"Complacent acceptance of the status quo may also coexist with purely spectacular rebelliousness -- dissatisfaction itself becomes a commodity as soon as the economy of abundance develops the capacity to process that particular raw material."
society of the spectacle
Excerpt, section 67: "The satisfaction that no longer comes from _using_ the commodities produced in abundance is now sought through recognition of their value _as commodities._ Consumers are filled with religious fervor for the sovereign freedom of commodities whose use has become an end in itself."
pol, crit. theory Afficher plus
From "One-Dimensional Man" on the language of authoritarianism:
"This language controls by reducing the linguistic forms and symbols of reflection, abstraction, development, contradiction; by substituting images for concepts. It denies or absorbs the transcendent vocabulary; it does not search for but establishes and imposes truth and falsehood."