Summary of Dialectics of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno written by: Sonia Farooq

Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno are of the view that thoughts of the individuals have become a commodity and discourses are been which carry this task of Commodification. Language, according to them, is being formulated to celebrate this Commodification (Preface to 1944 & 1947 xvi). The literary text is subject to the producers and readers and publishers which for thir own benefit let it go uncensored and as a result superfluous thing appears in the market which is destructive for cognition and prepares a ground for the “greedy acceptance of charlatanism” (xv, xvi). Horkheimer and Adorno focused on “self-destruction of enlightenment”. For them freedom cannot be separated from enlightened thinking but the concept of thinking is promoting demand for money everywhere as they say such thinking process already contains in it “germ of the regression”. For them the “mysterious willingness” of the “technologically educated masses” makes them “fall under the spell of despotism” which is self-destructive for the human cognition and weakens the criticality (xvi). According to them it “holds mind captive in ever deeper blindness”. For them an individual is “entirely nullified in face of the economic power”. Individual does not exist in front of money. For them the rational thinking or criticality; “intellect” should negate the process of reification. According to them “brand-new amusements” make people weak to resist economic powers and deprives them of their autonomy and individuality. Individual vanishes before money and the ideological apparatuses they serve (xviii).

They are of the view that “bourgeoisie economy” is always generated by “entrepreneurs” and technology produces ways and methods of exploitation of masses (p-2, ch-1) because human beings want to purchase power. For them enlightenment and especially in the form of technological and intellectual power is like a dictator who knows how to manipulate human beings (6). They maintain that repetition of particular image or symbol manifests the permanence of certain social meanings (16). Industrialization has resulted in “objectification of mind” and transformed human soul into “thing”. The industries produce commodities with desired behavior in people. The fetish character of the commodity has dominated all aspects of life in a society. Mass production agencies have propagated such characteristics of commodities and made it a rationalized and naturalized standard of living for people. The success or failure of individual is dependent on commodities. Such commodities are individuals’ identities (21). That is why the find themselves powerless in front of commodities. Reification of the reason is one of the most destructive and calamitous feature of consumerism through culture industry. The technological advancement in the form of entertainment industry furthers the process of Commodification and degeneration (28). They are of the opinion that powerlessness of the masses is not just a method or plan of the ruler but the “logical consequence of industrial society” (29). For them “instruments of power – languages, weapons, and finally machines – which are intended to hold everyone in their grasp, must in their turn be grasped by everyone” (29). The world is transformed into industry (29). Humanity is losing itself in the illusion of individualist society (31).

They maintain that capitalism inflicts destruction. Human beings are misused as things, it “radiates perverted love” and sick psyche (89). Feelings like love which are supposed to humanize have become dehumanized in culture of Commodification.

Technological advancement and social differentiation have given rise to “cultural chaos” (94). Film, radio and magazines – each as a branch of culture constitute a system (94). All mass culture is identical under money and instills false identity (95). Mass entertainment does not project itself as art but they are forms of business used as an “ideology to legitimize the trash they intentionally produce” (95). The culture industry in the form of technology produces products for consumer needs as they demand it and that is why they accept it with little resistance but for them “a cycle of manipulation and retroactive need is unifying the system”.  This form of cultural production is gaining power because of those who rule the society and those who possess economic control. Technology has become a compulsory feature of alienated society (95). Mentality and consciousness of masses support the system of culture industry by being part of it (96). The unity of culture industry is actually the unity of politics propagated by the industry which does not demarcate any difference in its use. They say “something is provided for everyone so that no one can escape; differences are hammered home and propagated” (97).

Consumers are divided into statistical form and hence individuals are quantified and arranged according to their income (97). Culture industry through technical media as TV and films etc. achieves a concurrence between word, image and tune to produce sensuous elements and this for Horkheimer and Adorno is the success of capitalism (97). Inspired by the Kantian studies about the mechanism of psyche they analyze the “ready-made clichés” of entertainment industry which are produced to be used by public to get desired response (98). The world of film creates illusion of the outside world. They show real world as an extension for the world of films (99). Consumer culture destroys their imagination. Products of culture industry like films and advertisements etc. “cripple” individuals’ faculties to think of exploitation through reifying their minds and “objective make-up” (100). They hold the opinion that “the products of the culture industry are such that they can be alertly consumed even in a state of distraction”. Its power for them is “imprinted on people once and for all” (100). Agents of the culture industry are advanced form of modern social control (100). Culture industry operates to present naturalness in everyday existence through trends and behavior screened on TV (101).

