Elmo, 11/1

In our class discussion on Adorno I felt as if everyone had a lot of good ideas and had a good grasp on the material at hand. I personally felt that by hearing what everyone else had to say I got a better grasp on the concepts from the reading. It was neat to see how Adorno’s ideas related back to what we had previously learned with Benjamin. Adorno and Benjamin relate well with regards to Adorno’s quote, “Mechanically differentiated products are ultimately all the same” (43). This quote basically means that everything we consume or are shown in stores is ultimately the same, just displayed differently. This relates to Benjamin’s idea that the reproduction of goods makes them less authentic. This seems sort of funny to me because if we are so into having something that is “real” and authentic, why do we play into the ideas of the ruling class by consuming their unauthentic, mass produced goods and ideas? This then relates to how we are absent-minded observers and just consume things without even thinking twice about what we are doing. This is how things gain so much popularity. For example, say there is a really popular article of clothing one season and everyone “must” have it. This item is usually very expensive and can only be consumed by those who have the means of doing so, usually the ruling class. However, the ruling class also runs large companies and can make this item and sell it to stores such as Target or Wal-Mart for them to sell at a much lower price point. This enables everyone to have it, and the trend catches on. This happens all the time over and over again. But these replica goods have lost their authenticity and therefore there’s the question, are they real? I would say no, but a majority of society would probably disagree. Learning more and more about ideology has really made me start to question things more but also has helped me understand why things happen the way they do.