Consumption Society and Culture

Consumption, Society and Culture

Cultural Industry

There are two social processes which are linked with each other and provide the basis of popular culture in modern capitalist societies. These two processes are related with production and consumption of cultural goods. In the first step, the commodities are produced in the light of customers' desirable features and packaged in culturally acceptable methods. In the second step, the products are used by their respective target markets as status symbols to satisfy self-esteem needs. The identification of the target market as a considerable portion of society is largely based on its presentation in fine arts particularly TV programs, music shows and films (Benjamin, 1968).

Social system is a comprehensive study, whose knowledge is mandatory to understand the popular culture. Artifacts represent the cultural symbols, yet these artifacts are strongly influenced by the taste and choice of professionals and cultural elites. There are many factors that lead to development of taste of these individuals. The important factors include corporate world and state interests. The artifacts resemble all these entities. The consumption of artifacts affects many things, for example, the actual work to be done, the meaning of work as assumed by people, the people who actually carry out the work and the people who are affected by work at any point in time (Benjamin, 1968).

There is a strong need of a complete study covering the process of production of products and artifacts, their signification and final consumption. All these aspects are interrelated on complex grounds and the relation should also be studied. All these aspects are determined and followed by each other. Popular culture, being anywhere, is emerging, changing and expanding. It is also true that it is reshaping itself and the society as well. All the aspects are expanded as well as contracted by each other (Berstein, 2001).

The corporate capitalist cultural process is dynamic and at times self-contradicting as well. Studies have presented research on hegemony in their British neo-Gramscian work. Hegemony is defined as a process of creating and maintaining rule over lower social class by the elite class. The rule is established by penetrating their ideology and daily practices. The elite class deliberately explains their own ideologies to the lower class. Such activities are enforced and promoted through rewards and trainings to the individuals working on the penetrating activities (Berstein, 2001).

In capitalist society, there exist special groups who undertake the penetrating and influencing activities as a job role. In order to present harmony and avoid interpersonal conflicts among these professionals, the elite members of the society and the target groups, these professionals adopt the lifestyle, values and symbols of elite class members. These professionals act as intermediaries between the upper class and lower class members. They are known as "organic intellectuals." They perform the functions of social interest integration, understanding promotion, ideal articulation and interest harmonization between the high and low (Berstein, 2001).

The resultant total culture as deliberately prepared by the professionals is influenced by many factors. At its core, it is shaped by the values and social symbols of elite class, while at other level, it reflects the norms and views of the professionals who promoted the elite culture. The social influences and market conditions also play their respective considerable role in the design and progress of total culture. It is also possible that the idea of promoting a practice is rejected by the professionals but it is accepted by society at large. There is also a need for cohesion among political and economic players so that the entire social structure can be aligned with the proposed cultural aspects (Berstein, 2001).

As mentioned earlier, hegemony is related to creating and maintaining rule of upper class over lower class. In this way, it promotes dominant culture. It can also help in extension of order establishment systematically. It is to be made clear that hegemony is a structured process designed for collaboration and not for imposition; hence it should be evaluated with the perspective of both upper and lower class (Canetti, 1996).

Ideology is not the views and beliefs which are at the disposal of social institutes and agencies that can manipulate it and present it the way they want to serve their interests. These institutions include socialization school, church, family and mass media. It is important to mention here that these institutions reshape themselves as per the dominant ideology. At times, these institutions play active role in promoting ideology in the entire society. It is also possible that the institutions promote their own interests in disguise of ideology. Ideology is developed through lived experiences and contains its roots therein. It is flourished through the activities carried out by individuals and institutions in the society (Canetti, 1996).

Ideology is defined as the assumptions, rules, and procedures which are neglected by the members of society. It is usually considered as common sense. It paves ways for hegemony that further leads to promotion of strong social groups by justifying their powers (Canetti, 1996).

Conclusively, hegemony can be better regarded as collaboration i.e. An irregular collaboration where the administration and limit setting of dominated and dominating groups' cultural expressions is carried out by the large-scale process of concentrated production. Hegemony coaxes, persuades, chastises, rewards and the absolute power compels although it is a collaboration. Hegemony can be defined as an organizational practice where the best hold the upmost position in the organization and supervise the subordinates in a manner which acts as a support of the position of those individuals. Thus, specific social space to modified options is assigned and approval is organized by hegemony; substitute options are forbidden by absolute power. Hegemony can be said to be a silent domination and is covered behind the backs of its conductors. With complete control of power, hegemony is the orchestration of the subordinates' determinations (Canetti, 1996).

