"The agent of the spectacle who is put on stage as a star is the opposite of an individual; he is as clearly the enemy of his own individuality as of the individuality of others. Entering the spectacle as a model to be identified with, he renounces all autonomous qualities in order to identify himself with the general law of obedience to the succession of things. The stars of consumption, though outwardly representing different personality types, actually show each of these types enjoying equal access to, and deriving equal happiness from, the entire realm of consumption. The stars of decisionmaking must possess the full range of admired human qualities: official differences between them are thus canceled out by the official similarity implied by their supposed excellence in every field of endeavor. As head of state, Khrushchev retrospectively became a general so as to take credit for the victory of the battle of Kursk twenty years after it happened. And Kennedy survived as an orator to the point of delivering his own funeral oration, since Theodore Sorenson continued to write speeches for his successor in the same style that had contributed so much toward the dead man’s public persona. The admirable people who personify the system are well known for not being what they seem; they attain greatness by stooping below the reality of the most insignificant individual life, and everyone knows it."

The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord

“Self-love is the principle of imagination.

The parlêtre (the speaking-being) adores their body because they believe they have it. In reality, they don’t, but their body is their only consistency - their only mental consistency, you understand - because this body will clear off at any moment.

It is even fairly miraculous that it subsists for the time it is being used, which is an inescapable fact, due to the fact of saying it.

It is inescapable inasmuch as, however you use it, it won’t get used up.

This is a fact that can be observed even in animals. The body doesn’t evaporate. It is consistent.

Indeed, this is what is disagreeable to mentality, solely because this mentality believes in having a body to adore.

There lies the root of the imaginary.”

Jacques Lacan, Seminar XXIII, The Sinthome, 1974, page 52
Painting by Guillermo Lorca García, The English Bed, 2020