One of the passages that really struck me in the Horkheimer
and Adorno reading “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception”
consisted of the final few sentences of the essay, because I feel that they
exemplify everything that the two authors were trying to say, as well as
illustrates a key theme that has been prevalent throughout all of my CMC
courses at Rollins. The final few
sentences state:
The most intimate reactions of
human beings have become so entirely reified, even to themselves, that the idea
of anything peculiar to them survives only in extreme abstraction: personality
means hardly more than dazzling white teeth and freedom from body odor and
emotions. That is the triumph of
advertising in the culture industry: the compulsive imitation by consumers of
cultural commodities which, at the same time, they recognize as false (74).
I found this passage to be extremely important to not just
the entire essay, but to CMC in general, particularly when stating that as
consumers, we have given in to the materialistic and false aspects of
advertising and consumerism, in order to adhere to societal norms. This idea is further illustrated when
talking about young girls, who as the authors state live with their “…whole
inner life compartmentalized according to the categories of vulgarized depth
psychology, bears witness to the attempt to turn oneself into an apparatus
meeting the requirements of success” (74). When thinking about it, this is a really sad concept, solely
for the fact that it is true.
Consumer culture, nowadays, tells us how to act, what to think, how to
dress, what to look like, and so on, all with the hopes of meeting this absurd
expectation of what society has defined beauty and success to be. Yet, at the same time, it is virtually
impossible to ignore the advertising that promotes this type of mindset. We see these advertisements promoting a
better, more beautiful lifestyle, everywhere and everyday; through magazines,
commercials, and just by admiring television and movie stars.
Recently, when doing research for another class, I came
across the book “Born to Buy” by Juliet B. Schor. What struck me the most about the book was not only the
cover, but the quote at the bottom of the cover. When looking at the cover of the book, I think it truly exemplifies
the ideas that Horkheimer and Adorno discuss, in the sense that consumer
culture has become so focused on buying into advertisements and commodities
that “improve” our lifestyle, that it’s become somewhat second nature to us.
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