Cultural mass production renders people interchangeable copies stripped of individuality

Evidence

The perfect similarity is the absolute difference. The identity of the category forbids that of the individual cases. Ironically, man as a member of a species has been made a reality by the culture industry. Now any person signifies only those attributes by which he can replace everybody else: he is interchangeable, a copy. As an individual he is completely expendable and utterly insignificant, and this is just what he finds out when time deprives him of this similarity. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 113

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: ‘The perfect similarity is the absolute difference’ condenses the whole dialectic: standardization of the category forbids individual identity, making each person expendable.
• XREF: connects to: Mass-produced culture reduces individuality to a stamped counterfeit detail — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 117; Mass culture literalizes reification by making living people resemble objects — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 137; Standardized production forces a compensating pretence of individualism — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 82 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Mass-produced culture reduces individuality to a stamped counterfeit detail #corroborates (0.95) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 117
• Mass culture literalizes reification by making living people resemble objects #expands (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 137
• Standardized production forces a compensating pretence of individualism #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 82