The Lord Voter Company: Henry Ford, Hollywood fatality and the modern American nation-state.pdf

“The Lord Voter Company”:
Henry Ford, “hollywood” fatality, & the modern
American nation-state.
Student: Garrick Givens
Professor: Joseph-Leeson Schatz
ENG 450V: Media & Politics
FINAL DRAFT
(5/6/14)

Contents ............................................................................................................................. p. 2
- Introduction ..................................................................................................................... p. 3-5
- U.S. Capitalism Influence on German Socialism ............................................................ p. 5-10
- “Arts” & “Governments” ................................................................................................ p. 10-15
- The “Cult”-ure Industry: Storefront of Mass Deception ................................................. p. 15-19
- Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... p. 19-21
Works Cited ....................................................................................................................... p. 22
G Givens 2

Capital competition amongst world powers toss and turn the currents that swell sovereign
global relations. “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall” states Jordan in
Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” 1. A passage referencing the detrimental nature of the cyclic
search that is the “American Dream”. Or, more concisely the fall harvest itself. The beginning of
the year’ inevitable end, cycle. Repetitions of seasonal cycles reproduce annual holidays,
traditions, like the fourth of July and New Year’s Eve . The “American Dream” can be
characterized exactly as such; a dream, illusion, or fresh fantasy (colonization of the United
States was a coup in development). Promotion for social change is merely a coded scrim that
states ”I, we, can do it better”. Colonists realized the value of owning and exploiting systems of
rule and law after the tumultuous oppression of the English monarchy. The founding fathers
(young socio-economic elite such as lawyers and doctors) aptly understood that their new regime
must be comprised of comprises to appease the masses2. “One might generalize by saying: the
technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition” 3.
Benjamin continues by stating that this detached copy, or reproduction, subverts tradition
producing “unique existence” (speaking of arts’ mechanical reproduction). Benjamin's text can
be utilized to examine the paralleled constructions and functions that exist between art and
government as reproduced objects. Like art, government, is a product that is packaged, mended,
and sold to the masses for consumption. I will explore how “arts” are governments and
governments are arts. “Arts” regulate frameworks of politically packaged morale codes via their
G Givens 3
1 Fitzgerald Scott, Francis. “The Great Gatsby”. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925. 118. Print.
2 Brown, Richard D. "The Founding Fathers of 1776 and 1787: A Collective View." The William and Mary
Quarterly 33.3 (1976): 374. JSTOR. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
3 Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." (1936). 221. udel.edu. Web. 1 Mar.
2014.

aesthetic reproduction. They also utilize image performance, the sustainment of physical decay
and change of ownership, and ingenuity of unique entrepreneurs or creative laborers (actors,
writers, etc.). Forms of sovereign rule, or “arts”, lack authenticity in nature because of their long-
standing reproduction. New-age American democracy guises traits of totality through what
Horkheimer & Adorno deem the “culture industry”.
The culture industry is the conglomerate industry formed via the cooperation of various
audio-visual media sources like film, television, and radio 4. It is an industrial apparatus utilized
to perpetuate a state’ political self-interests via the reproduction of standardized images.
Horkheimer & Adorno note that the culture, entertainment, industry is interconnected with the
larger economic and political sectors of society (as any industry, business, operating within the
public sphere relies on support of local and federal communities)5. The United States utilizes its
culture industry, “hollywood” influence, to define and glorify the desires of the so-called
“American Dream”. The media reproductions of regulated representations of life, or materials
meant to be desirable, are internalized by the public creating mass distortion of desire. The
mechanized reproduction of images further dilutes the image’ authenticity with every
reproduction 6. This is significant with regard to the portrayal of famed cultural and political
figures. Actors of the culture industry are simultaneously “actors of, for, the state”. Their on-
G Givens 4
4 Horkheimer, Max and Theodor W. Adorno. “Dialectic of Enlightenment”. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press,
2007. 96. Print.
2007. 98. Print.
2014.

