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    Concept of culture as industry.

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    Concept of culture as industry.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    20 views22 pages

    Horkheimer and Adorno - Culture Industry

    Uploaded by

    millian0987
    Concept of culture as industry.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 22
    Ez ‘The Culture Industry Enlightenment as Mass Deception “The socologial view tha the los of suppor frm abject elgion and the disintegration ofthe lax precapialie resus, in conjunction with rechaical and socal diferesiation and specialization, have given ise te caleural chaos i efued by daily experience, Calta oda i infecting ‘verything with sameness. Flim, radi, and magaines form aytem. Each branch of caleures unanimous within elf andl are unanimous rogeth- cr. Even the aetesc manifeations of politcal opposites proc the same inflebe ehyehm. The" decorative adminiatve and exhibition bullings of indus difer lle ecween authoritarian and other coun ‘wes The bright monumental seactures shooting up on ll sides show off the sjstematic ingenuity of the satespanning combines, toward which the unferteed entepreneurial system, whode monuments are the dismal tesidental and commercial blocks in che surounding areas of desolate cites, was already swifly advancing, The older buildings around the con crete centers already look like slums, and the new bungalows on the ou skies ike the flimsy structures a international wade fis, sing the pris of technical progress wil inviting their users to chrow them avay afer Short use like tin ens. Buc the tovn-planning projet, which are sup- posed to perpetuate individuals a autonomous uns in hygienic small apartments, subjugate them only more completely to thir adversary. the tor power of capital Justa che occupants of city enters ae uniformly summoned there for purposes of work and lear, as produces and con- Enlightenment os Mass Decrtion 95 sumer, 50 the living cll crysllze into homogenous, wellonganized scompleses. The conspicuous unity of macrocosm and microcosm con- fonts human beings with a model of ther culture: the false identity of ‘universal and particular. All mass culture under monopoly siden, snd the contours oft skeleton, the concep armtute abriated by monop- ‘oly ae beginning o stand ot, Those in charge no longer take much a ble to conceal the scucrure, the power of which increases the more blu ly is existence is admis, Films and radio no longer need to present themsehes as art. The tuth tha they ae nothing but busines ise as a ‘ideology legitimize the ash hey intentionally produce. They cal them seles industries, and che published figures for her dirctors incomes quell. any doubs about the socal neces of tei finshed products. Inerested partes lke co explain the elute industry in echnolog- cal ems. Is millions of participants, they argue, demand reproduction processes which nciaby lad to che eof standard products to mest he same needs at countless locations. The technical antithesis beeween ew production centers and widely dispersed reception neestates organi. ion and planning by those in control. The sandardzed form, i slsimed, were orginally derived from the ness of the consumers: tht is why they are acepted with so lel resiance ln ely, acyl of manip uation and teroactive ned is unifying the sytem ever more igh. What ‘is noe mentioned is thatthe basis on which technology is gaining power lover sci isthe power of those whose economic position in society is strongest Technical rationality today i the rationality of domination. It is the compubsve character of society alienated from il. Automobiles, bombs, and films hol che toalty together until ei leveling element demonstrates its power against the very system of injustice ic served. For the present che technology ofthe culture industry confines itl o san sdrdaation and mass production and sacifces what once ditnguised the logic of che work ftom thar of soci. Thee adverse elle, howe, should not be abe eo the internal lv of technology isl bu tots fancion within the economy today” Any need which might cape the entra control is epresed by that of individual consciousness, The step from telephone to radio has clea dinguished he roles. The former. rally permite the partcipane to play the role of subject. The later emocratilly makes ereryone equally ito listeners, in onder to expose ‘hem in authoritarian fashion tothe same programs put out by different 96 The Caltre Indy stations. No mechaniam of reply has ben developed, and private rane rmisions ae condemaed to unfrcedom. They confine themscves ro the apocryphal sphere of “amateurs,” who, in any case ate organized from above. Any uace of spoatancty ia the audience of the oficial radio is steered and absorbed ino a selection of specaliatons by tlenesporter, performance competitions, and sponse events of every kind, The tal: ‘ents Belong tothe opeation long before they are put on shows otherwie they would noc conform so eagerly. The mentality ofthe public, which allegedly and acealy vos the sytem ofthe clare industry ia par of the stem, not an excuse fori. Wa branch af a follows the sie recipe von far removed fom it in ers ofits medium and subject materi the dramatic enouemenc in sada “soap operas" is use tan instrctive cxampl of how ro solve echnical dificulies—which ate mastered no less Jn jam sessions than a the highes levels of jazz—or ia movement from Beethoven islosely “adapted” inthe