Clockwork Orange And The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction...

Clockwork Orange and the Age of Mechanical Reproduction nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; For Walter Benjamin, the defining characteristic of modernity was mass assembly and production of commodities, concomitant with this transformation of production is the destruction of tradition and the mode of experience which depends upon that tradition. While the destruction of tradition means the destruction of authenticity, of the originally, in that it also collapses the distance between art and the masses it makes possible the liberation which capitalism both obscures and opposes. While commodity fetishism represents the alienation away from use-value and towards exchange-value, leading to the assembly line construction of the same--as we see†¦show more content†¦quot;The desire of the contemporary masses to bring things closer spatially and humanlyis just as ardent as their bent toward overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by accepting its reproduction.quot; The fact of this desire for the reproduction over and above the original is precisely what Horkheimer and Adorno believe is destroying culture, for contrary to Benjamin, Horkheimer and Adorno assert that any emancipatory possibilities are re-absorbed into capitalism, and fascism turns out to be the midget in the Chess-playing machine of capitalist oriented democracy. They set out, like Poe in his article quot;Maelzels chess player,quot; to show that capitalism has a hidden motor and it is none other than fascism. Benjamins essay quot;The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproductionquot; provides us with an outline of the history of the work of art and the historical changes, which have led to the transformation of experience from Erfahrung to Erlebnis. It is only in the post-modern or so called post-industrial age that the concept of autonomy handed down to us from Kant, among others, begins to reveal it ideological nature. Benjamins analysis of autonomous art not only destroys our notions of the wholistic work, but also dispels the illusion of the artist as transcendental creator. Let usShow MoreRelatedLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesspends too much on moon shots and not enough on social services for poor non-white people. It can be very difficult to distinguish a jumble of statements from a group of statements intended to have a conclusion that you draw yourself. There is no mechanical way of telling which is which. However, it often can be done, and in this group of statements about whitey on the moon, no one would have said them this way unless they expected their reader to draw that conclusion about the government’s spending