The Dialectic of Enlightment

Friends, I feel like it is that time of the year, we can not avoid it any longer... We have to talk about the Dialectic of Enlightenment, also referred to as the most depressing and pessimistic essay of all time.  Adorno and Horkheimer's text may make you wonder if any of the choices you ever made in your life are actually your own. It might also make you feel like any of the taste you may have are the consequence of the domination mainstream media has over all of society. It will finally make you feel like every illusion of freedom of thought you may have has actually been implemented by the dominant minority that rules the world and that makes sure that you (as the proletarian majority) remains in servitude. Finally, if you are a Jazz fan there simply is no way out for you.
Despite the slight will to hang yourself you might feel after reading it, the essay makes great observations about society and the way it works. This is why I will try to go over some of the main points that are being conveyed by citing some of their most relevant comments.

"Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. They call themselves industries; and when their directors’ incomes are published, any doubt about the social utility of the finished products is removed."
"...the basis on which technology acquires power over society is the power of those whose economic hold over society is greatest."
"...any trace of spontaneity from the public in official broadcasting is controlled and absorbed by talent scouts, studio competitions and official programs of every kind selected by professionals. Talented performers belong to the industry long before it displays them."
(talking about entertainment such as film, radio and television) "The man with leisure has to accept what the culture manufacturers offer him. Kant’s formalism still expected a contribution from the individual, who was thought to relate the varied experiences of the senses to fundamental concepts; but industry robs the individual of his function. Its prime service to the customer is to do his schematising for him."
This is a very interesting part of the essay that directly relates to us because it treats of film: "The details are interchangeable. ... the hero’s momentary fall from grace (which he accepts as good sport), the rough treatment which the beloved gets from the male star,..., are, like all the other details, ready-made clichés to be slotted in anywhere; they never do anything more than fulfil the purpose allotted them in the overall plan. Their whole raison d’être is to confirm it by being its constituent parts. As soon as the film begins, it is quite clear how it will end, and who will be rewarded, punished, or forgotten(...) Though concerned exclusively with effects, it crushes their insubordination and makes them subserve the formula, which replaces the work."
"In the culture industry this imitation finally becomes absolute. Having ceased to be anything but style, it reveals the latter’s secret: obedience to the social hierarchy". 


You get the general picture: repetition in film, popular music or television shows contribute to giving a false impression of reality and therefore make the masses easier to manipulate. By making the 99 percent believe in a reality that matches fiction, the dominant class can keep its hegemony. In fact, it feeds the masses, through media, with images of what it wants them to believe what constitutes happiness. The system works and soon the masses become blind to their servile state and their lack of freedom. Overall, this is how the two author justify the reason why Marxism failed and probably will always fail: people have been convinced to think that materialistic good and the comfort it brings are sufficient and more important than class equality and social justice.


If you are interested in reading the whole article, it is called Cultural Industry: Enlightment as Mass Deception. 
Here's the link: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1944/culture-industry.htm