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Post-Modern America
Term Paper ID:27456
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Argues that American society, politics, & economy can be thoroughly classified as post-modern. Defines the post-modern sensibility & analyzes contemporary socio-cultural conditions. Discusses the role of Adorno & his followers.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Argues that American society, politics, & economy can be thoroughly classified as post-modern. Defines the post-modern sensibility & analyzes contemporary socio-cultural conditions. Discusses the role of Adorno & his followers.
Paper Introduction:
Introduction
The question of whether we live in a post-modern culture will be examined through an analysis of contemporary political, economic and cultural conditions in the U.S. The discussion will first begin with a description of postmodern sensibility. Key portions of this sensibility (particularly the importance of image) will then be presented, through a overview of the predominate role of television, media consultants and the relative absence of active citizens in modern political campaigns. The paper will go on to argue that the American economy itself can be classified as post-modern, characterized by flexible accumulation and personal insecurity. The analysis will conclude with a discussion of how Adorno and his supporters might respond to the claims of post-modern theory, taken the
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This type of relation appears almost inevitable in a culturebased on T.V. In the shadow of the silent majorities. What one is accustomed to designate as an "individual" is nowseen as only a multiplicity of forces, desires and bodily flows. Oxford, England:Blackwell. (1986). The condition of postmodernity. Emancipation for Adorno seems to mean ideally,the overcoming of the present untruth of the whole, i.e. He believes that sincethe 197 s, a new regime of move flexible accumulation has emerged inloosely coupled transnational alliances of local market centers, factoryconcentrations, technology innovators, capital pools and publicadministrators. This artificial environment of global webs of trade, asthey are now structured, all embody agendas and prerogatives of statebureaucracies or corporate enterprises, that have worked for over a centuryto reduce individual autonomy and communal freedom to a minimum in order tobolster the centralizing Federal Government and Fortune 5 companies. After the great divide: Modernism, mass culture,postmodernism. The media now, as the voters once did, attempt to pin down candidates'stands on the issues. Allan, R.C. The Louis Mumford reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. The news media itself now seems to serve more and more as a surrogateelectorate during much of any candidate's campaigning. (1984). NY:Semiotext. One such notion is thecommercialization of art and life. What Adorno's perspective lacks is perhaps the equivalent of theMarxist category of "praxis." While in Marxist theory this process wascarried out by the party, what it could mean in our contemporary postmodernsituation is simply the conscious activity of living human beingsnegotiating everyday life the best way they can. The consumer is seen as scattered,disconnected, interchangeable, and ephemeral, a subject that is eager tobecome other than that which he or she already is. (1991). Throughbureaucratic surveillance and commercial normalization, the agendas ofthese machines are to control the entire community at every point of humanexistence. In fact it would appear that a key problem of American governmentsince the mid-197 s has been the impact of the global economy oncommunities and citizens. images, inasmuch as the media construct and sustain themodern televisual mediascape. In this film Reagan is connected with the conduct of everyday life,and the course of even ordinary daily events is made dependent uponretaining him as President. The less able are left seeking newentitlements from a weakened federal government still coasting on themomentum of its Cold War authority, which rests on the power to tax andspend and the prerogatives of territorial sovereignty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Actor as president: Half hourcommercial wraps him in advertising's best. Yet in succeeding, these internationalmegamachines have apparently so abused the environment, socialinstitutions, and common culture that its authority has gradually beendelegitimated.Post-Modernism, Frankfurt Theory and the Future Adorno has stated that the whole is untrue--and accordingly the wholeremains as unreasonable, fateful, and threatening as it always was becauseof the control of the few over the means of production and the relentlessconflicts this generates. Baudrillard, J. (1989). Perhaps the totality is notfalse, perhaps the subject does still in fact exist and perhaps the allpowerful culture industry is not as all-powerful as it is often assumed.Once these assumptions are thrown into question then the romantic critiqueof modernism and postmodernism may have a crucial role to play inovercoming pessimism. If one posits a world already judged to have beenoverwhelmed by the ubiquity of market relations, then any culturaltraditions or "reactionary communities" offer no hope for resistance to thelogic of the given. . Postmodernist descriptions of the disappearance of subjectivity andthe active citizen fit nicely into Adorno's framework. (1986). Martin Jay (1984) in his Introduction refers to what he labels as themandarin cultural conservatism of Adorno. . Out of this mix, transnational firms produce world cars, globalhamburgers, planetary pants, or earth shoes to sell everywhere, making atravesty of either nationalist campaigns to "Buy American" or xenophobicreactions to resist "Americanization." Harvey observes that the, . Another is the mixture or blending ofelite and popular culture. Within postmodernism, distinctions between highand low culture have largely been abandoned. News media personnel also appear to constitute thecore of opinion leadership. Yet there are also smaller economies bound upwith much less flexible capital or military support systems that cannotcompete nationally, much less globally. (1992). Harvey, D. If subjectivity is indeed being threatened then those elements ofculture which contribute to a strong sense of personal identity (family,neighborhood, religion, tradition