Man-made neon signs presage society’s frozen death yet remain humanly controllable

Evidence

The neon signs which hang over our cities and outshine the natural light of the night with their own are comets presaging the natural disaster of society, its frozen death. Yet they do not come from the sky. They are controlled from earth. It depends upon human beings themselves whether they will extinguish these lights and awake from a nightmare which only threatens to become actual as long as men believe in it. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 137

Categorization

• SEED: An essay on the urban lightscape: corporate neon as a man-made apocalypse-image that is nonetheless earth-controlled — the spectacle we can switch off.
• CANDY: Adorno’s image of city neon as comets foretelling society’s death — except they’re plugged in from the ground — is a memorably dark one-liner for any urbanist.