As specialists of apparent life, stars serve as superficial objects that people can identify with in order to compensate for the fragmented productive specialisations that they actually live.

This schism birthed several factions of Letterists one of which was decidedly led by Debord upon Gil Wolman's unequivocal recommendation. Debord then focused on filmmaking with financial backing from the movie mogul and publiGuy Debordr Gérard Lebovici (éditions Champ Libre) until Lebovici's mysterious death. He criticized both the capitalism of the West and the dictatorial communism of the Eastern bloc for the lack of autonomy allowed to individuals in both governmental structures.

He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.