Scan barcode
roxannazsan's review
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
At times it sounds borderline conspiratorial. Humouring at times
devind9bde's review
3.0
The Culture Industry contains 9 essays by Adorno, which are as follows:
1 - On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening
2 - The Schema of Mass Culture
3 - Culture Industry Reconsidered
4 - Culture and Administration
5 - Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda
6 - How to Look at Television
7 - Transparencies on Film
8 - Free Time
9 - Resignation
I enjoyed 5, 8, and 9 the most. While on the surface Adorno appears to be a conservative thinker, he is directly opposed to maintaining the status quo, which conservatism upholds. That said, his views are tilted by his life as a man of leisure (he inherited wealth of sufficient size to allow him to pursue music and philosophy with ease). Overall I think his ideas are somewhat impenetrable, but perhaps that is a part of their strength.
Quotes:
"With every gesture the pupil (of a bourgeois education) is given to understand that what is most important is understanding the demands of 'real life' and fitting oneself properly for the competitive realm, and that the ideals themselves were either to be taken as a confirmation of this life or were to be immediately placed in its service."
"As an attempt on the part of the powerless to acquire power through their own intelligence, intrigue is the aesthetic cipher for the bourgeois triumph over the feudal order, the triumph of calculation and money over the static wealth of land and the immediate repression through armed force."
"Human dependence and servitude, the vanishing point of the culture industry, could scarcely be more faithfully described than by the American interviewee who was of the opinion that the dilemmas of the contemporary epoch would end if people would simply follow the lead of prominent personalities."
"It is not possible, however, to be blind to the fact that the useful - that which is of advantage to man in all previous history - is nothing immediate, existing for its own sake, but rather that within the total system which has its eye directed toward profit. The useful per se has been relegated to a secondary position, where it is produced by the machinery of the system as well. There is hardly another point to which the consciousness of society is so allergic as it is to this one."
"Culture long ago evolved into its own contradiction, the congealed content of educational privilege; for that reason it now takes its place within the material production process as an administrated supplement to it."
"The narcissistic gain provided by fascist propaganda is obvious. It suggests continuously and sometimes in rather devious ways, that the follower, simply through belonging to the in-group, is better, higher and purer than those who are excluded. At the same time, any kind of critique or self-awareness is resented as a narcissistic loss and elicits rage."
"The leader can guess the psychological wants and needs of those susceptible to his propaganda because he resembles them psychologically, and is distinguished from them by a capacity to express without inhibitions what is latent in them, rather than by any intrinsic superiority. The leaders are generally oral character types, with a compulsion to speak incessantly and to befool the others."
"Every spectator of a television mystery knows with absolute certainty how it is going to end. Tension is but superficially maintained and is unlikely to have a serious effect any more. On the contrary, the spectator feels on safe ground all the time. This longing for 'feeling on safe ground' - reflecting the infantile need for protection, rather than the desire for a thrill - is catered to. The element of excitement is preserved only with tongue in cheek. Such changes fall in line with the potential change from a freely competitive to a virtually 'closed' society into which one must be admitted or from which one fears to be rejected. Everything somehow appears 'predestined'."
"Incidentally the expression 'free time' or 'spare time' originated only recently - its precursor, the term 'leisure' denoted the privilege of an unconstrained, comfortable lifestyle, hence something qualitatively different and far more auspicious..."
"Boredom is a function of life which is lived under the compulsion to work, and under the strict division of labor. It need not be so. Whenever behavior in spare time is truly autonomous, determined by free people for themselves, boredom rarely figures..."
"I speak as one who has had the rare opportunity to follow the path of his own intentions and to fashion his work accordingly. (...) If free time really was to become just that state of affairs in which everyone could enjoy what was once the prerogative of a few (...) then I would picture it after my own experience of life outside work, although given different conditions, this model would in its turn necessarily alter."
"For the individual, life is made easier through capitulation to the collective with which he identifies. He is spared the cognition of his impotence; within the circle of their own company, the few become the many. It is this act - not unconfused thinking - which is resignation. (...) In contrast, the uncompromising critical thinker, who neither superscribes his conscience nor permits himself to be terrorized into action, is in truth the one who does not give up."
"Open thinking points beyond itself. For its part, such thinking takes a position as a figuration of praxis which is more closely related to a praxis truly involved in change than in a position of mere obedience for the sake of praxis. Beyond all specialized and particular content, thinking is actually and above all the force of resistance, alienated from resistance only with great effort."
