sardine -- 9/18 -- cult industry

“The culture industry replaces pain, which is present in ecstasy no less than in asceticism, with jovial denial. Its supreme law is that its consumers shall at no price be given what they desire: and in that very deprivation they must take their laughing satisfaction” (Horkheimer and Adorno, pp 54, 55).

And Bill the Cat says, “ACK!”

My kid is watching TV in the other room, and the laugh track reminds him to find the show funny. But try to get away. Try to turn off the television for a while. We will run around like an addicts searching for the next hit. Marx is not completely right about religion being the opiate to the masses. The culture machine, television and the media have taken over.

We no longer live our lives; we witness them through television and the media’s point of view. Go into most people’s living rooms (including mine). Where is the TV? It is the Altar of our new religion. It is the family god. It is our new Smack. We turn the TV on in the morning to start our days. And we turn it off to end our days. We watch the news. We feel afraid. We watch a romance. We feel love. It keeps us company when we are alone.

However, these emotions are not real. Why not inject straight adrenalin? Why not inject pure oxytocin? We fake our ways through life, through work, relationships, waiting for the next hit? We learn to laugh at what is not funny. We desire what we don’t need: the new deodorant; the new dress; the new wide-screened television. The man stares at his life’s partner and feel empty. Out goes the old partner, and in comes the new Twinkie.

"Deprivation" is the MO in this culture machine. We only choose the forms and levels of the deprivation. Do we ultimately want satisfaction? It seems we only know we are if we can want. Then we deny it.