same way a2 Talstoy novel adapt- «cfr film, the pretext of meeting the public's spontaneous wishes mere hot ai. An explanation in erms of the specific interests of dhe echnical apparatas and is penionnl would be closer tothe ruth, provided that appari were understood in all its details at part of the economic mechanism of selection." Added to this isthe agreement, or atleast he common detcmination, of the excitve powers to prduce or let pase nothing which does not conform to thes tabls, 0 thei concept of he consumer, of above allo themselves IF the objective social tendency ofthis age i incarnated inthe ob sure subjective intentions of board chairmen this primarily the ese in the most powesfl sectors of industy tec, peroleum, elec, chemi: cals Compared to them the culture monopolies are weak and dependent “They ave o keepin with the tue welder of power, to ensue that their sphere of mass sce the specific product of which sl has oo much of cory liberalism and Jewish sncllctualis about i, not subjected to a setes of purges” The dependence of the most powerfa broadcasting ‘company on the electrical industry or of film om the baaks, characterizes the whole sphere, che individual sectors of which ate themselves econo ically iterewined. Everything isso tightly clustered chat the concentration of inellece reaches a evel where ie overflows the demarations between ‘company names and technial sectors, Te relates unity of the culate industry bears witness othe emergent unity of pli, Sharp dncions Enlightenment as Ma Deception 97 like those berween A and B films, or beeen shoe stores published in magazines indifferent price smears, donot so auch reflect real differ ences tas inthe clasifcaton,oraniaton, and identification of con- sums. Somethings provided for everyone so chat noone cam exeape i- ferences ae harnered home and propagited. The hierarchy of eri qualities purveyed ro the public serves ony to quant more complete I Everyane is supposed to behave spontancouly according 0 2 “level” detesmined by indices and to select the category of mat product manu facture for dei ype. On the chars of research organizations, iniin- uishable from those of poial propagands, consumers are divided up Scatiscal material ingore, green, and blue areas acconding to income soup. ‘The schematic nature af this procedure is eviden from the Fc hat the mechanically difrentied product are lkimatey all the sume. That the difference berseen the modes of Chrysler and General Mott i fun- damental illusory is known by any child, whois scinated by that very Alifference. The advantages and disadvantages debated by enthusiasts eve only to perpeate the appearance af competition and choice. Ie i no dif ferene with the offerings of Warner Broshers and Mero Goldwyn Mayet Bar the diferences, even berween the moe expensive and cheaper prod cs fom the same im, ae shrinking —in cats vo che diferent number ‘of eylndes, engine capaci, and den ofthe ade, and in lms to the dllfereat number of tars, the expense lavished on echnology, labor and coscumes, or the we of he atest prychologicl formula, The nied san dard of value consis inthe level of conspicuous production, the amount ofinvestment pu oa show The budgeted ferences of vale in the cul cre industry have nothing todo with actual difeences, withthe mean ing ofthe product ise. The technical media, ro, ae Being engulf by an insatiable uniformity. Teson ams ata shes of radio and il, delayed only for as long as che interested parses cannot age. Such thesis, with its unlimited posses, promises to intensity the impove ishmenc ofthe aesthetic material so radially hae the ideniy of al indus ‘val cultural products, sil seanelydiguised cody, wll iumph openly ‘tomorrow in a mocking flllment of Wagner: dream ofthe eotl set work, The acord berween word, image, and msc i achieved so much ‘more perfectly than in Tran because the sensuous elements, which com plianly document only the surfice of social ely, are produced in prin 98 The CulereIadutry ciple within the same technical work proces, the unity of which they express as thei trae content. This work proces integrate all the elements ‘of production, fom eh original concept ofthe novel, shaped by its sie Tong lance a fle o thelr sound cfc. leis che tiumph of nvesed ‘apt To impress the omnipotence of epi on the hearts of expropr- ated job candidates as che power of ht trac maser the puspote of all films, regardless of che plot selected by the production deco. Even during thei leisuretime, consumers must orient dhemseves according t0 the unity of production. The active coneibucion which Kantian schematism sil expected of subjers—that they should, fromm the relate sensuous mulkpicty to fundamen concepts—is denied to ‘he subjet by industry, Ie purveys schemata its fis service othe cu ‘omer Acconling to Kanan schemata sciet mechanism within the psyche preformed immediate data ofc them inc che sytem of pure rae son, That seit has now been unraveled, Although the operations ofthe mechanism appear tobe planned by those who supply the data, the cl ture indus, the planning isin act imposed on the industey bythe ner tia ofa society teational despite alli rationalization, and this calamitous tendency in pasing though the agencies of business" takes on the shrewd intentionaley peculiar o them, For the consumer there i nothing left to casi, sine the elasifction ha already been preempted by the schematism of production. Ths deamless at forthe people fulls the

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