This entry was posted on 3/23/2008 9:03 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
23 March 2008
Nietzsche, Adorno, and Clarke v. Winfrey - Nietzsche and Adorno Redux
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Disclaimer: Before you read the below, it is not my intention to offend just as it is far from my intention ever to follow a herd mentality. It is because I have been hyphenated all my life that I can come to create hyphenation thus overcoming marginalization by realizing inherent potentiality in all. Equally, from this perspective it is my natural proclivity to speak however ostracized and no matter how stridently...(If anything, take heart that I rant not against the person, but the mentality.)
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Oprah, how about a little less commodified-Hegel and a little more Nietzsche and Adorno? By the way, by transmogrifying and thus defiling Hegel, you are doing him a great disservice. Why not pick up one of his books before you decide to bastardize him, and maybe you will think twice about fetishizing his thoughts? (Has he not gone through enough already with Feuerbach and with Marx?)
Hegel notwithstanding, Winfrey - aka herdism via the cult of the almighty 'O' - is getting a little too careless and reckless with her power, influence, and fetishizing...
She is a sell-out and of the worst kind - that of the self-deceptive commodity that defiles unawares, thus perpetrating what Nietzsche railed so vehemently against: degeneration and decadence.
A little harsh? For the sake of our future, our culture, and any remaining claim to quality of life, not enough!
For someone with the power to make or break a writer and to influence impressionable minds by the millions, why can't she advise her followers to read a little more truth, at least now and then?
Truth as in facts and data,
truth as in the 'real' state of things,
truth in contradistinction to hypnotism and manipulation into a herdlike mentality.
Why not encourage a little individualism and authenticity of self through anti-narcissism and a little giving of the self in the everyday.
Why not encourage the quest for truth and accountability of our institutions, legislator, political leaders, and supposed 'watchdogs' by demanding disclosure, transparency, and the concrete?
A little too inconvenient, perhaps? Does not 'gel' with your advertisers? Not profitable, perhaps?
Sell-out aside, Winfrey would be wise to be reminded of not the Germany of Tolle, but rather the Germany of Adorno and the Frankfurt School:
In his essay, "On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening," Adorno states, "There is actually a neurotic mechanism of stupidity in listening, too; the arrogantly ignorant rejection of everything unfamiliar is its sure sign. Regressive listeners behave like children. Again and again and with stubborn malice, they demand the one dish they have once been served" (The Culture Industry, 1991, Routledge Classics, NY). Although he was writing about the fetishization of music, the exact same can be said of thinking - or the absence thereof...that can be re-written as:
There is actually a neurotic mechanism of stupidity in thinking, too; the arrogantly ignorant rejection of everything unfamiliar is its sure sign. Regressive thinkers or non-thinkers behave like children. Again and again and with stubborn malice, they demand the one dish they have once been served - and that has been served to them bastardized by the media.
Adorno drives the point further by stating, "That it happens, that the music is listened to, this replaces the content itself. The ecstasy takes possession of its object by its own compulsive character. It is stylized like the ecstasies savages go into in beating the war-drums. It has convulsive aspects reminiscent of St. Vitus' dance or the reflexes of mutilated animals. Passion itself seems to be produced by defects. But the ecstatic ritual betrays itself as pseudo-activity by the moment of mimicry" (ibid). Similarly, I can easily apply this to the state of thinking today with 'spot-on' accuracy:
That it happens, that the writer as chosen by the herd-leader is listened to, this replaces the content of the writing itself. The ecstasy takes possession of its object by its own compulsive character. It is stylized like the ecstasies savages go into in beating the war-drums. It has convulsive aspects reminiscent of St. Vitus' dance or the reflexes of mutilated animals. Passion itself seems to be produced by defects and a paralyzing fear to go against the herd. But the ecstatic ritual betrays itself as pseudo-activity by the moment of mimicry, herdism, and the passionate zeal to follow with the crowd, and read the latest book - the symbolic tenet of brainwashing - as dictated by the herd leader.
Unfortunately, the problem today is exactly the problem Adorno identified in the mid-20th Century (from his essay, "The Schema of Mass Culture," ibid):
"The renunciation of resistance is ratified by regression."
And this is herd behavior - not to resist the crowd - and by so doing, regress into a defiled, degraded, ersatz and pseudo-life absent of any quality...and this is the mentality perpetrated today...
"Ecstasy is the motor of imitation. It is this rather than self-expression and individuality which forcibly produces the behavior of the victims which recalls...the motor reflex spasms of the maimed animal."
This can easily reworded and apply today:
"Unwavering zeal towards herdism fueled by fear to stand alone, whole in individuality and authentic originality, is the motor of imitation. It is this rather than self-expression and individuality which forcibly produces the behavior of the victims which recalls...the motor reflex spasms of the maimed animal."
And the truth, the root of the problem is thus:
"Participation in mass culture itself stands under the sign of terror. Enthusiasm...reveals the fear of disobedience."
Indeed, we must follow the herd leader with blind enthusiasm for fear of missing out on our chance of a success akin to hers...
So why my diatribe against Queen Oprah?
Read Jesse McKinley's article, "The Wisdom of the Ages, for Now Anyway," in today's issue of The New York Times, and you will learn of Winfrey's latest reckless perpetrations of herdism and literary cultural decay. Moreover, her influence robs from the common man:
hope of his greatness in potentiality,
potentiality of his individuality, creativity, and truth,
truth of his authentic voice, reason, and sense, and
sense of his effective impression upon his presence.
Marx railed against the (unnatural) fetishization of labor and the commodification of man. To this effect, he warned the bourgeoisie and reminded the proletariat that ultimately, society would 'circle/flip back' to truth in self-correction and unveil the illusions of self-deception:
"All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind" (Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1888).
Ah, to dare to hope this will come to be for us today...
