Raoul Vaneigem Quotes

A collection of quotes by Raoul Vaneigem.

Raoul Vaneigem is a Belgian writer and philosopher who became one of the key figures associated with the Situationist International movement in the late 1960s. He was born on March 21, 1934, in Lessines, Belgium. Vaneigem gained prominence for his radical ideas and critiques of capitalist society.

Vaneigem's most famous work is "The Revolution of Everyday Life" (1967), in which he elaborated on his revolutionary theories and examined the alienation and oppression imposed by modern consumerist society. He argued for the reclamation of individual freedom and advocated for the creation of autonomous communities outside of the prevailing system.

As part of the Situationist International, a group of avant-garde artists and intellectuals, Vaneigem contributed to the movement's publications, such as the influential journal "Internationale Situationniste." His writings emphasized the importance of the "dÃ©tournement" technique, which involves subverting existing cultural elements to create new meanings and challenge the established order.

After the Situationist International disbanded in 1972, Vaneigem continued to explore radical ideas and wrote several books on topics such as the power of imagination, the autonomy of desire, and the liberating potential of everyday life. While lesser-known than some of his contemporaries, Vaneigem's works have had a lasting impact on critical theory and left-wing movements.

There are more truths in twenty-four hours of a man's life t

There are more truths in twenty-four hours of a man's life than in all the philosophies.

Life Truth Man

In the twentieth century, death terrifies men less than the

In the twentieth century, death terrifies men less than the absence of real life. All these dead, mechanized, specialized actions, stealing a little bit of life a thousand times a day until the mind and body are exhausted, until that death which is not the

Death

Work to survive, survive by consuming, survive to consume: t

Work to survive, survive by consuming, survive to consume: the hellish cycle is complete.

Work

The same people who are murdered slowly in the mechanized sl

The same people who are murdered slowly in the mechanized slaughterhouses of work are also arguing, singing, drinking, dancing, making love, holding the streets, picking up weapons and inventing a new poetry.

Class

We can escape the commonplace only by manipulating it, contr

We can escape the commonplace only by manipulating it, controlling it, thrusting it into our dreams or surrendering it to the free play of our subjectivity.

Ordinary

Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader wou

Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own.

Reading

Never before has a civilization reached such a degree of a c

Never before has a civilization reached such a degree of a contempt for life; never before has a generation, drowned in mortification, felt such a rage to live.

Twentieth Century

The organization controlling the material equipment of our e

The organization controlling the material equipment of our everyday life is such that what in itself would enable us to construct it richly plunges us instead into a poverty of abundance, making alienation all the more intolerable as each convenience promises liberation and turns out to be only one more burden. We are condemned to slavery to the means of liberation.

Consumerism

To be rich nowadays merely means to possess a large number o

To be rich nowadays merely means to possess a large number of poor objects.

Wealth

Production and consumption are the nipples of modern society

Production and consumption are the nipples of modern society. Thus suckled, humanity grows in strength and beauty; rising standard of living, all modern conveniences, distractions of all kinds, culture for all, the comfort of your dreams.

Consumerism

As poverty has been reduced in terms of mere survival, it ha

As poverty has been reduced in terms of mere survival, it has become more profound in terms of our way of life.

Poverty

People without imagination are beginning to tire of the impo

People without imagination are beginning to tire of the importance attached to comfort, to culture, to leisure, to all that destroys imagination. This means that people are not really tired of comfort, culture and leisure, but of the use to which they are

Rest Leisure

Our task is not to rediscover nature but to remake it.

Our task is not to rediscover nature but to remake it.

Nature

People who talk about revolution and class struggle without

People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth.

Revolution

Purchasing power is a license to purchase power.

Purchasing power is a license to purchase power.

Power

The eruption of lived pleasure is such that in losing myself

The eruption of lived pleasure is such that in losing myself I find myself; forgetting that I exist, I realize myself.

Pleasure

In an industrial society which confuses work and productivit

In an industrial society which confuses work and productivity, the necessity of producing has always been an enemy of the desire to create.

Industry

Daily life is governed by an economic system in which the pr

Daily life is governed by an economic system in which the production and consumption of insults tends to balance out.

Insults

In the kingdom of consumption the citizen is king. A democra

In the kingdom of consumption the citizen is king. A democratic monarchy: equality before consumption, fraternity in consumption, and freedom through consumption.

Equality

Everything has been said yet few have taken advantage of it.

Everything has been said yet few have taken advantage of it. Since all our knowledge is essentially banal, it can only be of value to minds that are not.

Knowledge