Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Horkheimer and Adorno - Tlloyd
“The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” by Max Horkeimer and Theodor Adorno circulates a theme the theme of consumerism and capitalist society. This is a theme that the majority of our authors have attacked in various ways. In reading the article, we are once again reminded of the notion that America is a consumer based society. This brings me back to the concept of the "cult of the new" and how everything in society is commodified. Bigger, Better, Faster. Thats what American's want. We are also reminded that the media feeds us the idea that we need these Bigger, Better, Faster things when in reality we most likely don't. We have somehow managed to commodify everything; as Barthes discusses in his essay "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" we have lost an aura. Nothing is original anymore. I believe it was YankeeDoodle13 who brought up movies, but I think they are a perfect example of reproduction. Some close family friends are movie producers and I have spoken to them about this. They will both argue that EVERY plot line has been done, no producers are forced to make an old plot new and interesting. Are we at a point where we can only improve on what society already has or is there still room for new inventions? Can you think of anything that is truly new and original today? If so please comment and post below. There are benefits to capitalism but when the benefit is only financial, I find it troublesome to believe that it is something we truly need.
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“The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorono address America’s capitalistic society and its structure. In terms of the notion of bigger, better, faster that you speak of in relation to hyperstimulation, I agree that there comes a point where the new has repeated the old. Yet I believe that new inventions in terms of technology have certainly progressed and changed. However, I recall in one of my film classes we spoke about the notion that no idea for a movie is new. All ideas and genres have been made and all plots are just recycled and presented in a different manner.
ReplyDeleteYou pointed out that you find it troublesome that people believe they need materials that derive from our capitalistic society. Certainly, there is a fine line between want and need. What worries me is that we are in an age where everything is on the Internet. From social life (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in) to romantic life (online dating sites, shopping for a new look) to entertainment (Netflix, ITunes) we are so dependent on cyberspace. It is getting to the point where it is becoming a cultural norm to do everyday tasks on a computer. Even for school we need a computer to print assignments and blog on websites such as this or blackboard. To get an education we now need and are required to have these expensive materialistic items that are products of our capitalistic society. This results in furthering the divide between class structures, which relates to what Marx was discussing in relation to the “Golden Rule. ”What we think and how we think have altered as we have become more and more dependent on commodities. We no longer control our own thoughts; the media does this for us. According to CBS, an average person may see 5.000 ads per day. A large percentage of these are selling commodities. That amount blew me away. If we want these commodities so badly, there would not be as many advertisements bombarding us every day.
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