“The whole world is passed through the filter of the culture industry.”
Adorno and Horkheimer explore the idea of the development and distribution of the culture industry as a tool of mass control and domination. According to this piece, mass "culture" production follows an agenda of manipulating the public. The audience is "tricked" to believe they have a choice, when in fact there is little variation between option A or option B. Novelty is often an illusion and the culture industry is based on style instead of truth.
This quote was interesting to me because it concisely expresses the idea that what we consume is purposely offered to us and we are directed towards behaving and thinking in certain ways. Such phenomena, according to the reading, is caused by the commodification and monopolization of cultural forms through capitalism.
So, we are "filtered" through what we consume and this is where categories, I think, emerge. Going back to Benjamin's Art in an Era of mass reproduction, "original" or "genuine/autonomous" (like this piece calls them) works of art are detached from their original context and put it into the mainstream. More specifically, Adorno and Horkheimer express the way mass reproduction (commodification) affects the essence of art itself in a world where we are all supposed to react the same way to the same things. The way this is kept is by encouraging lack of close examination and critical thinking. Particularly during the time this was written (and arguably nowadays also) we consume passively and normalize whatever we are presented with.
Adorno and Horkheimer explore the idea of the development and distribution of the culture industry as a tool of mass control and domination. According to this piece, mass "culture" production follows an agenda of manipulating the public. The audience is "tricked" to believe they have a choice, when in fact there is little variation between option A or option B. Novelty is often an illusion and the culture industry is based on style instead of truth.
This quote was interesting to me because it concisely expresses the idea that what we consume is purposely offered to us and we are directed towards behaving and thinking in certain ways. Such phenomena, according to the reading, is caused by the commodification and monopolization of cultural forms through capitalism.
So, we are "filtered" through what we consume and this is where categories, I think, emerge. Going back to Benjamin's Art in an Era of mass reproduction, "original" or "genuine/autonomous" (like this piece calls them) works of art are detached from their original context and put it into the mainstream. More specifically, Adorno and Horkheimer express the way mass reproduction (commodification) affects the essence of art itself in a world where we are all supposed to react the same way to the same things. The way this is kept is by encouraging lack of close examination and critical thinking. Particularly during the time this was written (and arguably nowadays also) we consume passively and normalize whatever we are presented with.
Comments
Post a Comment