spectacle

It was fashion week in New York, and the clothes hitting the runways were drab — plainly tailored and neutral, a far cry from Talley’s preference for eye-catching spectacle.

The spectacle caused the American stock market to lose trillions of dollars over the course of several days.

A purely entertainment-driven environment, by contrast, may erode democracy: When citizens are incessantly preoccupied with amusement and spectacle, they have fewer opportunities to analyze and discuss the societal challenges that confront them.

Kaitlyn and her mother lapped around us with boxes, increasingly uncomfortable by the spectacle.

The BBC neatly summarized the stakes and spectacle as “a high-stakes game of chicken, with the world's economy hanging in the balance.”