Zaineb Abdulla
SOC 385: Blog 5
3/19/13
Brave New Culture Industry
In this blog entry, I will be examining the following quote, which compares two dystopian novel said to predict our future as a country: George Orwell’s 1984 and Alduous Huxley’s Brave New World.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture…. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear would ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire would ruin us (Postman 1985).
I believe that Huxley’s Brave New World most accurately describes the state of present society, as seen by critical theorists. Critical theorists tend to view the world through a more pessimistic lens. As a whole, they take a fatalistic approach to social problems—believing there is little chance that we could alter this glum reality we’ve created for ourselves. Despite this, critical theorists also take an activist approach and see the world as capable of change, even though this change may be hard to come by. One particularly interesting topic described by critical theorists is that of the culture industry. This industry essentially describes the phenomenon wherein citizens are so constantly bombarded by media and entertainment that we lose sight of the important bits: current events, news and politics. The same few operators control all of these different media sources and we simply accept what we are shown without question. Eerily enough, much of this was predicted in 1931, when Huxley first wrote Brave New World.
Over the years, there have been countless pieces of literature produced that seem to have predicted our future as a society. None of these books, however, more accurately describes the critical theory approach to modern society as well as Brave New World. This book predicts a time where there would be no need for censorship because none of us would care to crack open a book. There would be no need to watch our every move because we would be too passive to act and so on. Of all his predictions, however, the one that most relevant to critical theory and the culture industry is his depiction of media.
In World State, Huxley’s created society composed of the entire world’s population of 2 billion, media and entertainment play a crucial role. Citizens are obsessed with entertainment and spend nearly all waking hours watching and experiencing the made up world of television characters. They have different options from which they may choose but all are ultimately created and controlled by the same operators. Viewers are so constantly inundated with entertainment that they no longer seek out the news that matters most. As described in Adorno and Horkheimer’s The Culture Industry, the leisure man must simply “accept what the culture manufacturers offer him” for he has no other choice.
Just as in Brave New World, media in this country is owned and operated by only a handful of companies. While in the 1980s, most media sources were controlled by about 50 different companies, as of 2007, that number dropped to just six. 90% of what we watch, read and listen to (for both news and entertainment) is owned by these six major corporations, including Disney (owning, for example, ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Miramax, Marvel Studios), News Corp (Fox News, Wall Street Journal, New York Post), General Electric (Comcast, NBC, Universal Pictures, Focus Features), Viacom (MTV, Nick Jr., BET, CMT, Paramount Pictures), Time Warner (CNN, HBO, Time, Warner Bros) and CBS (Showtime, Smithsonian Channel, NFL.com, Jeopardy, 60 Minutes). This group dictates what we are exposed to and control what information is shared with the general public. This is worrisome because it leads to an increased risk of bias in our news and entertainment sources.
Overall, I believe that most critical theorists would agree that Huxley’s predictions for our society have come true. We, as a society, are obsessed with entertainment and simply absorb what information we are fed. Our media is controlled by a small handful of companies and few think to question this. We have become a passive society and will be unable to change for the better until we wake from this submissive state.
SOC 385: Blog 5
3/19/13
Brave New Culture Industry
In this blog entry, I will be examining the following quote, which compares two dystopian novel said to predict our future as a country: George Orwell’s 1984 and Alduous Huxley’s Brave New World.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture…. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear would ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire would ruin us (Postman 1985).
I believe that Huxley’s Brave New World most accurately describes the state of present society, as seen by critical theorists. Critical theorists tend to view the world through a more pessimistic lens. As a whole, they take a fatalistic approach to social problems—believing there is little chance that we could alter this glum reality we’ve created for ourselves. Despite this, critical theorists also take an activist approach and see the world as capable of change, even though this change may be hard to come by. One particularly interesting topic described by critical theorists is that of the culture industry. This industry essentially describes the phenomenon wherein citizens are so constantly bombarded by media and entertainment that we lose sight of the important bits: current events, news and politics. The same few operators control all of these different media sources and we simply accept what we are shown without question. Eerily enough, much of this was predicted in 1931, when Huxley first wrote Brave New World.
Over the years, there have been countless pieces of literature produced that seem to have predicted our future as a society. None of these books, however, more accurately describes the critical theory approach to modern society as well as Brave New World. This book predicts a time where there would be no need for censorship because none of us would care to crack open a book. There would be no need to watch our every move because we would be too passive to act and so on. Of all his predictions, however, the one that most relevant to critical theory and the culture industry is his depiction of media.
In World State, Huxley’s created society composed of the entire world’s population of 2 billion, media and entertainment play a crucial role. Citizens are obsessed with entertainment and spend nearly all waking hours watching and experiencing the made up world of television characters. They have different options from which they may choose but all are ultimately created and controlled by the same operators. Viewers are so constantly inundated with entertainment that they no longer seek out the news that matters most. As described in Adorno and Horkheimer’s The Culture Industry, the leisure man must simply “accept what the culture manufacturers offer him” for he has no other choice.
Just as in Brave New World, media in this country is owned and operated by only a handful of companies. While in the 1980s, most media sources were controlled by about 50 different companies, as of 2007, that number dropped to just six. 90% of what we watch, read and listen to (for both news and entertainment) is owned by these six major corporations, including Disney (owning, for example, ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Miramax, Marvel Studios), News Corp (Fox News, Wall Street Journal, New York Post), General Electric (Comcast, NBC, Universal Pictures, Focus Features), Viacom (MTV, Nick Jr., BET, CMT, Paramount Pictures), Time Warner (CNN, HBO, Time, Warner Bros) and CBS (Showtime, Smithsonian Channel, NFL.com, Jeopardy, 60 Minutes). This group dictates what we are exposed to and control what information is shared with the general public. This is worrisome because it leads to an increased risk of bias in our news and entertainment sources.
Overall, I believe that most critical theorists would agree that Huxley’s predictions for our society have come true. We, as a society, are obsessed with entertainment and simply absorb what information we are fed. Our media is controlled by a small handful of companies and few think to question this. We have become a passive society and will be unable to change for the better until we wake from this submissive state.