thestig, Horkheimer and Adorno

the CAPITALIST

“The routine translation of everything, even of what has not yet been thought, into the schema of mechanical reproducibility goes beyond their rigor and scope of any true style – the concept with which culture lovers idealize the precapitalist past as an organic era” (46).

I agree with what Horkheimer and Adorno are pointing out in this quote, and I think they use some strong examples to support there claim. It really is incredible how commodified everything is in today’s world. Things that used to be made to order are now mass produced. The “precapitalist past” is an “organic era” because it represents the time where companies were driven more by their input in society than the capitalistic nature of today’s business owners. Today’s business owner is ruthless: he or she has created this “schema of mechanical reproducibility” by commodifying items. This is the process of making a product more cost efficient. This involves outsourcing, lowering wages, cutting corners in tax payments, and lowering the quality of the item produced. It shatters the organic era’s spirit in one’s ability to achieve, for example, the American Dream. What’s interesting about this point is the first part: that everything, even those ideas that haven’t been imagined (ideas that may help fulfill one’s definition of the American Dream), will fit into the category of being a commodity. When one thinks about moving forward, or “big ideas” about the future, one thinks in terms of commodification. Is this true? Are people more interested in how much money they can make as opposed to how solid of a product they can produce? An example of capitalism, and the long lost sense of an organic era in today’s world is seen in the real estate market through urbane urbanism. Horkheimer and Adorno address this feature of society to show “mass culture under monopoly (urbane urbanism) is identical. Are these housing projects well built, or are they just cheap housing that creates enormous profits for the business owner?

I’m not an expert on this issue, but from my experiences, these mass produced communities are not built well. This is a relevant problem in the greater New Orleans area, as families and businesses are still in the rebuilding process. Should major real estate firms go into New Orleans and build a Baldwin Park, or are those homes not strong enough to withstand hurricanes? Will the buildings last like the housing projects did? It’s ironic that some of the cheapest housing in New Orleans, the housing projects, didn’t get destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They were built in the “organic era” and, despite the poor urban planning – a major, major downfall to these projects – were built very well. It’s too early to tell if the capitalist way of building homes is going to work, but what we do know is how effective the “schema of mechanical reproducibility” is.