and community) all must be strengthened.These "reactionary" forces then may hold the key to disrupting the logic ofthe given. It may be that his Marxist perspective prevents himfrom seeing any positive role for that of tradition or community.If Adorno would have been able to abandon his Marxist unilinear metaphysicshe could have possibly visualized alternative political-social arrangementsthat could transcend postmodern pessimism. Adorno. And in the arena ofpolitics the active citizen has apparently almost disappeared.Television, Image, and National Politics The prominent role of the image in postmodern society seemsparticularly striking when analyzing televised electoral politics (Poster,199 ). Introduction The question of whether we live in a post-modern culture will beexamined through an analysis of contemporary political, economic andcultural conditions in the U.S. Many more privileged U.S. (Adorno, 1973). He is a central sign signalling the rebirth ofAmerica. In the 1984 campaign, for example, Ronald Reagan's media advisorsmanufactured a rich package of carefully chosen images to convey thepresident's charismatic authority. In the same vein, postmodernism appears to have adopted some notionsthat were at best only hinted at in modernism. Clendinan, D. Adorno sees the eclipse of subjectivity as a fundamental problem.Obviously, if there are not subjects anymore it is impossible to revitalizeanything. Mumford, L. He rides, does ranch work, cuts wood--proving he isyounger than his years and able to turn in another solid term of office.These images prove he is an active president and a vigorous man. At theconvention, when the film ended, as the lights went up, the screen of "thefilm" faded into "Reagan live," striding to the podium as if hematerialized from the film (Clendinen, 1984). Yet Jay also states that at times Adorno did seem to yearn forthe return of the presumably authentic individuals of early bourgeoisculture. The discussion will first begin with adescription of postmodern sensibility. Public opinion research onelectoral behavior then track the supposed psychosocial needs shared by thevoter, who, in turn, accept the politicians' imagery and consume thetheater of their own stylized activity (Atherton, 1984). (1984). The active citizenseems more and more a memory as his or her role is taken over by the rovingpress corps. Furthermore ad hoc, single-purpose campaign organizations, frequentlyfunded by a largely self-selected candidate's specialized political actioncommittee, surface at the start of a new electoral cycle to raise funds,hire professional consultants, conduct market-research polling and engineera charismatic image for the candidate. What becomes a fascinating question is whether there is a way out ofthis theoretical impasse. T.V.campaigning on a national level has largely displaced formal politicalparties as channels of personal identity. Television has become the primary network through whichcommunication techniques are used to exert influence over others. The very concept of self appears to have been largelyliquidated. Jay, M. (1973). With the approach of the primariesor general election the candidates' campaign organizations blitz the vitalsymbolic themes that their polling has uncovered as central in the votersminds. The analysis will conclude with a discussion of howAdorno and his supporters might respond to the claims of post-moderntheory, taken the contemporary cultural, economic, and political conditionsin the U.S.Postmodernism Postmodernism gained currency in the 196 s with reference to certaintendencies in art and literature, but by the 198 s its meaning wasexpanded to describe a much more pervasive social and cultural mood withinthe whole of Western life. In addition, with television,candidates can work outside the traditional parties, substituting their TVcharisma for "real" charisma (Baudrillard, 1983). In these respects, at least, it seemsto represent an extension--not an overcoming of modernist modes ofthinking. Jay does not seem to seeany hope for including such ideas in a perspective that might offer theopportunity for overcoming the disappearing subject described bypostmodernism. NY: Harper Row. As Adorno correctly points out in his essay on Resignation, unthinkingactivity only supports the status quo whereas the ideas of theuncompromising critical thinker continue to maintain a grasp on thepossible. Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of latecapitalism. The party is still legallyimportant in terms of getting on the ballet, and in some voters' mindsremains an important attribute of the candidate. (1983). Why was it necessary in Adorno's thinking that all potentiallyoppositional elements were instrumentalized by the logic of domination?Part of the reason may have been his surprisingly crude ideas about theclass struggle. Yet in some of Adorno's writings Jay says that Adornoseemed to identify with the romantic critique of modernization. However, for both postmodernism and Adorno thereappears to be an overwhelming pessimism about the possibilities of change. Silicon Valley) tiedto competitive capital that remain capable of beating everyone or anythingin the global marketplace. Thepaper will go on to argue that the American economy itself can beclassified as post-modern, characterized by flexible accumulation andpersonal insecurity. Jay pointsout that Adorno consciously struggled to turn the arguments of mandarincultural despair in a popular direction and that contrary to postmodernistsentiment, Adorno drew a distinction between high and mass culture.Ironically, perhaps within the ideas of tradition and community (labeled byJay as inherently reactionary--yet crucial ingredients of local cultures),there is a way out of Adorno's pessimism that he could not acknowledge ordid not see. His concept of theculture industry and its link to a totally administered society prefigurethe power of the image and the influence of transnational corporations onthe postmodern economy. Negative dialectics. Jay labels these ideas asregressively oriented romantic anti-capitalism. Lewis Mumford (1986) has called these apparatuses "megamachines" ormass organizations able to perform tasks that lie outside the range ofsmall business, and loose tribal or territorial groupings. A later portion of the film cuts to the March 1981 assassinationattempt. But in other respects, the postmodern outlook seems to movebeyond modernism and to produce something novel (Huyssen, 