"Dialectic of Enlightenment, is the pivotal, fundamental textbook of Freudo-Marxist Critical Theory explaining the socio-psychological status quo that had been responsible for, what the Frankfurt School considered, the failure of the Enlightenment, a defeat represented most dramatically by the events of the Holocaust."
-wikipedia
"Culture industry is a term coined by Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) and Max Horkheimer (1895-1973), who argued that popular culture is akin to a factory producing standardized cultural goods to manipulate the masses into passivity; the easy pleasures available through consumption of popular culture make people docile and content, no matter how difficult their economic circumstances. Adorno and Horkheimer saw this mass-produced culture as a danger to the more difficult high arts. Culture industries may cultivate false needs; that is, needs created and satisfied by capitalism. True needs, in contrast, are freedom, creativity, or genuine happiness. Herbert Marcuse was the first to demarcate true needs from false needs."
-wikipedia
Paleo-hippies rallied around memes that , by their spreading, would weaken the stronghold of mass culture and rational thought.
With those memes a wave of euphoric freedom is expected to be felt, a new perspective in which the magical and unbounded are available. What can be purchased in the capitalist system is then seen as dirty, caged in, tired and ridden with guilt for the lack of stature of the workers at the origin point of the goods.
Magic, creativity and freedom are enabled.
The second class human emerges. One that can be easily owned and manipulated. Disengaged from symbolic analysis of the corporeal world, the magical class are not easily herded from without but will strongly bind to an inner mission statement or religious icon.
In their minds forever the victors of a war with Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle and any cultural artifact that has an association with the building blocks of the Holocaust. This is the class which suffers recurring defeats in contests with any foe that wields technology powered by symbolic analysis of the corporeal world, but they never perceive themselves as defeated because the use of symbolic analysis of the corporeal world is either beyond the grasp of the lower ranks or taboo for the leaders.
The old joke "Question: Why are so many trees in France? Answer: Because the Germans like to march in the shade" describes the situation for magical and mystical cultures quite well.
Progressive means moving on from caring about this news story. Every day the mystical emerge defeated, with the news that their modus operandi has succeeded once again. All have styles of broadcast for scenes of their martyrdom, and a path for money to follow to reinvigorate their self-image.
Let's spend our money on an iPhone, let's create more wi-fi networks, let's build robots to fight war, let's constantly improve symbolic analysis of the corporeal world.
- My definition of symbolic analysis of the corporeal world
- Arc of activity called humanity (a compatible writing without the Frankfurt School in mind).
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