The well-known fears, aspirations and conflicts are taken into consideration by the cultural industry, which is known to be its quality, and are then dealt in ways that incorporate well-known values into terms that can fit the hegemonic principles. The values and beliefs are focused and reproduced by the cultural industry through altering and amending features of ideology emerging from the social groups as well as the social elites found all through the society; the media individuals and social worlds are inclusive of this. Thus the ideology is not created from scratch by the culture industry. A tribute to the popular feeling by the hegemony can be amounted by the types of commercial culture which is a paraphrased saying regarding hypocrisy. The individuals having a powerful position and being at a delegating height of the cultural industry are basically orchestrators of its desires and projects rather than managing their mind efficiently. Their products, in addition of being commodities, are the efforts that attract towards famous beliefs and visuals, the efforts used to correct the rough edges, to break stubborn feelings, and to settle down the images and emotions which may be hard to settle down in the developed society (Canetti, 1996).

The word 'industry' in the 'culture industry' is less associated with process of production and actual development and more towards techniques and standardization of distribution. Thus Adorno stated not to take this word literally as his concentration may be towards that elite groups are the basic runners of culture industry and he adds that the consumers of culture industry are purposely incorporated from above. The importance of the word 'culture industry' towards him is due to his thought that masses are the only basis of mass culture. Thus the assessment towards this level of culture industry has been more like a conspiracy theory where the masses are regarded as the sufferers as a few people dominate the masses from above and operate the media and having a power of all other channels of mass ideology and culture. The misunderstanding is clearly communicated to Adorno. As an instance, it was declared by Adorno and Horkheimer that the culture industry which is favoured by the thinking of people is actually a part of the system instead of being an excuse towards it. A collective picture of any society is understood to be its culture. Regardless of the fact that powerful and overriding stakeholders shape the features of the culture, but they cannot be the sole creators of the culture and inside processes because what becomes popular is visible in collective social behaviour. Even you can find lots of features and elements of the popular culture in the mass media and its depiction of the society. However, still this doesn't mean that the powerful are the sole 'Godfathers' of culture (Adorno, 1992).

As the saying goes on, 'you can give lecture a man about philosophy, but can make him philosopher' the same goes for media and its depiction of social behaviours. There are many things which divert the attentions from popular behaviour as well as can attract towards it. However, this doesn't stop the culture and trends from being popular or spread ahead. When you observe the behaviour of a social club of consumers, you will find them obsessed with searching appeasement and joys in materialistic things that are attractive. Their irritation and alienation from social circle further pushes them to consumption (Foucault, 1984).

If you look at the TV commercials and advertisement, you will find the hidden message that if you want that particular happiness, you can get it with this product or service. In the best possible soft words, commercials are a handy tool for capitalist mindset to capture a non-political and less active mind even in its pastime (Foucault, 1984).

In his book "Culture Industry Reconsidered," Adorno describes the phenomenon as 'people can't be held responsible for measuring the culture, the philosophy of the culture is the base for measurement, though it also hardly finds any match-up with the masses." 5 Furthermore, he says; "the earning and profiteering opportunities are transferred into many cultural domains."6 In simple words, the industry converts everything in the culture as essential commodity that people badly need to experience the happiness, as per the fundamentals of capitalism. Despite its sluggish orientation, public role in flourishing the industry is beyond any doubt. On one hand, people are the target audience, while on another place they work as the primary tool for the commercialism (see Adorno, 1998).

They don't play any political or administrative role in the system, yet their role is highly important because they are one of the most dominant parts of the system, they bring more people and attract others to the products and services as per the real capitalist market characteristics. The people's culture and mindset is based on where the wind blows, while fetishism can be declared as the engine of this wind that ultimately leads them to become submissive item to the commodities in the commercials. However, this doesn't mean that mass media's role is only to befool people; instead, it creates needs and attraction towards the objects (Deleuze et al., 1987).

Majority of the enterprises have the sole philosophy that is the baseline for capitalism and you can see that majority of the basic principles of capitalism have not changed since Marx's demise. One of those principles is the accumulation of wealth and power in the system that ultimately increases the profitability of the enterprise and increases the value for the shareholders. In other words, for any non-profit seeking organization, the fundamental objective in the open market system is to earn profit. For this, industry fuels the needs, wants and desires of the people and persuades them to follow the process that others of the same generation are following (Deleuze et al., 1987).

Every cultural industry overruled by the domination of some influential personalities; whatever extent it may have. We cannot undermine or overturn the role of domination in any formation of culture. Theodor W. Adorno, a great German sociologist, said that the customer is not the king, as said by culture industry in being objective rather than subjective. The domination in any culture is nurtured side by side with the formation of its culture. It is useless to control it because the process of its formation can never be controlled. But it is not right to say that domination is only associated with the politician or the leaders of that society (Adorno, 1998).

It is very logical and rational to find and create a relationship between the cultural formation in a society and the state of mind of the people inhabit in it. Moreover, it is not about a producer and the users or an influential person and the emerging personality. But there is a two side of a rope in which one side is pulled by a dominate person and other side is hold by popular people of a system of a culture. Adorno considers that it's concern for masses is misused by the culture industry so that their mentality, which is unchangeable and given can be strengthened, reinforced, and duplicated (Adorno, 1950; 2001).

