Real contradictions within the concept of culture industry

Based on Horkheimer and Adorno’s text “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” and other works by these authors, this essay reflects on the concept of culture industry and its object, its contradictions with society and within itself, to present the ideologies conveyed by the culture industry-that of luck, of hyperrealism, of entrepreneurship or planning (liberal), of the duplication of reality (the cult of the fact) or as manifest lie- and on its contribution to psychic regression. In this sense, the essay stands in opposition to frequent interpretations that fail to address both the internal and external contradictions of the culture industry while still pointing out its limits. The need to continue criticizing it was thus evinced, recognizing its limitations and the potential for overcoming them.

Keywords:
culture industry; ideology; critical awareness; contradiction