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MIT 2200 LECTURE 2
Cultural Theory
6
Art/Design
Undergraduate 3
02/26/2013

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Term
The Frankfurt School for Social Research
Definition
-Group of mass society critics. Marxist claims, Jewish/German
-How is Mass society preventing the working class from having a radical revolution?
-The Institute of Social Research (1923) Set itself apart from the University, strictly cultural research
-wrote during rise of hitler, fail of unions
-What is the link between culture & power?

àMass media forms are tools of domination, promote the status quo and protect the interests of those in power
-The media obscure certain truths & promote others
-The logic of capitalism—drive for profit
-We are enculturated to become obedient workers
Term
Psychological Impact of Living Under Capitalism
Definition
-breakdown of traditional authority
-mass media becomes main source of socialization
-loss of meaning and automization
-teaches obedience and conformity
Term
The Eclipse of Reason
Definition
-The enlightenment project was to liberate us through reason—science and technology
àTHEY ARGUE: But it has also given us disease, fear, alienation, and the breakdown of traditional ties and forms
of meaning making (these have become dominant)
-The process of enlightenment has not been self-reflexive
-The dominant form of reason is instrumental and shortsighted
-The “rational” (immoral) becomes (reason turned to eclipse) “irrational” àECLIPSE OF REASON
Term
Sources of Unreason
Definition
Perpetual growth of capital: endless cycle of manufacture and management of need
-Tyranny of the performance principle leads to performance anxiety
Term
Re-pressive De-sublimation
Definition
-We are anxious because we don't recieve meaning from our monotonous work/jobs/turmoils of everyday life
-We express these anxieties by feeding into the very system we hate (retail therapy, watching TV when you get home)
-this makes the system continue and only contributes to the growth of mass media
-keeps us complacent as we do not revolut or search for meaning elsewhere
Term
Adorno
Definition
-member of the Frankfurt School
-repressive desublimation
-pseudo-individualization
-all music is the same, we passively ingest it
-all mass culture does not challenge us
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