At the matter of fact, the culture is a mixture of the people and the influential and dominant people. Foucault said that the domination is a matter of social and historical background of a place and it should not be misunderstood within the context of some influential and political personalities. So, the domination cannot be taken into the consideration without knowing the historical and sociological background. When we start considering the people as a whole, the whole theory would be changed and at that moment the analysis would be totally based on the real facts (Adorno, 1950; 2001).

The daily works and overall working setup of a society creates a stand of mind and that mental setup is the real depiction of the society. Recurrence of an activity gradually becomes the part of the basic nature of any human mind. Adorno in "On Popular Music" said that the standardization is primarily the best property of the music, on the other side when we take non-standardization; it is more or less about the stern state of music. The popular music holds the similarity and repetition of the beats and lyrics. People from that context love to be in that state of mind (see Adorno, 2001).

Mass mentality of a group of people is addicted to foolishness which leads the incapability of absorbing the depth of art. Art wants seriousness in the participant intellectual state on mind and it is noticeable in the output of the art works. Art works within the limit of human pleasure and it works easily with the people's mind setup (Frascina, 1992).

Adorno believes that product's pre-digested quality lasts, consistently justifies and establishes itself due to those who are not willing to digest already pre-digested. Nonetheless, it is similar to baby-food, possessing similar inclination towards repetition of needs that it creates initially.30 A strange and different production should not be considered an artwork for everyone. A best suitable art is very close to the mental level of its recipient. But the fact is that popular music dismisses the thoughts of the people, on the other side, the serious music affects the people in a positive way (Adorno, 2007).

Adorno think that there is a distinction between popular and higher art. Popular culture is not the only product of masses but mental level of mass is not idle enough to digest cultural values higher that the popular cultural values. There is relation in human consciousness and art and that is a concern of Adorno. According to Adorno, in this era with advancement in capitalism nothing is stopping expansion in the human freedom, neither popular nor higher culture. The idea of "autonomous art" is supported by him after the world war two (Adorno, 2007).

Static Case of Control is not represented by the modern culture industry, instead it is now a very dynamic and creative process and dialectically functional hegemony. If continued in this way with mentality of so called mainstream as a culture then cultural business would get hurt badly in long run. In this environment cultural industry is unable to market its products. Only thing that can save culture is the social strength by consciously rejecting this modern fashioned cultural and evolve a new fashion of original culture. Culture industry provides people what they want. It does not negate ideas of people rather that it embeds them in the society culture and gives a value of domestic element. People invest with anger, boredom, and rebelliousness. Mentality of people is the important thing that makes culture industry grows. It is not feasible to deny and stand against what is considered mainstream in the present culture but the actual cultural in the advertisement is represented as outdated and common. It would be beneficial for the culture. When some groups would be attracted to the "outside-ness" and steadily converting that to a fashion. It would make the cultural raw material utilization and some set of people would always be attracted to the "outside-ness" culture because of boredom built into it. In this modern social life, cultural industry does not have much weight age of art in the industry but it has profit as a criteria. Most popular supplies in the culture industry are the groups that rebel from the common cultural standards. These groups prefer to get popular attention of people and provide an attractive fashion for popular mentality groups. To save cultural industry from decline by overriding these groups because they really provide a perpetual and scalable fashion for the popular groups. One more thing that is hurting pure and conventional cultural industry is not considered as fashionable instead it is taken as middle-class (Frascina, 1992).

Cultural industry is part of actual industrial world and not a standalone type of industry. It has the potential of adopting any idea that can be popular and make industry profitable. It is the popular mentality that impacts the industrial decisions. Popular philosophy is not considered important and value able by serious philosophers of the world instead it is intended to the dismissal of belief. A philosopher with very serious intellectual assets would not become an icon of popular but he would prefer to be in the mentality group and he would become popular like a rock start with very simple slogans. Nietzsche or Marx became popular only when they simplified themselves tragically (Frascina, 1992).

Mass media plays important role in increasing the number of targeted consumers. Multi-layered advertisement work in mass media produces the greatest number of targeted recipients. A large number of the potential consumers are targeted by advertisements. The mass media targets a large number of audiences, creating a type of work that proves to be thrilling for cultivated audiences and more challenging for cultivated recipients. One of the examples is of the sixth sense film (1999) along with The matrix (1999), have gathered audiences from various intellectual backgrounds. These people are capable of speaking about different intellectual as well as sensational stimulations (Berstein, 2001).

"Multilayered" was a single word description stated by Adorno about the mass media. The adjective seems to be very appropriate. However, whatever work was produced for the recipients was not appreciated by them due to certain aesthetic reasons. The art work may have been a source of attraction for many audiences but for a few people it turned out to be rather strange because according to them, there was a difference between high and low art. The perspective behind is that a few art works can receive acceptance from both the ordinary and critical audiences. They actually produce various discourses and each of them carries a particular intellectual apparatus (Adorno, 2007).