Graham, Horkheimer and Adorno

Horkheimer and Adorno focus a lot on the idea of ‘sameness’. They believe that we live in a world that takes multiple ideas, cultures, and ways of everyday life from various groups of people, and combines them to make a culture that is comfortable and understandable by the majority. In my economics class, we were discussing the way that media corporations attempt to create their films make a larger profit. Their goal is to often have a variety of characters, all with different personalities, so that viewers feel that they are able to relate with the characters. This will increase their profit, because people begin to feel as if they know that character. This is seen in shows such as Sex and The City, Friends and Seinfeld. 3 very popular shows which focus on the lives of the characters.
This ‘sameness’ is making a profit, and consumers are pleased with it, so why should it be changed? It goes with the old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The same things are being recreated over and over, and his is going to continue to occur until the “need” and “want” of the consumers change. People no longer want “new” ideas, they want what is popular and familiar. As a culture, we are very involved with ideologies, and if society tells us that the way that our country is currently working is doing a good job, then society does not feel the need to create something new.
Although this idea of ‘sameness’ is making the “big people” and ideologically important people a large profit every year, these authors believe that we are just living in an unoriginal world that is ran by companies, rather than consumers. Because this is happening and society accepts it without a fight, our companies are able to continue to do this. I do not even know if we as a society understand what is going on. Would we be okay with it if it becomes discovered that the United States of America is a country that is run on money and profits, rather than making it a better place to live?