screen image, identity, is edited by means of standardized production 7. The “sop” mediates
identity, representations of “real” life, for the intended goal of the work’ producers 8.
The U.S. took great advantages with the public image of Henry Ford (although not a film
or television actor analysis of Ford as an industrial figure turned cultural icon is significant
because it personifies the general “American Dream”). The notion that if one works hard and is
an entrepreneur, “original”, they can become rich, famous, and successful. Also, the unformed
process of Ford’s assembly line parallels the machine-like process by which reproductions of the
culture industry produce “new artworks”. Ford’s factory and assembly line, like arts and
governments, are vessels structured for the participatory cooperation of interchangeable cogs
such as actors, consumers, and producers, etc. Moreover, the mechanical reproducibility of “arts”
resembles the way in which power sources are established and function. The innovation of
technological image reproduction at the turn of twentieth century allows one to identify the
culture industry as the “motor” (or smaller, interchangeable part of the bigger machine) helping
drive the car-like machine that is the modern American nation-state. This motor is turned by the
interconnectivity of sub-industry media divisions, and the individual consumer/worker “cogs”
both famed and non that utilize and represent these industries.
Government efficiencies and industrial breakthroughs of the United States in the early
twentieth century were benchmarks appraised by Hitler during the formation of German
Socialism. Hitler and Ford viewed the bourgeoisie and union progressives as a deterrent in their
G Givens 5
2007. 124. Print.
8 For further understanding of the way in which on-screen representations contribute to the internalization of
reproduced standards see Andre Bazin’s article “The Ontology of the Photographic Image”

respective capital gain interests 9. In the early twentieth century Ford was domestically revered
for his ability to raise the wages of the working class to five dollars a day “single-handedly”
pushing a large sect of the populous through economic depression 10. Meanwhile, abroad, Ford
was notably gallivanting with Adolph Hitler (a tyrant soon to erode Europe with violence) 11.
This, a notable gap in morale image. Which begs the question who was this famed figure really?
The idyllic lens to which Hitler viewed Ford can be further illustrated with the detail of the
portrait Hitler kept of Ford in his office 12. This is significant with regard to the comparative
nature, aura, of art and government. Hitler’s idolization of Ford and the U.S.’ political prowess
was so strong Hitler felt the need to reproduce an additional image of Ford to have nearby (a
proximal reminder of the political pedestal spoilt in his mind).
German technocrats such as Hitler were enthralled by Ford’s innovative socialization of
labor. Ford theorized that rise in production would create a rise in profit. This profit would then
in turn create more happiness amongst employees and mangers 13. Ford’ sentiment preaches to
the “greater good”. That which is good the company is good for the individual (incredibly
Socialistic, no?). It is intriguing because through the lens of the American public Ford and social
movements inspired by him were viewed as savors of American “capitalism”. This provides
G Givens 6
9 Patterson, Charles. “Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust”. New York City: Lantern
Books, 2002. 76. Print.
10 G. Raft, Daniel M. "Wage Determination Theory and the Five-Dollar Day at Ford." The Journal of Economic
History 48.2 (1988): 388. JSTOR. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
13 Peach, Mark. "Wohnfords, or German Modern Architecture and the Appeal of Americanism." Utopian Studies 8.2
(1997): 54. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

subtle support that blurs the line of distinction between the American and German governments
of the early twentieth century. Sentiments such as “tough love” and “strength through joy” start
to appear not so family friendly or free with regard to the allure of Ford’s revelatory assembly-
line. A job, wage, and residence irresistible to large impoverished families 14. An offer so shiny
and attractive it beams upon the face like a big bright pile of gold. A commodity packaged and
available for sale.
Architecture (a considerable art-form itself). Physical man-made spaces, boundaries, that
compose environment. Physical representations, manifestations, of rule of law and regulation 15.
External spaces that shape the inner spaces of those inhabiting them. “Arts” in themselves are
reproductions of the mind or mental state. Ones mental state is primarily effected by their social-
economic status (setting and class). American livelihood, “architecture”, was an enviable
characteristic that Germans modeled during the nineteen-twenties 16. Plans implemented by
modern German architects earlier in the nineteen-twenties were not re-inventing a “new German
image” because they mirrored the weak bureaucracies of the central government and failed
public housing strategies. German architects began experimenting with horizontal expansion to
create the illusion of longer structures 17. This notion of architectural innovation is significant
with regard to the theme of mass deception. A means to spread and distribute structure,
manifestations of order, horizontally as oppose to vertically. To build a network “closer to the
G Givens 7
2007. 95. Print.
(1997): 50. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.
(1997): 53. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

