[p2p-research] Theodore Adorno's work (open thread)

[marc fawzi]

This one is quite painful...

"**
Life in the late capitalist era is a constant initiation rite. Everyone must
show that he wholly identifies himself with the power which is belaboring
him. This occurs in the principle of jazz syncopation, which simultaneously
derides stumbling and makes it a rule. The eunuch-like voice of the crooner
on the radio, the heiress's smooth suitor, who falls into the swimming pool
in his dinner jacket, are models for those who must become whatever the
system wants. Everyone can be like this omnipotent society; everyone can be
happy, if only he will capitulate fully and sacrifice his claim to
happiness. In his weakness society recognizes its strength, and gives him
some of it. His defenselessness makes him reliable. Hence tragedy is
discarded. Once the opposition of the individual to society was its
substance. It glorified "the bravery and freedom of emotion before a
powerful enemy, an exalted affliction, a dreadful problem." Today tragedy
has melted away into the nothingness of that false identity of society and
individual, whose terror still shows for a moment in the empty semblance of
the tragic. But the miracle of integration, the permanent act of grace by
the authority who receives the defenseless person — once he has swallowed
his rebelliousness — signifies Fascism. This can be seen in the
humanitarianism which Doblin uses to let his Biberkopf find refuge, and
again in socially-slanted films. The capacity to find refuge, to survive
one's own ruin, by which tragedy is defeated, is found in the new
generation; they can do any work because the work process does not let them
become attached to any. This is reminiscent of the sad lack of conviction of
the homecoming soldier with no interest in the war, or of the casual laborer
who ends up by joining a paramilitary organization. This liquidation of
tragedy confirms the abolition of the individual."

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 12:49 AM, marc fawzi <marc.fawzi at gmail.com> wrote:

> And this reminds me of Stefan's list and other lists where those who tend
> to be open to experimentation (falling our of rhythm with the band of
> idiots) are pushed out, kindly or by demeaning:
>
> "No independent thinking must be expected from the audience: the product
> prescribes every reaction: not by its natural structure (which collapses
> under reflection), but by signals. Any logical connection calling for mental
> effort is painstakingly avoided. As far as possible, developments must
> follow from the immediately preceding situation and never from the idea of
> the whole."
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 12:32 AM, marc fawzi <marc.fawzi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> "The ruthless unity in the culture industry is evidence of what will
>> happen in politics. Marked differentiations such as those of A and B films,
>> or of stories in magazines in different price ranges, depend not so much on
>> subject matter as on classifying, organising, and labelling consumers.
>> Something is provided for all so that none may escape; the distinctions are
>> emphasised and extended. The public is catered for with a hierarchical range
>> of mass-produced products of varying quality, thus advancing the rule of
>> complete quantification. Everybody must behave (as if spontaneously) in
>> accordance with his previously determined and indexed level, and choose the
>> category of mass product turned out for his type. Consumers appear as
>> statistics on research organisation charts, and are divided by income groups
>> into red, green, and blue areas; the technique is that used for any type of
>> propaganda."
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 12:26 AM, marc fawzi <marc.fawzi at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> This is a thread where I'll post excerpts from Adorno's Culture Industry,
>>> a book which I had read about 5 years ago and was mesmerized by the rhythm
>>> implicit in his writing, and shocked by how extreme his views were, and
>>> still not comfortable with his over abundance of precision.
>>>
>>> Feel free to ignore, reply to, or just glance thru.
>>>
>>> Here is the first excerpt:
>>>
>>> "
>>>
>>> This is the result not of a law of movement in technology as such but of
>>> its function in today’s economy. The need which might resist central control
>>> has already been suppressed by the control of the individual consciousness.
>>> The step from the telephone to the radio has clearly distinguished the
>>> roles. The former still allowed the subscriber to play the role of subject,
>>> and was liberal. The latter is democratic: it turns all participants into
>>> listeners and authoritatively subjects them to broadcast programs which are
>>> all exactly the same. No machinery of rejoinder has been devised, and
>>> private broadcasters are denied any freedom. They are confined to the
>>> apocryphal field of the “amateur,” and also have to accept organisation from
>>> above.
>>>
>>> But 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; otherwise they would not be so
>>> eager to fit in. The attitude of the public, which ostensibly and actually
>>> favours the system of the culture industry, is a part of the system and not
>>> an excuse for it. If one branch of art follows the same formula as one with
>>> a very different medium and content; if the dramatic intrigue of broadcast
>>> soap operas becomes no more than useful material for showing how to master
>>> technical problems at both ends of the scale of musical experience – real
>>> jazz or a cheap imitation; or if a movement from a Beethoven symphony is
>>> crudely “adapted” for a film sound-track in the same way as a Tolstoy novel
>>> is garbled in a film script: then the claim that this is done to satisfy the
>>> spontaneous wishes of the public is no more than hot air.
>>>
>>> We are closer to the facts if we explain these phenomena as inherent in
>>> the technical and personnel apparatus which, down to its last cog, itself
>>> forms part of the economic mechanism of selection. In addition there is the
>>> agreement – or at least the determination – of all executive authorities not
>>> to produce or sanction anything that in any way differs from their own
>>> rules, their own ideas about consumers, or above all themselves.
>>>
>>> "
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Marc Fawzi
>>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Marc-Fawzi/605919256
>>> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcfawzi
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Marc Fawzi
>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Marc-Fawzi/605919256
>> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcfawzi
>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Marc Fawzi
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Marc-Fawzi/605919256
> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcfawzi
>



-- 

Marc Fawzi
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Marc-Fawzi/605919256
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcfawzi
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