000ooo000ooo 3.25

In class yesterday the quote I was responsible for analyzing went as follows:
"Culture today is infecting everything with sameness" (41).
At first I did not consider the language used in this quote, only the message. However, after having some more time to process the quote and think about its implications, I now see the language as very important. The thing I find most interesting is how "culture" is treated almost like a living entity, capable making decisions and doing what it wants. This implies that there is some sort of brain for "culture" that determines its actions and pushes it to "infect everything with sameness". For an intelligent being to do something it must perceive and action as advantageous. This is the part that's most puzzling to me, who is gaining from this cultural sameness? Or is culture just a random natural force, like the wind, that acts upon us and we can't control it?
Horkheimer and Adorno would probably argue that the giant brain behind culture is the "Culture Industry". The goal of this industry is to make money so it can be assumed that whatever "they" are doing is believed to be the best choice financially. Somehow then, if Horkheimer and Adorno are correct, sameness must be financially viable. The simple solution we have talked about in class is that once a good formula has been found it is repeated in different forms. Going outside of this formula is risky because one cannot be sure people will like it and often people will feel uncomfortable about something that is radically different from what they're used to. But, where did this original idea for the "good" form come from? Before this form was invented was culture much different than it is now? It seems that every culture, throughout history, is just a bunch of likenesses between people and their tastes. Eventually something happens, whether it be a war, natural disaster, economic disaster, etc. that makes people unable to afford whatever it is they like (either because they don't have time or they don't have resources) and so everything goes away until a new culture rises up and promotes new things. A culture full of "newness" would probably be a very interesting place to live and there's no real way to predict what this would look like, but I would question Horkheimer and Adorno to provide some sort of blue print for making this happen. What can people do to attain this?
This is a very prevalent issue in our world today as new communications link even the most distant cultures (Osama bin Laden commonly communicates with the American people through videobroadcasts). Eventually this sameness could envelop the world and unless the entire world's civilization fell apart, it would be extremely challenging to break this sameness.