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Key Concepts
"Ideology and Utopia" - Karl Mannheim
Particular v. total ideology
False consciousness
Ideological v. utopian thought
"The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" -
Horkheimer & Adorno Mass culture and culture industry
Cultural products and consumer desires
Role of pleasure, meaning of art, meaning of freedom
"One-Dimensional Man" - Herbert Marcuse Capitalism and false needs
Sublimation, desublimation
Cycle of stupefaction, Happy consciousness, meaning of freedom
The Merchants of Cool Frontline documentary
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Karl Mannheim and the Sociologyof Knowledge
IDEOLOGY includes opinions, statements propositions, and systems of
ideas
Two types: Particular: Representation of things in the world that
might take into account specific interests or points of view.(one person skeptical of another)
Total: Entire categories of thought that define how people
see the world around them. (ideas of an era) Those with interests attached to certain ideas hold on to them.
An ideology becomes an ideology when the perspective of adominant group is unable to perceive the new facts that haveundermined its social dominance
Thus, dominant ideology promotes a kind offalseconsciousness.
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Ideological v. Utopian Thought
Utopian thoughts challenge existing ideologies, threateningto overturn status quo social order. Ideology and utopia drive social change in a dialectic process Utopias often thought of as unrealistic Intellectuals often bearers of utopias E.g. Christianity, Liberalism, Socialism
Representatives of the existing order Label as utopian those ideas that threaten order, and
thus, can never be realized. Ex. universal health care
What is defined as ideology vs. utopia depends upon theinterests of the judger. Depends on experience, socialcontext.
Both ideology and utopia transcend reality(are notaccurate descriptions of the existing order).
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Critical Theory in Sociology
Frankfurt School 1923 Institute for Social Research Influences
Neo-Marxism
focuses on why class consciousness didnt develop as predicted byMarx
Critiques capitalism not just as a form of economic domination, butalso as a form of cultural domination
Freudian psychoanalysis: we have deeply suppressed desires
Weber: importance of ideology in social change; role ofrationalization in social life and the iron cage
Historical context Totalitarianism, bureaucracy on the rise Promises of Enlightenment unfulfilled
Marxist predictions unfulfilled no class revolution
Need for new explanations in modernity
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Horkheimer & Adorno Art VS. Mass Culture
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Horkheimer & Adorno: Homogenization inthe Culture Industry
The decline of religion, the dissolution of the feudal order, socialdifferentiation and specialization have NOT lead to cultural chaos in factculture now impresses the same stamp on everything (385). Theculture industry works to homogenize everyday life.
We have become cogs in the machine not just as producers but asconsumers.
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Horkheimer & Adorno: Art in the Age of Monopoly Capital
economies ofscale
consumer
needs
the homogenous
cultural product
decisions of industrypersonnel
e.g. big budgetmovies designed
to appeal to
millions
Under monopoly capital (capitalism dominated by mega-
corporations):
1 mass cultural products all mass culture is identical 2 cultural products dont have to pretend to be art any more
3 they are defined as business which in turn justifies the poor
quality of their offerings in terms of market needs and economies of
scale.
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What are the effects on how we see reality?
The whole world is made to passthrough the filter of the culture
industry.
Their example: the sound film (!)
Too close to reality leaving noroom for imagination
Requires quickness from the
audience but leaves no room for
reflection Uses formula and genre to create
automatic expectations of narrative,
etc. which have become
standardized and unchallenging.
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True Art Vs. Culture industry products
The art object The mass culture product
Should address universal questions Follows the principle of amusement,insulated from deep thought and/or thebroader social implications (thetotality)
Art tends to express loss, with desireitself shown to be a mirage.Sublimation transforms basiceveryday desires (sex, power, etc)into more complex registers.
Gives us the happy ending and thesuccessful fight cheapresolutions/satisfactions
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The principles of amusement [pleasure] (389)
1. Amusement defends society To be pleased
means to say Yes.
2. Amusement requires not seeing the bigpicture (insulation from the totality of the social
process)
3. Amusement means not thinking deeply about
anything, especially about forms ofsuffering(which might make the audience say no)
4. it is flight; not from a wretched reality, but
from the last remaining thought of resistance.
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H & A: The culture industry
creates fake individuality
Cultural representations shape -
How we relate to each other (Ways of talking,
presenting oneself)
How we understand ourselves (our inner lives)
H&As example: Romantic scripts produced and
circulated in the entertainment industry/mediashape our desires and dating practices.
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Meaning of Freedom in CapitalistConsumer Culture
All are free to dance and enjoy themselves, just as they
have been free, since the historical neutralization of
religion, to join any of the innumerable sects. Butfreedom to choose an ideology since ideology always
reflects economic coercion everywhere proves to be
freedom to choose what is always the same (389).
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Freedom of Choice?
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Herbert Marcuse: One-Dimensional Man
Technological rationalityincreases in modernity
Integration of people into
capitalist consumer thoughtnecessary for smoothfunctioning of one-dimensionalsociety
Mass consumer culture >Individuality
Critiques of Enlightenment,meaning of liberation
Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979)
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Sublimation/Desublimation
Marcuse draws on Freudian logic: Social realityforces people to discipline their basic impulses(libido)
and sublimate the impulses into acceptableactivities (work, recreation, etc.)
This tension is painful, causes discontent, yetcan also be creative and liberating.
Capitalist culture allowspartialdesublimationexpression of our basic desires
through consumption of cultural products.
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Example: Partial Desublimation
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One-dimensional man?
Advanced industrial capitalism instills in us a set of falseneeds via the mass media, advertising, education, etc.
free choice between
brands and gadgets
Desublimation
Giving up our liberties in favor of material and sensory candy.Example: sexuality is a source of freedom andexploitation.
Happy Consciousness
Euphoric acceptance that the current system is as good as it gets.
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Happy Consciousness!
The belief that the system delivers thegoods (i.e. needs and happiness).
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Cycle of Stupefaction
We work until were stupified, then relax with TV.
Average American watches over 4 hours of TV per day
Mass culture industry is designed to produce euphoria in
unhappiness.
Advertisements promote having fun, sexuality. Ex. Beauty culture, auto culture, white teeth smiles.
Promote a Happy Consciousness a false, superficial,
substitution for real happiness, satisfaction, and
fulfillment.
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Marcuses Liberation
Real human liberation based on
creative sublimation, demands high degree ofautonomy & comprehension.
A return to Eros in all aspects of life: sensual,spontaneous enjoyment of life.
Break the iron cage!
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Frontline Documentary: The Merchants of Cool
1) What is the paradox of cool? How does the film illustrate notions of:
commodification; false needs; one-dimensional man; critiques of culture,freedom, individuality, authenticity?
2) Homogenization of culture: How are notions of masculinity, feminine
beauty, sex, and cool mass produced? Record specific examples.
3) What is the giant feedback loop? Is there an escape, according to the
documentary? According to the critical theorists? According to you?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/