0
Profile Picture

How does the entertainment industry affect us?

2 years ago
According to Theodor Adorno, our "mass culture" is not from the masses at all. Not created by them certainly, but also not responding in capitalist fashion to their demands. Rather, it's imposed on us and brainwashes us into conformity. With stereotyped characters, by-the-numbers plotting, and an emphasis on style over substance, films entice and lull us into submission. Ditto for popular music and other media, each in their own insidious way. And it's not just a matter of high-brow art snobs worrying about low-brow material: The culture industry is happy to appropriate it all, so long as real thinking is discouraged.

Is this true? Is the world really turning into a giant shopping mall?