ground” as oppose to a towering skyscraper for all to see. This self-consciousness, awareness, of
aesthetic appearance is key with regard to Germany’ adoptions of American culture and politics.
In order for an identity, of art or government, to be successful it must be conscious of the
developing status-quo surrounding social-economic culture. Comprehension and educated
estimates of the status-quo’ trajectory is the way in which leverage over the masses is
maintained.
Ford enforced rigorous hygiene policies for his employees to produce a sense “cleanly
morale” 18. One can speculate as to the deeper, abstracter, meaning of “enforcing cleanliness” by
Ford. Cleanliness alludes to universal uniformity (nothing should stand out and risk distracting
the “worker bees of the hive”). The space and those inhabiting them must coalesce as one entity
thereby producing a harmonious engine that clicks on all cylinders. One can attribute the
enormous success of Ford’s assembly-line as inspiration for the mass produced “Wohnfords”.
Cheap, unsentimentalized, modern housing communes that can be easily mass produced 19.
These “uniform dwellings” that Peach details can be associated with the structures that later
became known as “ghettos”. Housing projects utilized to entrap and quarantine sections of the
“unclean” (the Other).
Henry Ford’ inspiration for the assembly line came when he was visited a Chicago
slaughterhouse (mass assembled cars hoisted upon conveyor belts like the animals in the meat
packing plant) 20. This, a technique notably utilized later by the Nazis in mass extermination.
G Givens 8
(1997): 56. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.
(1997): 56. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

Though, the process to expand upon is the one in which large assembly of workers work together
in close proximity at high speeds. These processes figuratively resemble the mechanical
structures, machines, employees are producing; motors and cars. The workers are the “cogs” that
turn the assembly floor 21. The assembly line, factory floor, is the “motor” of the “car” that is the
company. Hour after hour, day after day, the workers reproduce, replicate, the industrialized
processes they resemble like a well oiled machine. The structure and processes by which the
mass assembly-line reproduced uniformed Model-T’ further resembles the standardized
reproductions of the culture industry.
Ford’s anti-semitism could only be downplayed to a degree because his ideologies were
documented and distributed throughout the world in the early nineteen-twenties 22. Many of the
racist papers published by Ford had a great deal of influence upon the Hitler youth in Germany
23. This influence, a resultant of Ford’ established famed image as an industrial success. Ford was
respected for his ideological pursuits to gain and create capital at massive levels. Again, one can
be puzzled by German Socialist affinity, gravitation, towards this capitalist mogul. It becomes
more and more difficult to ignore the influences of American Capitalism upon the development
of German Socialism. Ford could only help promote anti-zionist propaganda for so long because
of concern for the Ford Motor Company’ public image. Ford realized the ideologies could lead to
the detraction of car sales (Patterson, 77)24. This is intriguing because in this respect Ford’
G Givens 9

