nificant Signified. In The Society of the Spectacle, Debord asserted that ideology was "the abstract will to universality and the illusion thereof" which was "legitimated in modern society by universal abstraction and by the effective dictatorship of illusion".Guy Debord (1967) Society of the Spectacle. (Paris, June 1967). Chapter IX: Ideology in Material Form.