WouldntULike2Know Benjamin

“All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war.” (34)

Walter Benjamin’s, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” speaks for pages and pages about the significance of the different mediums of art. His grand finale after his long and in depth tirade focuses on the fact that “art for arts sake” does not exist purely and his highly influenced towards political motives.

As such, the most prominent example that I can think of is Leni Reifenstahl’s, Triumph of the Will. In the film, Hitler and Riefehstahl worked to create a mindblowing work of art (or propaganda) that was used to gain public support for Hitler’s movement. This film was released on the brink of the film era and all who watched it were absolutely amazed by the technology. Moving images cropped together show the Fuhrer being adored and cheered by tens of thousands of people. Such spread allowed many people to see the award winning film, a phenomenon that had yet to be experienced in that time period on such a grand level. The result of this technological breakthrough was devastating. The blind acceptance of this film allowed Hitler virtually no disruption to his goal and so began the slaughter of thousands.

To quote a very frustrated Duhamel, “I can no longer think what I want to think. My thoughts have been replaced by moving images.” (32) This distraction, while prominent decades ago, is still prominent today. Mass media reflect this distraction technique and get away with it without being questioned. Major news organizations and other media outlets blare what most trusting viewers assume to be “truth” and accept it as such and therefore behave according to its proclamations. The politicization of art, a cultural pastime, is why we are blindly accepting all that we see without batting an eyelash.