"Man as a member of a species has been made a reality by the culture industry. Now any person signifies only those attributes by which he can replace everybody else; he is interchangeable."- Horkheimer and Adorno, "Dialectic of Enlightenment"
"Man as a member of a species has been made a reality by the culture industry. Now any person signifies only those attributes by which he can replace everybody else; he is interchangeable."- Horkheimer and Adorno, "Dialectic of Enlightenment"
3 comments:
Yes, Well I for one am NOT "in the industry," and would rather slit my throat than permit myself to join or be dragged into what-I-view as SATANIC PERVERSION.
I'm too old to be seduced by Demented BS masquerading as "culture."
However, I have no wish to antagonize you, further, Farmer. You've been a good friend and supplier of encouragement and much intellectual simulation for a long time. For that I shall always be grateful.
I hope you will permit us to agree to disagree about the so-called music you feature so often. Music is my field. I've been deeply involved with the study of serious music since I was a very small boy. I earned three degrees in the subject –– all from highly rated universities and well regarded professional schools.
Music is a language, and I am probably better qualified than most to understand its many subtleties and highly diverse forms of expression.
All my life I've had to do battle with people in positions of authority who freely admit they don't know a goddam thing, but they sure do know what they like. In the nineteenth-century such people were called "Philistines." Regrettably they have and always will be in the majority.
It's a mixed blessing to have been called by a Higher Power to devote my energies and my affection to the highest expression of musical art. It sets me apart, and often antagonizes those who don't share my understanding. I've been called a Geek, a Nerd a Snob, a Poor Sport, a Haughty Supercilious Son-of-a-Bitch, a Jerk, and even a Faggot, just because I adore eight-hundred years of accumulated musical development in preference to what's "popular" in this benighted era.
It's all right. I must accept what I cannot change, but I DON'T have to LIKE it.
The music is but a symptom of the culture we have. You don't have to like it. But you should recognize that our culture aims to keep our people dumb, passive, and and uninquisitive. And it's not the "left's" fault. It's "our" fault (collectively).
" ... [Y]ou should recognize that our culture aims to keep our people dumb, passive, and uninquisitive."]
Hey! That's MY song you're singing. I've been saying exactly that in a thousand different poems, posts and letters to editors for the past forty-odd years.
The Left IS responsible for our decline in this regard: Your friends in the Labor Movement, the Frankfurt School and the innately manipulative "moguls" who created the modern Entertainment and Advertising industries from whole cloth were not stupid. They knew EXACTLY how to EXPLOIT the ignorance born of innocence and naiveté and to stimulate and bring to the fore all that BASE and DEGENERATE in human nature.
If you will please pardon a biblical metaphor the Leftist Intellectuals I so rightly despise played the role of The SERPENT in our unique version of The Garden of Eden.
The Bible is not some antiquated compendium of ancient myths and superstitions cynically contrived by powerful tribal leaders to keep their people in line. It is a, instead, a brilliant set of PARABLES and FABLES rich in the language of SYMBOLISM.
It reveals home truths about the frailty of human nature and how to combat existential challenges effectively. For good or for ill humanity long ago lost touch with the Keys to the Code, if you will, and began to take the Bible LITERALLY –– a grievous error. Once the "Word" became enshrined in Tradition ot became much like a creature preserved for Posterity, but curtailed –– stifled ––imprisoned in a block of amber.
This is what mindless, slavish adherence to the SUPERFICIAL ASPECTS of ANY movement or philosophy does. And it renders those whose intelligence was stunted by DOCTRINE effectively "brain-dead" just as pre-historic creatures became fossilized in rock formations or encapsulated in amber.
Losing touch with the capacity to develop individual Insight, Imagination, Creativity and Invention make those so stunted easy pray for charlatans and would-be demagogues, etc.
Post a Comment