Enlightenment As Mass Deception By Theodor Adorno And Max Horkheimer

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In Enlightenment as Mass Deception, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer use the term culture industry to represent the commercial marketing of culture. In our capitalist society, culture has been modified into merchandise that can be bought and sold and has essentially turned us into manufactured people. By placing the words culture and industry together, Adorno and Horkheimer create a new meaning that is meant to question the reality that we perceive. Originally, culture was a way for people to be unique, emphasizing individuality and creativity but is now being used as a form of mass deception. It leads people to believe that they are content regardless of their economic standing and is a way for capitalism to create false needs that only capitalism can satisfy when our only needs are happiness, freedom and creativity. To Adorno and Horkheimer, this causes our society to live in falsity and forces the people further away from enlightenment as mass deception and in turn, causes the people to become objects of mass production.
Although technological advancements have made our daily liv...

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