1.Describe the “culture industry” and how culture has become a commodity to be bought and sold.
What has happened to the distinction between high and low culture?
2. Describe the social and political impact of the culture industry. What happens to creative art and
independent thought?
3. What does Adorno mean that enlightenment represents the “progressive technical domination of
nature”? How has this “fettered consciousness”? (p. 310)
4. Why does Marcuse think we need to be saved from our prosperous, well-functioning society?
5. What is Marcuse’s conception of freedom?
6. What role does the intelligentsia play? How about the Hippies?
Answeers must come from the book Stephen Eric Bronner (ed.) Twentieth Century Political Theory: A Reader, 2 nd ed
(Routledge, paperback, ISBN 0415948991) pages 273-311