For Horkheimer and Adorno concept of genuine style has disappeared or it is equated with power. For them contemporary art is “hypocritical” as it confirms the capitalistic way of life. In this way art is also an ideology. Present art for them is “obedience to the social hierarchy” (103, 104). The culture industry contains process of “identifying, cataloging and classifying” to administer the public. It imposes a desired behavior pattern and routine of individuals in the name of “unified culture” (104) which is a form of globalization. It imprints certain images on the minds. It makes them one dimensional and compliant subjects and participants who cannot resist and can only survive if she/he incorporates herself/himself into consumer culture (104).

Any individual who does not confirm to such practices of Commodification is taken to be a stranger and is “condemned to an economic impotence”. He is convicted as inadequate in society (106). All classes of society are hemmed into capitalism “in body and soul” and they without any resistance “succumb” to all the offerings “proffered” to them (106). In the form of “idea, novelty and surprise” they attract the masses. Everything is set in endless motion to keep us busy in wants of new (106). According to them “the culture industry remains the entertainment business. Its control of consumers is mediated by entertainment” (108). The ideology of the entertainment is business (109). They say “Entertainment is the prolongation of work under late capitalism”. Even in leisure masses are indulged in the process of capitalism as they save images in the mind provided by entertainment industry. They can only escape from mechanized work routines by adapting themselves into capitalistic entertainment in leisure time which is “the incurable sickness of all entertainment” (109). The spectators are not required to think on their own. The presented product prescribes the reaction through signals (109). Mental activity is strongly avoided in entertainment. The culture industry “endlessly cheats its consumers out of what it endlessly promises” (111). The desire according to them is “inflamed by the glossy names and images” and “debasement of the drive” has become the purpose of art. It constantly exhibits “the object of desire” (111). For them “works of art are ascetic and shameless”. The culture industry is “pornographic”, “prudish” and “reduces love to romance” (111). It becomes marketable by promoting sexual symbols.

Culture industry’s main purpose is to create desire and leave it unsatisfied for the consumers so that they keep on desiring for it by being engaged in the offerings provided by entertainment (112). Culture industry does not leave any place for resistance (113). The culture industry promises flight from everyday life. The same everyday world is presented as paradise (113). “Amusement always means putting things out of mind, forgetting suffering, even when it is on display” (116).

“The element of blindness in the routine decision….., is celebrated by ideology” (117). Culture industry takes human beings as its customers and reduces humanity to statistics (118). Through electronic media and print media they are demonstrated freedom of choice and free from system but they remain objects in both the cases (118). Capitalist or consumer society is strengthened on the weakness of subjects; the public (124).

For Horkheimer and Adorno “Art now dutifully admits to being a commodity”. The consumer becomes the “ideology of the amusement industry, whose institutions he or she cannot escape” (128). Everything achieves a value only if it can be exchanged. Everything has a character of being fetish (128). The “Art becomes species of commodity, worked up and adapted to industrial productions, saleable and exchangeable” (130). Art also has been reified and performs the function of reification (130). The contemporary society has an industrialized culture which is a fraud in the form of commodified culture. The culture also becomes a commodity. It works on exchange value and has merged commercialism and advertisements into itself (131). In a competitive culture of society, advertisements perform the social service to create the consumer. Advertising is an art for the “pure representation of social power” (132). The merging of advertising and culture industry is influencing public as technique used is now a “psychotechnique” which is a method to manipulate individuals (133). The blindness and muteness to the ideology of consumer culture is the target of consumer ideology.

The rapidly spreading repetition of brand names in advertsing are not used according to the behavioural function it possesses (135). The culture industry has “taken over the civilizing inheritance” (135). The culture industry promotes “categories of vulgarized depth psychology” which attracts and drives individuals to become an apparatus to meet the requirement of the ruling ideology. The impulses of the individual unconsciously make the prevailing system of culture industry a success (136). All reactions including the most intimate ones have been reified. Personality is confined to being possessing a brand logo and product used (136).

So the culture industry establishes a society in which advertising helps and motivates individuals as consumers to have commodified identity which they recognize as false at the same time (136).