Adorno: Self-Referential Truth, or Buying into the Surface of Things

The old idea, I thought, was that that tautology was sophistry.  In other words, A=A didn’t say anything: anything profound, meaningful, or interesting.   It only stated the obvious, what was only itself anyway.  All sorts of camera tricks, smoke and mirrors, $64 words, and twists of logic could lead up to great prolix and seduce us with a sense of profundity and complexity.  But, with a little un-sophisticating of the sophistication, if one could prove that the point one was making came down to A=A, the great mind saying it wasn’t really saying anything….or wasn’t saying anything that A=A couldn’t say by itself.

Another way to say this is to demonstrate that truth is not ultimately self-referential.  In other words, if A=A because, “like ‘A’ really does mean, like, ‘A,’” then it is impossible to penetrate the deeper meaning of things.  That’s it.  A=A.   Form without content.  Representation without meaning.

wow.  sign me up.

Yet, this is precisely the dominant logic.  Take, for instance, religious thinking.  God=God because God is Holy and only God is Holy, my gosh!  Ao God=Holy because God=God.  The point of reference comes back to itself.   No content ever enters the equation.  It evaporates in self-reference.  In other words, A=A because B=A so A=B, which is the same thing as saying A=A.  The truth of it is itself: self-referential.   It is “true” because it comes back to itself.   It is truth, but without substance.  It is its own origin.  One can think without thinking, without any doubt or critical capacity.

Everyday example #1:  Buy product “A” because it is good and will save you money.   [Now notice a person with product "A" smiling and happy and with sex appeal.]   Ooohhh.  Product A=good.  Me want product “A.”  [Consumer imagines him/herself happy and with sex appeal....Oh, and s/he has also bought product A!]  Consumer subsequently goes to buy product A.

Nevermind that spending money doesn’t save you money.  This contradiction doesn’t even enter thought.  Such a thought would not be consumer thought: the thought that our consumer culture is unabashedly based on.  Our self-delusion is no longer in hiding.  You and I both aready know: it is already assumed you will spend money, so the idocy of saving money by spending it goes utterly unnoticed.  You were going to spend it to begin with.   Why not save it by spending it?  What magic!  What a deal!  From a different historical vantage point, this is the accomplishment of being convinced that your s&!t doesn’t stink and putting it on your skin or breakfast cereal is healthy because its “all natural.”

Example #2:  Be yourself!  (psst: because everyone’s doing it.)  Umm.  Ok.   By the way, this product, product “B,” will make you the real you – a better you.  Now, if you don’t buy product “B,” you won’t be the real you, only a shabby you, and *everybody’s* doing that.  [Notice everybody can be used for making you do something or not do something; it works either way.]  So, now that everybody is being themselves, so are you.  Awesome!  But, you are not only being yourself – which is what *everybody* is doing, pshaw! – you are being the real you:  the better, good looking, more tidy, younger, dashing you.  No one else is really doing that.  You are doing what everyone else is doing, but better!   

What is it exactly that you are doing, but better than everyone else?  Not being yourself.

This is an example of not-A=not-A because A=A, which is what everyone is doing.  And, to be better you need to be not-A.  So, if you are A, product “B” will help you become a better A or not-A.   (You are not supposed to notice that everyone else saw that commercial and they are being not-themselves, too.)

Now no one is being themselves.  The only way to be the real you = being a better you.  Either way, its not you.

A=A: who wants it?  I am A.  I am sophisticated.  I want not-A.  That is the real me, a better me.  And, I can become it by saving money if I spend just this much.

Here, too, the tautology is not hidden.  The idiocy is obvious.  We want it and have faith in it. 

This logic is the logic of what Adorno called the culture industry: its unadorned make-up.  And, it ain’t going away.

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~ by mattfrizzell on November 13, 2007.