1986). Within such a framework,alienation is always necessarily partial and there is always a degree offreedom. Thus the candidate and his image rather than party affiliation appearmore an more crucial in American politics. Opening with images of sunrise over a farm the film immediatelymoves into Reagan's 1981 inaugural oath of office, then into a stream ofimages: cowboys working in a corral, a worker at the bench, a paper boy,commuters, a flag-raising at a camp, the Capital building at night with aflag and, then, Reagan in the Oval office remembering he is the custodianof a mighty institution as he recalls the meaning of America and thepreceding images in its "new beginning" (Clendinen, 1984). In addition the eighteenminute film produced by his media advisors played a prominent role at theconvention and in the fall campaign. In additionmedia personalities also work to extract pledges of policy direction, postelectoral responses to public problems and assurances of governmentattention to pressing needs.The Post-Modern Economy Frederick Jameson (1991) has maintained that the postmodern conditionmay also signal a new social system beyond classical capitalism. Poster, M. Caught within the territorial domain ofWashington's rule, there are smaller economies (i.e. Taken these suppositions, itwould seem that Adorno would be quite sympathetic to many strands ofpostmodernism and, in fact, some of his ideas may have prefigured thismovement. citizensare now building private communication systems, living in gated communitiesand employing private security guards. They handicap the competing candidates, notingwho leads, who lags, who is a sure bet, or who is a long shot. Key portions of this sensibility(particularly the importance of image) will then be presented, through aoverview of the predominate role of television, media consultants and therelative absence of active citizens in modern political campaigns. New York Times, A-18. NY: Harper Collins. Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press. These gigantic webs of production, consumption andadministrative control interlock labor and capital, matter and energy,producers and consumers in exchanges of directed work that sustain life(Mumford, 1986). . Then media imaging target the issue subgroups and demographicsegments that precinct analysis, opinion surveys or televised spots haveidentified or created as critical voting blocs. the result has been the production of fragmentation, insecurity and uneven development within a highly unified global space economy of capital flows (Harvey, 1989, 294-295). Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. It doesnot seem accidental, therefore, that so many of the postmodern views ofself closely mirror concepts of the self encouraged by advertising and theprevailing commodity culture. Jameson, F. Chapel Hill,NC: University of North Carolina Press. Channels of discourse, reassembled. . The mode of information. Today charisma seemslargely manufactured through marketing techniques. Phrases such as "Springtime in America,1984," "Leadership that's Working," and "America is Back," helped to createthe coalitions and voting blocs for a landslide. It may be time for the apostles of postmodernism to truly becomecritical and recognize the inadequacies of their present theoreticaldeductions. Another, later cut of the film assuresthe viewer that Reagan can "do it." Crossing billowing plains of grass andpurple mountains in a rapid scan, the film shows Reagan back at his SantaYnez mountain ranch. (1984, September 14). However such a perspective would require Adorno and his supporters toreexamine some of their most cherished ideas. Furthermore a transformationin the concept of the individual also appears to have taken place inpostmodernism. Media politics. Huyssen, A. the generalizedreification resulting from the fracture of society into capital and labor,state and citizens, and thinking and doing. References Adorno, T. Jay (1984) states that Adorno did not allow himself to feel thatnostalgia for lost communities that Tonnies had contrasted to soullessmodernism. Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, TeddyRoosevelt, and Eisenhower became candidates on the basis of theirextraordinary political stature or military heroism. (199 ). flexible accumulation typically exploits a wide range of seemingly contingent geographical circumstances and reconstitutes them as structured internal elements of its own encompassing logic. Atherton, C. But in the last 25 yearsthe candidates and their paid professional consultants seemed to be moreand more in command rather than the party. Adorno did appear to try and thread his way out of thistheoretical cul de sac by deploying art as epistemology (Jay, 1984),substituting the artist for the knowing subject. Historically in the United States, war heroes or revolutionary figureshad real charisma. Harvey(1989) has further argued that this new social system is developing on theruins of what he calls the Fordist regimes of traditional industrialproduction, capital accumulation and state intervention, formed during the193 s through the 197 s in national welfare states. Like the modernist sensibility that precededit, postmodernism celebrates the immediate over the distant, the new overthe old, the present over the past. The postmodern economy and society appears to be one in which largestate bureaucracies and major corporate enterprises have operated theeconomic, political and social environments by moving away from independentproducership toward dependent consumerism, and out of free markets and intoadministrative systems of commerce. Chicago, IL: University ofChicago Press. Yet this position seemsto imply that there are at least some individuals who are subjects and arecapable of apprehending the true nature of reality directly and thencommunicating it through their art. In postmodernism the world of images has been embraced moreenthusiastically than before, and yet images are not perceived to be--asthey often were in modernism--ciphers to some higher spiritual truth.Rather, postmodernism lays no claims to such things as "higher spiritualtruths," so images refer to nothing in particular, except perhaps tothemselves or to other images (Huyssen, 1986). Any great man could do what Reagan has done so far, the filmhints, but only a truly extraordinary man with God's favor could do allthis after a nearly fatal shooting.
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