Adorno and Horkheimer: ideology as false conciousness ​

I found Adorno and Horkheimer’s essay really interesting, especially the ways in which they read mass culture and the consequences it has in society. Their anxieties are based on the ways in which a capitalist economy and ideologies influence their people through false consciousness. For them, when a culture is under false consciousness, they are being brainwashed by the ruling class, incapable of thinking or having ideas of their own, and they are passively incited to follow those of the ruling authorities. The short clip we watched in class of a man who discovers the truth behind mass culture only when wearing sunglasses reminded me of an image that I found while researching more about the culture industry.

drawing by Eric Frooker
http://martinkrenn.net/the_political_sphere_in_art_practices/?p=1671

Eric Frooker’s drawing named “Censorship” shows a man being blinded and muted by capitalist authorities. The words: “consume,” “scandal” and “sensationalism” among others stand out since they are clear and legible, illustrating Adorno and Horkheimer’s arguments. In both examples, the short clip and Frooker’s image, mass culture is pictured as something that makes people blind and unaware of the truth behind this ideology. In Frooker’s image, however, the hands are telling the man what to do and when to do it; they are showing him what to see and say, not giving him another option but to follow their orders which they only accomplished by blinding him from the truth. I see the hands covering the man’s means of expression (his eyes and mouth) as a metaphor for the “authoritarian hands” that Adorno and Horkheimer were hinting towards on their essay. He cannot see nor talk, thus a revolution is prevented.