The culture industry does the consumer’s cognitive schematizing for him

Evidence

The man with leisure has to accept what the culture manufacturers offer him. Kant’s formalism still expected a contribution from the individual, who was thought to relate the varied experiences of the senses to fundamental concepts; but industry robs the individual of his function. Its prime service to the customer is to do his schematizing for him. Kant said that there was a secret mechanism in the soul which prepared direct intuitions in such a way that they could be fitted into the system of pure reason. But today that secret has been deciphered. While the mechanism is to all appearances planned by those who serve up the data of experience, that is, by the culture industry, it is in fact forced upon the latter by the power of society, which remains irrational, however we may try to rationalize it; and this inescapable force is processed by commercial agencies so that they give an artificial impression of being in command. There is nothing left for the consumer to classify. Producers have done it for him. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 97

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core critical-theory claim: the industry replaces Kant’s a priori schematism of the imagination — the consumer’s own classifying function is performed by production.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core interest in this founding text — directly parallels claims Burns makes about media pacifying audiences. — connects to: The culture industry’s products prescribe reactions through signals to forbid reflection — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 107; Cultural products shape perception so that reality seems to continue the medium’s world. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 98; The culture industry does not fully determine what consumers think and feel. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 282 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Culture industry images function as written commands requiring automatic obedience #expands (0.90) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 133
• The culture industry does not fully determine what consumers think and feel. #contradicts (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 282
• Culture industry efficacy operates by exploiting consumers’ ego-weakness. #expands (0.80)
• Consumer conformity in culture industry is exploitation dressed as humanitarianism #expands (0.75)