C Wright Mills Influence On American Culture

Culture Industry
Johan Rosario
University of Central Florida

Culture Industry
The concept of “mass culture” was first coined in the book Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adorno. Due to a misinterpretation of the title, the name was later change to a term we are more associated with “culture industry”. Adorno, describes culture as a form of protest against the petrified relations under which individuals live, to the extent that culture (art) is free from the profit-motive, it is able to develop according to its own internal logic and thus voice essential social critiques (423). The culture industry it’s geared towards pretty much everyone. With the misconception that we control our own choices while adhering to American
freedoms. It actually “provides its customers with a totalitarian, conformist social landscape” (423).
I want to focus on one of the greatest American sociologist C. Wright Mills, due to his in-depth approach into American society. Mills developed his works into more contemporary examples of critical theory that applied to American society. Mills asserts for a just and moral society. His approach of culture industry was better explained into three of his concentrations: the power elite, white collar, and the sociological imagination. In the power elite, Mills engender the reality in the undemocratic character of America’s allegedly democratic governance (409). He explains how society its control by an iron claw of oligarchy from the aristocracy of the United States. There have been more popular terms in the media such as “the illuminati”, but Mills refers to them as “the big three”; Political, Economic, and Military leaders (409). In White collar, he targets the middle class. He describes “a sense of powerlessness often characterizes the growing ranks of white-collar professionals as their daily lives have become increasingly routinized and regimented under the demands of bureaucratic efficiency” (409). In the sociological imagination, he targets peers of his
profession and describes the current lost status in the field of Sociology “the promise of sociology was being lost, to the extent that academic research is being rooted in an ‘abstracted empiricism’ that concerns itself less with addressing pressing human needs that with uncovering scientific facts (409). Mills more salient vision was for a more just and moral society. We can see, how Mills describes and systematically criticized the status of American society, and how the responsibility came from the top to bottom (including his peers) to make a positive change. I agree with Mills in many different ways. His approach in examining American culture and society can give serve as a bridge between the understanding of our society and the people that influence it the most. Which takes us back to culture industry and its negative ways of influencing society. Culture industry is experienced everyday through different methods of advertising such as television, film, books, newspaper, etc.
According to Adorno, tied directly to the standardization of products is the ‘pseudo-individualization’ that endows ‘cultural mass production with the halo of free choice or open market on the basis of standardization itself’ (408). The culture industry affect us in our everyday lives. To the moment we first wake up, and to the moment we go to sleep. Everything we see, watch, and hear it’s galvanize towards the consumption of a particular product. I remember shopping for a toothpaste the other day and thinking that there were so many choices, which lead me to think that I was in control, but in reality, I was just a pawn in this chess called “culture industry”. Different branches of culture industry can be found through methods of advertising of how we should look physically, in order to be socially acceptable.
Diet pills have been at the center of controversy for various reasons. A news article published in the United Kingdom, titled “Victims’ families call for killer diet drug ban: Fat-burning pills have caused 60 deaths worldwide” and edited by Emily Davies. According to the article, Dinitrophenol (DNP) is a pill that it causes the body’s metabolism to speed up, burning fat while causing drastic overheating. There have been a numerous amount of diet pills that have been portrayed in the Media as the answer to many of our problems. Adorno, describes the purpose of culture as to render the impossible, possible, and to offer alternatives to existing social conditions (423). This was the story of Chris Mapletoft who was eighteen years old when he died. According to Chris mother, Lesley believes that if the drug had been criminalized her son would have been put off. As we look into a more stable explanation as in why this drug wasn’t criminalized, Chris mother is still mourning her son. As the book well states, culture industry “cheats its consumer out of the same happiness which it deceitfully projects” (423). Most of the media advertisement of products that promise to change our lives for the better, when in reality is the opposite. Chris Mother, Mrs Mapletoft, said that even though her son was sporty, he took DNP in order to look
‘perfect’ for the holidays. Which bring us back to the fact that the power of culture industry is that conformity has replaced consciousness (423). We cannot ignore the fact that are a total of sixty deaths worldwide because of the use of the DNP pill. The hidden reality behind this story, is that most of these people know in fact the danger of the DNP pill and consequences behind its use. Yet, they still take the chance by taking the medication in disregard to their own life. That’s how powerful is the culture industry effects in our societies.

References
Appelrouth, S., & Laura D. E. 2008. Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory: Text and Readings. Los Angeles, Calif: Pine Forge Press.
Davies, Emily, 2014. Victims’ families call for killer diet drug ban: fat-burning pills have cause 60 deaths worldwide. Daily mail, April, 9.