MASS CULTURE IS
TRICKING YOU
An alternate reading of Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception
Adorno and Horkheimer’s original text is on the left.
My response is on the right.
-Tiffany Henschel
In the culture industry, the individual is an illusion not merely because of the standardization of the means of production. He is tolerated only so long as his complete identification with the generality is unquestioned.
THE CORRUPTIO
Individuality is perceived, but not actually experienced. An individual is accepted only if he or she falls within the “acceptable range” of originality. Ever notice it’s hard to just sit and wait for something without checking your phone? To just sit and be. Contemplate. The pace is so fast now. Technology has enabled us to do so much, but our minds haven’t caught up with that pace.
ON OF THE AMER
Pseudo-individuality is rife: from the standardized jazz improvisation to the exceptional film star whose hair curls over her eye to demonstrate her originality. What is individual is no more than the generality’s power to stamp the accidental detail so firmly that it is accepted as such.
NEW LO SAME G O R TASTE .
Things that appear to be original are just different enough to make them appear to be something we haven’t seen yet. Have you ever heard someone say ‘it all sounds the same to me’ or ‘This movie is just like every other movie.’ The culture industry has the power to tweak something standardized just enough to sell it to you as brand new and original.
OK! REAT
Pseudo-individuality is the prerequisite for comprehending tragedy and removing its poison: only because individuals have ceased to be themselves and are now merely centers where the general tendencies meet, is it possible to receive them again, whole and entire, into the generality.
A I D E M S S A M E H T WHAT DED TO
Complacency sets in much too quickly.
Celebrities and politicians are charged with heinous crimes and then cast in a starring role or re-elected as soon as we begin to forget. With the abundance of screens in our faces, there is so much coming at us. Humans have become so addicted that a baby dolphin died because people wanted to take selfies with it.
T N E M N I A T R E T N E S I S R E , F D F O O F AO E K I L D E M U S N O C E B O W DISH.
The secret of aesthetic sublimation is its representation of fulfillment as a broken promise. The culture industry does not sublimate; it represses.
S I T E N R E T N I E H T P D N A L U F R E W PO E L P O E P E M O S R O F E FOR
We’re more connected to one another yet lonelier than ever. Americans are diagnosed with depression and anxiety more than any other country in the world. ‘Fear of Missing Out’ is only a thing now because social media is just a journal with an ego. Everyone posts their planned, ideal selves, and feeds you only what they want you to see.
O S , G I B O S S T A H T S S E L T N I O E P T E L P M O C A S I E IT . E F I RL
Everybody is guaranteed formal freedom. No one is officially responsible for what he thinks. Instead everyone is enclosed at an early age in a system of churches, clubs, professional associations, and other such concerns, which constitute the most sensitive instrument of social control.
INFOR M KNOW ATION IS L B E E D I N G ABUN G E ; Q UANT C DANCE AND W ITY EALT
Ever wonder why we standardize schools when kids are so different from one another? Ever wonder why we do things a certain way? The standardized education system is only 200 years old. Just because things have ‘always been that way,’ doesn’t mean they should always be that way. It’s an unacceptable excuse. The government isn’t looking out for our best interests, but theirs.
CONFU Y IS BE SED WITH I TH WI NG CONFU TH HA S E DW P
I
The prevailing taste takes its ideal from advertising, the beauty in consumption.
WE’VE BEEN B O U G H T AND TOYS IN T H I S C OU QUESTIONS A NYTHIN
People think they need these products. How much do we spend on what we consider necessities? The internet, cell phones, televisions, gaming systems. I need that new thing. Why? Do you really need it? Think about the total energy used during a cheap product’s life cycle. It might cost you a few dollars less but it ultimately costs us more.
OUT BY GIZM O S UNTRY. NO O N E NG ANYM
The symphony becomes a reward for listening to the radio, and—if technology had its way—the film would be delivered to people’s homes as happens with the radio. It is moving toward the commercial system.
WE SEEM T O BE A S CELEBRA TES ALL T
The film/moving picture was revolutionary. Entertainment was no longer live and in the moment. Consumers could just passively eat up whatever they were being fed. Now we’re so obsessed with celebrities that Kim Kardashian is more important than the Dalai Lama or
Edward Snowden.
SOCIETY T H AT THE WRO NG PE
One could certainly live without the culture industry, therefore it necessarily creates too much satiation and apathy.
THE EFFECT OF THE TO ELICIT BELIEF B APPARATUS OF ADD
Remember that time you bought something and never used it? Or bought cheap products that fell apart quickly, or just had to get that new thing because the sale was too good to pass up, and it’s been sitting in the bottom of your drawer for months? That was your hardearned money, and the profits went into the hands of corporations.
E MASS MEDIA IS NOT BUT TO MAINTAIN THE DICTION.
In a competitive society, advertising performed the social service of informing the buyer about the market; it made choice easier and helped the unknown but more efficient supplier to dispose of his goods. Far from costing time, it saved it.
, S Y A NOWAD T N S E T A E GR H W E H ARE T H T , S P GROU
Remember, money is just paper and fabric. It only holds any value because we made this agreement. Obey, conform, consume. Repeat.
E H T S I H T U A I R D ,T E M S S A M E H T . R E E NEWS P E H T , S R E L A S E HOLE H T F O S R E L I A T E R HE . Y R T S U D N I N IO
Today, when the free market is coming to an end, those who control the system are entrenching themselves in it. It strengthens the firm bond between the consumers and the big combines. Only those who can pay the exorbitant rates charged by the advertising agencies, chief of which are the radio networks themselves; can enter the pseudo-market as sellers.
PEOPLE S THE MASS INVESTIG THAT JOB ‘FR
Pay attention to the corporations that own the news channels you watch and trust. Have you ever thought about who owns whom? Money and greed own the media.
SHOULDN’T EXPEC T S MEDIA TO DO GATIVE STORIES. B BELONGS TO THE
A quick glance can now scarcely distinguish advertising from editorial picture and text.
ADVERTISING IS THE PEOPLE TO SPEND M
Things like advertorials exist to make ads look like legitamite stories. Retail stores are set up in a certain way so that customers will purchase things impulsively that they don’t necessarily need.
E ART OF CONVINCING MONEY THEY DON’T
The triumph of advertising in the culture industry is that consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them.
T N O C R E V E O E WH H T S
Consumerism has led to needless competition. We flaunt our wealth and have pissing contests for no reason. Why does wealth equal power and happiness? This is the epitome of the culture industry’s ugliness.
A I D E M E H T S L O R T . E R U T L E CU
In conclusion, I only ask you this: Question everything. Always ask why.
Quotes, in sequential order: 1. Ben Nicholson 2. Pepsi Cola 3. W.H. Auden 4. Andrew Brown 5. Tom Waits 6. George Carlin 7. Christopher Lasch 8. Iain Duncan Smith 9. David Reisman 10. Ted Koppel 11. Will Rogers 12. Alan Ginsburg 13. Laura Marling