The Stars Down to Earth: And Other Essays on the Irrational Culture (Routledge Classics)

The Stars Down to Earth shows us a stunningly prescient Adorno. Haunted by the ugly side of American culture industries he used the different angles provided by each of these three essays to showcase the dangers inherent in modern obsessions with consumption. He engages with some of his most enduring themes in this seminal collection, focussing on the irrational in mass culture - from astrology to new age cults, from anti-semitism to the power of neo-fascist propaganda. He points out that the modern state and market forces serve the interest of capital in its basic form. Stephan Crook's introduction grounds Adorno's arguments firmly in the present where extreme religious and political organizations are commonplace - so commonplace in fact that often we deem them unworthy of our attention. Half a century ago Theodore Adorno not only recognised the dangers, but proclaimed them loudly. We did not listen then. Maybe it is not too late to listen now.

The Stars Down to Earth shows us a stunningly prescient Adorno. Haunted by the ugly side of American culture industries he used the different angles provided by each of these three essays to showcase the dangers inherent in modern obsessions with consumption. He engages with some of his most enduring themes in this seminal collection, focusing on the irrational in mass culture - from astrology to new age cults, from anti-semitism to the power of neo-fascist propaganda. He points out that the modern state and market forces serve the interest of capital in its basic form. Stephan Crook's introduction grounds Adorno's arguments firmly in the present where extreme religious and political organizations are commonplace - so commonplace in fact that often we deem them unworthy of our attention. Half a century ago Theodore Adorno not only recognised the dangers, but proclaimed them loudly. We did not listen then. Maybe it is not too late to listen now.

"Theodor Adorno was one of the giants of twentieth-century thought. This volume presents four of his key writings on the irrational in mass culture : From Astrology to Fascism ; from anti-Semitism to to the Occult. The superb essay 'Stars down to Earth', an innovative and startling analysis of the astrology column in a Los Angeles newspaper, is followed by three shorter pieces which explore the dark side of modern culture and lead to profoundly disturbing conclusions ..."--Back cover Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 8 Introduction: Adorno and Authoritarian Irrationalism......Page 10 The Stars Down to Earth: The Los Angeles Times Astrology Column......Page 55 Theses Against Occultism......Page 181 Research Project on Anti-Semitism: Idea of the Project......Page 190 Anti-Semitism and Fascist Propaganda......Page 227 NAME INDEX......Page 242 SUBJECT INDEX......Page 245 The group of studies to which the content analysis of the Los Angeles Times astrology column belongs, sets as its aim the investigation of the nature and motivations of some large-scale social phenomena involving irrational elements in a peculiar way-fused with what may be dubbed pseudo-rationally. This text reveals the prescience of Adorno's writings. Haunted by American culture and the industries spawned by it, Adorno highlights the danger inherent in the modern obsession with consumption In this remarkable work written 50 years ago, Adorno showcases the dangers inherent in modern obsessions with consumption.