political views are a notable concern in the advancement of capital gain. The majority of day to
day actions, pursuits of capital, reflect political interests in nature (what we buy, where we buy it,
etc.). Ford is conflicted between the desires of his public image. Afflicted by the “artful”
portrayal of himself and his company. Livelihood is an indirect performance of identity. These
social “performances” are comprised by the perpetual reproductions of the culture industry (an
industry that banks upon standardized, mechanic like, reproduction of image and behavior). The
coalescing of the different sectors within the culture industry moreover reflects the industries’
strength as a whole 25. Horkheimer & Adorno highlight the unknown intangibility of the power
created via the intertwining of the different entertainment labor divisions. The varying creative
divisions are more or less machines in their right relying on the smooth cooperation of all it’
“cogs” or workers. This creative intertwinement produces a whole greater, grander, than the
intended sum of its parts by it’ producers (somewhat like an artful beast meant to be mysterious
and omnipotent). A new “unique” piece of work that enthralls and consumes the consumers.
Though, to further detail the illustrious impact of the culture industry, “hollywood”, upon the
political platform of the United States one must further understand the parallel relation of art and
government as reproduced objects.
The aura of any artwork is shaped by three creative bodies. In principle arts, “replicas”,
are created by students honing their craft, teachers propagating these propagations, and
additional third parties pursuing personal interests 26. This threefold productive influence
parallels the relation that exists between subjects of academia, government, and subjects of the
G Givens 10
2007. 96. Print.
2014.

culture industry. The products reproduced by the various artists, scholars, can only retain so
much “originality”. The interest, or goals, for the product vary throughout the hierarchal
structure of the “company”. The studio often exercises veto power against any material that
contradicts their envisioned goal for the product. An “individual” or “original” cannot exist
within the confines of the nation because borders, standardized constructs, have already
established a framework, schema, for interpretations of the cultural dialectic.
Pre-cinematic apparatuses such as lithography, camera obscura, and magic lantern
revolutionized technical image reproduction 27. Cinema was one of many United States
industries that excelled which help heighten the mass performance power of the nation. The
photographic documentation of a horse galloping by Edward Muybridge, and the Stanford
nation, was a huge achievement for academia 28. The ability to view the individual frames of
seconds (the reproductions of image) much closer than ever before. This progression in the study
of time and space (architecture of the universe) paved the way for various scientific
accomplishments to come. The ability of the nation to document image and replicate them soon
became a valued process of technical reproduction. It was these pre-cinema processes, and
efforts of Muybridge, that eventually led to the ability for standardized representations of life to
be produced via film, television, and radio.
The prestige of an artwork relies upon the maintenance of the work over a period of time
29. If the work can mend itself and remain fully functional through spurts of decay and change of
G Givens 11
2014.
28 Solnit, Rebecca. "The Annihilation of Time and Space." New England Review 24.1 (2003): 5. JSTOR. Web. 12
Apr. 2014
2014.

ownership than the “authentic appearance” of the object persists. This “unique” existence of the
structure is a projection formed through the proximal gaze of the given setting and time. The
main reason an uncanny allure of the “art” exists is because of the reproductions subtle
familiarity. The attraction to the representation of life is a manifestation of prior attachment 30.
For example, the repackaging of narrative plots television shows. The success of popular shows
today reflects the work’ ability to guise and expand upon the prior tropes of the genre. Also, the
“re-run” itself refers to this repetition of reproductive viewing in the title. This entertainment, or
amusement, of reproducibility parallels the veiled appeasement that is electoral procedure.
Political figures come and go with their popularity as do entertainment celebrities. Some
maintain long-standing careers and others are “one-hit wonders” that glimmer in the limelight
only briefly. These cyclic shifts in perceived cultural, political, power underline the vast
complexities that comprise modern culture.
The perceived power of a work as cultural “art” is measured through the transition of the
work’ “cult” and “exhibition” form (value). First, and foremost, “arts”, are works of magic
purely produced for cult-like worship and spectacle 31. Once an idolized aura has been
established around the work can a work then transition from its cult to exhibition stage. Only
after this transition can a populous become conscious of the art as an art; thusly transforming the
piece into a “new” commodity 32. Notions of reproductive development not only apply to the
final product but to the human figures that contribute to their construction. For example, Henry
G Givens 12
2007. 115. Print.
2014.
2014.

