According to Marcuse
Phil 177
1) According to Marcuse: “Art cannot change the world but it can contribute to changing consciousness and drives the men and women who could change the world.” Following Marcuse’s argument, how does art accomplish the primary task of raising human consciousness against the reified world of commodities?
We live in a world where the masses are lead by an elitist class; in a world where the masses wake up every day and go to work for 8 to 10 hours straight, so that at the end of every month we can go and fulfill our fake happiness based on commodities. We work to maintain a system in which our hard work is just to serve this elitist class; which, by manipulating art for their own interest and creating pop art, they can find a way to rule all people. The real purpose of art is lost in this senseless, fake happiness world, which makes us think that everything is perfect. However; Marcuse, after making Adorno’s extremely complicated text easily understood by the masses, or the fittingly called proletariat a more understandable text, created a revolution that was lead by students and the people who were ready to face that reality and happiness wasn’t just a commodity.
These revolutionaries knew that we needed a change, after understanding Marcuse’s many points; the most important one is that no matter what, art by itself will never change the world consciousness. The purpose of art is to reach all human beings around the world (not just the elitist classes); change their consciousness; and, when that is accomplished; when all the masses, the proletariat or better known as the people, understand art, the real art, not just the pop art, they will be able to change the world. When the consciousness is changed for good, the world could be changed for a better place.
The problem of today’s pop art is that it keeps the world in a fake universe; where all the people keep thinking that they are happy when they are not happy in any possible way.
1) According to Marcuse: “Art cannot change the world but it can contribute to changing consciousness and drives the men and women who could change the world.” Following Marcuse’s argument, how does art accomplish the primary task of raising human consciousness against the reified world of commodities?
We live in a world where the masses are lead by an elitist class; in a world where the masses wake up every day and go to work for 8 to 10 hours straight, so that at the end of every month we can go and fulfill our fake happiness based on commodities. We work to maintain a system in which our hard work is just to serve this elitist class; which, by manipulating art for their own interest and creating pop art, they can find a way to rule all people. The real purpose of art is lost in this senseless, fake happiness world, which makes us think that everything is perfect. However; Marcuse, after making Adorno’s extremely complicated text easily understood by the masses, or the fittingly called proletariat a more understandable text, created a revolution that was lead by students and the people who were ready to face that reality and happiness wasn’t just a commodity.
These revolutionaries knew that we needed a change, after understanding Marcuse’s many points; the most important one is that no matter what, art by itself will never change the world consciousness. The purpose of art is to reach all human beings around the world (not just the elitist classes); change their consciousness; and, when that is accomplished; when all the masses, the proletariat or better known as the people, understand art, the real art, not just the pop art, they will be able to change the world. When the consciousness is changed for good, the world could be changed for a better place.
The problem of today’s pop art is that it keeps the world in a fake universe; where all the people keep thinking that they are happy when they are not happy in any possible way.