Tolerably often, when I’m reading any of the documents that came out of the original Situationist International, I end up feeling as though the author is caught up in a desperate struggle between his own Marxist presuppositions and the world as it actually exists. That’s common enough in 20th century Marxist literature from outside the Communist bloc—those from inside that bloc rarely even attempt that struggle—and the Situationist documents aren’t even extreme cases of the type.