Ford and Ford Motor Company. First, came the recognition for the prestige of the bigger body,
the company. Then, came the notoriety of Ford himself. Once a public commodity such as a film
or car company “crosses-over” than smaller subsumed commodities, like employees (actors,
writers, etc.) can do the same and cement themselves as famed figures of reproduced
performance. The cult stage pertains to the initial releasee and feats of amusement endured at the
works expense 33. Amusement; a topic Horkheimer & Adorno deems a notable tactic of the
culture industry but diverts from this essay’ main focus 34. Then, the exhibition stage consists of
the responses by the public; fans, scholars, and colleagues placing the work on a pedestal
defining the object as art 35. In simpler terms, the fresh bait is taken, the “new” product is bought.
The reproducibility of culture parallels the repetitions of the political sphere. A
presidential candidate “tours” around the country marketing their political agendas. Acting,
performing, a packaged identity that subjectively targets particular sects of the populous
(primped and prepped to appear attractive and desired) 36. The cults of “cultural stars” (funded by
the film industry) preserves not the “unique” aura of the individual but the "spell of the
personality," 37. Another passage of Benjamin’s that alludes to the “magic” that comprises art in
its mechanical reproduction. A quality that is intangible yet familiar, thereby attractive, in its
G Givens 13
2014.
2007. 109. Print.
2014.
2007. 116. Print.
2014.

reproduction. The spell of personality is moreover a spell of this image performance. One must
continue to keep in mind product image of the culture industry is a multi-faceted, filtered,
process. The gestalt-effect of the larger product’ “performance” is shaped by the hierarchal
construction of creativity as detailed previously with Horkheimer & Adorno. This “magic”
Benjamin alludes to is the way in which different divisions of creative labor coalesce and
produce an entity that reaches far beyond the intentions of the creators.
As the electronic sect of the culture industry took form in the mid-twentieth century
intermedia art was still being reproduced in the “real”. Avant-garde Dadaists of the nineteen-
twenties stated, and practiced, that “arts” were procedural-like spectacles meant to evoke public
outrage 38. One can argue that political spectacles such as debates and local tour dates are similar
in this nature. These events are venues in which, accidentally or intentionally, incite political
friction from it’ creators and participants. A mediation of “third” parties contributions to this
“targeted tension” will be further expanded upon with Horkheimer & Adorno shortly. The
problem that arises for avant-gardes now, and of the early pre-war period, is their creative
endeavors reside under the eye of the state. Panoptic means of governing provide participants of
a state with conscious awareness of the rules of law that exist. Ability to recognize these bounds
creates an incentive for obedient cooperation. More or less, an urge to be another unformed cog
contributing to the machine that which provides livelihood. Notions such as these point to the
plausible convergence of the worker and the spectator 39. One can be trapped, captivated, by the
very machine they unknowingly help propel. Deceived into thinking they can break away from
G Givens 14
2014.
2014.

the ties that constrain. Year after year considerably practical processes like election campaigns,
political promises, and presentations of various cultural dialectics are cycled and repackaged via
the various “works” of the culture industry 40. The mediation of the culture industry in this
process will now be detailed further.
The reproduced attractions of the culture industry endlessly deliver “pleasurable
filibusters” (the prolonged fulfillment of promises, or objects of desire, meant to gratify the
masses ushering in an era of the “new man”, “new Being) 41. The illusions of want and will are
imitated by the differing creative divisions. Personal bias of writers may peer through in story
structure and trajectory. While actors prior life experience and training may lead them to discover
certain creative liberties within the role and text. These differing additions to the aura of the work
help further define this “magic” that glues mechanical reproduction. The culture industry
regulates, manipulates, mass emotion similar to that of totalitarian regimes regulation of citizen
livelihood 42. Totality structures reuse arbitrary fears and notions of an “Other” to spark
sentiments of nationalistic, local, unity (drama and fear for the sake of propagating drama and
fear). Artful reproductions produce these archetypes within their works despite the intention. The
spectator is prone to interpreting the work through their subjective gaze despite their internal
contexualition, consciousness, of the work as a work.
G Givens 15
2007. 97. Print.
2007. 111. Print.
2007. 122. Print.

