Adjustment to the status quo is easier than seeing through it
Evidence
It relies absolutely on the total structure as well as on each particular trait of the authoritarian character which is itself the product of an internalization of the irrational aspects of modern society. Under the prevailing conditions, the irrationality of fascist propaganda becomes rational in the sense of instinctual economy. For if the status quo is taken for granted and petrified, a much greater effort is needed to see through it than to adjust to it and to obtain at least some gratification through identification with the existent - the focal point of fascist propaganda. This may explain why ultra-reactionary mass movements use the ‘psychology of the masses’ to a much greater extent than do movements which show more faith in the masses. However, there is no doubt that even the most progressive political movement can deteriorate to the level of the ‘psychology of the crowd’ and its manipulation, if its own rational content is shattered through the reversion to blind power. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 205
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- DEEPTHINKING: The argument that irrationality becomes ‘rational in the sense of instinctual economy’ — that adjusting to petrified conditions costs less psychic energy than seeing through them — is a dense payoff worth sitting with.