Captain Outrageous, 11/1

This week we examined the works of Adorno and Hebdige, discussing the culutre industry and the subculture industry respectively. I found these reading to correspond perfectly. Whether normalizing a subculture or normalizing a higher culutre, the process of mass production normalizes our cultural environments.

Normalization was the concept that most struck my fancy this week in conjunction with the concepts we discussed through Marx last week about those who control material production control mental production, likewise Althusser and ideology. As a capitalistic society, particularly as consumers, we don't often find ourselves being asked our opinion on what we want. As Adorno described, we never give an official opinion on anything and everything we do recieve is based off of our "needs". I don't personally recall telling Starbucks that I needed them to be in every strip mall or telling Apple that I needed ten different kinds of ipods. To break this down analyitically, there's somewhat of a chronological process. Someone (ruling class) makes a decision to create a product (material production), that will be the next big thing that people will want (ideology). Then suddenly Miley Cyrus happens and it happens everywhere. Then different kinds of Miley Cyrus show up (all culture being the same). Now I understand that society either accepts or rejects what is given to them, but we still don't have a say; mostly, because there are enough people who will buy it and the monstrosity continues.

Because of this, I find, is why normalization happens. Between the workings of ideology and media conglomeration, new trends and new culture enter our environment so rapidly and so vastly that its only natural for things to seem natural. And yes it is natural for the markets to change, culture to change, trends to change, but again, these readings showed us that its imperative to remember it is only natural because someone else makes it so.