Once fully “exhibited” spectators are subjected to the residual interdependencies that
reside in the work as a “unique” reproduction 43. Ford’s Sociological Department was reportedly
not shy about publicly critiquing the private welfare of their employees 44. The transparent
visibility, exhibition, of the company as a work within the public sphere motivated Ford to
“perform” private home inspections and “tighten up the ship”. Awareness of the art’ public
appearance produced the stated strive to “promote stable” or “cleanly” family life. Ford’ internal
monitoring of workers in their private residences after hours are processes that further help dilute
the company image of family-friendly labor. Ford’s company was a company that produced
means to entertain and ease life with cars. Secondly, the company produced means to inform
those politically unattached with propaganda. And thirdly, the company’ ability to persuade those
as to the significance of this propaganda was heightened by the global distribution. Ford’s
company is clearly a company, or piece of media, with multi-faceted appeal and means to
perpetuate it’ self-interests.
Ford preached notions that amusement and rest from labor in moderation are privileged
services that enable workers to perform more efficiently. It is these types of ideologies that
Horkheimer and Adorno would perhaps deem as “pleasurable filibusters”. The irony that
enthralls this participatory relation is that a spectator of a work can simultaneously, and
unknowingly, function as a focal point of a work (a little functionary cog in the motor of the car-
like machine much bigger, faster, and stronger than itself). Products of the culture industry are
G Givens 16
2014.

often untraceable amidst arrays of public distraction 45. More simply, “shady” products vanish
from the suspicions of public gaze quickly due to the emergence, and recollective appeal, of the
“new” attractions reproduced one after another.
The unique combination of image and sound is one of interest. The creation of the
“sound-picture”, cinema, expanded the potentiality of a product’ performative influence. Sound
is naturally deceptive because it imitates representation of life which are unseen. Sound balances
on the border of the unknown yet somehow familiar as a single stimuli of the senses. Sound, is a
technical reproduction more recently utilized in surveillance by NSA. But, in relation to Ford I
would ask one to amuse the authorial sensibility and humor an abstract approach to the “sound”
of the Ford factory. Picture oneself clustered amidst the bustling assembly floor. Verbal
communication was not useful due to the boisterous sounds of the machinery. The ambient
sounds of the factory provide an ominous unknown aura that masks any and all distractions (the
loud distraction that overshadows and subsumes the rest). The factory floor, and its hard working
blue collar workers perpetuate the internal rhythm of the industrial machine 46. This audible
rhythm dictates, coincides, with the breath. (the internal force that cleanses the external body and
makes one “purer”). Sound is in essence the breath of the machine. The ambiguous, white-noise
silence, that hums and purrs forward ever so subtly.
Ignoring the technological domination of the United States’ culture industry, “hollywood”
culture, and convergence with the political sectors of government would be foolish. The
uniformed production of slums such as “Wohnfords” are physical manifestations, paralleled
G Givens 17
2007. 100. Print.

representations, of the totality that composes the societal structure in which they reside 47.
Cultural livelihood is a resultant of the psychological permeations of setting and social stature.
The culture industry is falsely presented as accessible to any socio-economic class if one is an
entrepreneur or “original” like that of Henry Ford. The system is structured to utilize spectators,
cogs, as “double-agents of free-will”. The personal agency promised to private citizens by the
democratic government is a provocative tool of appeasement that creates the illusion of free
choice. The notion that one is thinking and acting for themselves is the intended goal of the
producers.
The public will to buy into, consume, offered cult works as exhibition worthy establishes
them as standard or status-quo of “artful” reproduction 48. Even when a person, or art, rebels
against the pleasures the culture industry offers it simultaneously displays the systematic
stubbornness instilled within the industry 49. In other words, in order to critique a work one must
highlight the work’ perceived faults thereby attracting more attention to the initial, or “original”,
work. “Arts” meant to subvert the larger body only reflect the power of which the work cannot
penetrate or move past. Denial of the various pleasures the culture industry offers can be
regarded not always as a rejection of the very pleasures themselves but as conscious resistance of
a subject against the “governing body’” rigid structure. One must remember any works in an
exhibition stage were initially created for the purpose of cult idolization 50. The mechanic
G Givens 18
2007. 95. Print.
2014.
2007. 116. Print.
2014.