1 - On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening
2 - The Schema of Mass Culture
3 - Culture Industry Reconsidered
4 - Culture and Administration
5 - Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda
6 - How to Look at Television
7 - Transparencies on Film
8 - Free Time
9 - Resignation
I enjoyed 5, 8, and 9 the most. While on the surface Adorno appears to be a conservative thinker, he is directly opposed to maintaining the status quo, which conservatism upholds. That said, his views are tilted by his life as a man of leisure (he inherited wealth of sufficient size to allow him to pursue music and philosophy with ease). Overall I think his ideas are somewhat impenetrable, but perhaps that is a part of their strength.
Quotes:
"With every gesture the pupil (of a bourgeois education) is given to understand that what is most important is understanding the demands of 'real life' and fitting oneself properly for the competitive realm, and that the ideals themselves were either to be taken as a confirmation of this life or were to be immediately placed in its service."
"As an attempt on the part of the powerless to acquire power through their own intelligence, intrigue is the aesthetic cipher for the bourgeois triumph over the feudal order, the triumph of calculation and money over the static wealth of land and the immediate repression through armed force."
"Human dependence and servitude, the vanishing point of the culture industry, could scarcely be more faithfully described than by the American interviewee who was of the opinion that the dilemmas of the contemporary epoch would end if people would simply follow the lead of prominent personalities."
"It is not possible, however, to be blind to the fact that the useful - that which is of advantage to man in all previous history - is nothing immediate, existing for its own sake, but rather that within the total system which has its eye directed toward profit. The useful per se has been relegated to a secondary position, where it is produced by the machinery of the system as well. There is hardly another point to which the consciousness of society is so allergic as it is to this one."
"Culture long ago evolved into its own contradiction, the congealed content of educational privilege; for that reason it now takes its place within the material production process as an administrated supplement to it."
"The narcissistic gain provided by fascist propaganda is obvious. It suggests continuously and sometimes in rather devious ways, that the follower, simply through belonging to the in-group, is better, higher and purer than those who are excluded. At the same time, any kind of critique or self-awareness is resented as a narcissistic loss and elicits rage."
"The leader can guess the psychological wants and needs of those susceptible to his propaganda because he resembles them psychologically, and is distinguished from them by a capacity to express without inhibitions what is latent in them, rather than by any intrinsic superiority. The leaders are generally oral character types, with a compulsion to speak incessantly and to befool the others."
"Every spectator of a television mystery knows with absolute certainty how it is going to end. Tension is but superficially maintained and is unlikely to have a serious effect any more. On the contrary, the spectator feels on safe ground all the time. This longing for 'feeling on safe ground' - reflecting the infantile need for protection, rather than the desire for a thrill - is catered to. The element of excitement is preserved only with tongue in cheek. Such changes fall in line with the potential change from a freely competitive to a virtually 'closed' society into which one must be admitted or from which one fears to be rejected. Everything somehow appears 'predestined'."
"Incidentally the expression 'free time' or 'spare time' originated only recently - its precursor, the term 'leisure' denoted the privilege of an unconstrained, comfortable lifestyle, hence something qualitatively different and far more auspicious..."
"Boredom is a function of life which is lived under the compulsion to work, and under the strict division of labor. It need not be so. Whenever behavior in spare time is truly autonomous, determined by free people for themselves, boredom rarely figures..."
"I speak as one who has had the rare opportunity to follow the path of his own intentions and to fashion his work accordingly. (...) If free time really was to become just that state of affairs in which everyone could enjoy what was once the prerogative of a few (...) then I would picture it after my own experience of life outside work, although given different conditions, this model would in its turn necessarily alter."
"For the individual, life is made easier through capitulation to the collective with which he identifies. He is spared the cognition of his impotence; within the circle of their own company, the few become the many. It is this act - not unconfused thinking - which is resignation. (...) In contrast, the uncompromising critical thinker, who neither superscribes his conscience nor permits himself to be terrorized into action, is in truth the one who does not give up."
"Open thinking points beyond itself. For its part, such thinking takes a position as a figuration of praxis which is more closely related to a praxis truly involved in change than in a position of mere obedience for the sake of praxis. Beyond all specialized and particular content, thinking is actually and above all the force of resistance, alienated from resistance only with great effort."
More...