reproduction of these “cult” images meant to be desirable are internalized by the spectator due to
the annual targeting of the subject 51. The socialization of the populous can be analyzed through
the means of mainstream media works like cinema because of their widespread popularity and
accessibility. These works replicate and re-instill the original conception of the object meant to
be wholesome and clean or desirable and righteously configured apart of the body that governs.
To commence drawing some conclusions as to the status, and growth, of the modern
American nation-state one must remember this “machine” cannot be characterized by any trait
particularly unique in its practice. For a fully functional “fascist-automobile” (government), or
work of art, to exist as a “newly” exhibited piece within the public sphere the art must “attract
and distract” all at once. This “attract and distract” method is more or less the mastering of mass
image reproduction through means of technical audio-visual communiqué. One must note once
again that image and arts reproduction are multi-faceted, mediated, performances, It is this
influential filtration through creative hierarchies (students, teachers, third parties) that allows for
the persistent of standardized representations of life to exist in their production (monkey see,
monkey do, etc.)
The rise of “hollywood” cultural influence and the popular socialization of the modern
mass assembly line loudly roared throughout the roaring-twenties in the United States. The
culture industry; a machine or “art” driven by the equal efficiency of its parts (or cogs) 52. Cogs
that are reproducible, replaceable, and interchangeable in nature. Arts, or governments, are
reproduced objects of commodity packaged and sold to the masses only meant to entertain
G Givens 19
2007. 116. Print.
2007. 108. Print.

during their allotted time “in the limelight”. Arts imitate and manipulate previously existing
forms of Being to incentivize image reproduction; or moreover the reproducibility of image
performance. The psychological internalization of the reproduced intense/surreal imagery
contains within it the ability to suspend a safe shock effect in the viewer 53. It is more or less this
effect, similar to that of a fight or flight response mechanism, that dictates cooperation with the
presented images (cooperation with the status-quo the work, images, knowingly or unknowingly,
presents and reproduces).
The innovations of technical image reproduction induced mutual convergence of the
already similar realms of art and government. Two institutions both of which utilize technical
reproduction, sustainment of physical decay, change of ownership, complex narratives, and
deceptive image performance. The interchangeable cogs that help project the mass delusion of
free democracy and contribute to the formation of the modern American “nation-state”. It is
significant again to remind one of our own reproducibility and replaceability within the systems
of culture and academia. As one types, constructs, an “original” thesis on their (American)
“Mac” laptop the product produced will always be one of interchangeable reproduction (of
ideologies, theories, beliefs, etc.) Paintings, films, novels (and even research essays like this one)
are “arts” mended, repackaged, and sold for mass consumption. Because, after all the research is
compiled via the online archives and the paper is complete. And, even when one finally rids
themselves, closing the windows, of the many other audio-visual distractions mainstream culture
offers (like “Itunes” or “Netflix”); a soft hum still purrs from the running “motor” of the
computer. The subtle distraction that is the white noise whisper of ambient sound, or the
G Givens 20
2014.

“breath”, of the machine is still heard. The “breath” of an old, costumed beast, waiting for
another “voice” to artfully utilize the tools given and crossover as exhibition worthy.
G Givens 21

Works Cited:
- Bazin, Andre, and Hugh Grey. "The Ontology of the Photographic Image." Film Quarterly 13.4 (1960): 4-9. Print.
- Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." (1936). 217-52. udel.edu. Web. 1
Mar. 2014.
- Brown, Richard D. "The Founding Fathers of 1776 and 1787: A Collective View." The William and Mary
Quarterly 33.3 (1976): 465-80. JSTOR. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
- Fitzgerald Scott, Francis. “The Great Gatsby”. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925. 74-75. Print.
- Horkheimer, Max and Theodor W. Adorno. “Dialectic of Enlightenment”. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press,
2007. 94-136. Print.
- Patterson, Charles. “Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust”. New York City: Lantern
Books, 2002. 72-79. Print.
- Peach, Mark. "Wohnfords, or German Modern Architecture and the Appeal of Americanism." Utopian Studies 8.2
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