MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Business, Economics, and Accountancy

Name: DULDULAO, NICOE Course: BSBA HRM II

MANGLAL-LAN APRILYN JOY Class time: TTH- 1:00-2:30
PATARAY, CHESTA DAICEE Score: _______________
PERALTA, NINA JANINE

WORKSHEET
POSITION PAPER

Direction: Write a position paper. We will do it as a group. We will present in a forum.

1. Research and understand the concept presented on the article or paper you had
research.
2. Think of three (3) strong argument on the topic “Pop Culture: Enlightenment
or mass deception”.
3. Write your position paper about it of not less than 200 words.
4. Formulate a group with 4 members in each group.
5. Ready to present in a forum type.

Write here:

Arguments:
1. Humans are a tool for profit
2. Lack of freedom on humanity
3. Humans are limited for their experience

#16S Quiling Sur, City of Batac, Ilocos Norte

 cas@mmsu.edu.ph  +63(077) 600-20-74 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business, Economics, and Accountancy

POP CULTURE: ENLIGHTENMENT OR MASS DECEPTION

“Human beings are viewed as an asset”

This is the tragic reality that we tend to neglect. Humanities are focused on fulfilling one’s
satisfaction and had never outlook for its reason of existence. Nobody notices that we are slowly falling
into the trap of deception. We are deceived by our own decision, perception and gratification in
perceiving the nature of pop culture.
The emergence of pop culture had allotted in to the evolution of our society. Recently, the pop
culture in our civilization is categorized as entertainment, politics, fashion and clothing and technology. It
was in the 19th century when the term “popular culture” was coined. Traditionally, it was associated with
poor education and with the lower classes, which is the opposite of the “official culture” and higher
education of the upper classes. During the Victorian-era, Britain experienced social changes with the rise
of the Industrial Revolution in the 18 th and 19th centuries, which caused an increase in literacy rates. With
the growth of capitalism and industrialization, people started spending their money on entertainment, such
as sports and commercials.
The presence of pop culture has been witnessed by many scholars and argued about its
significance. Truly, pop culture had rebuilt our society in standardization and rationalism, however the
value of the human being is seen only as tool to generate revenue. According to Theodor Adorno and he
argued “standardization emerges largely as a result of the capacity of those with power to control the
production of cultural goods to employ positivistic methods in an attempt to formulate a scientific
measurement of people’s precise ‘tastes and expectations, and in doing so increase profitability”. Truly,
this has been arising in our nation, the emergence of aesthetic clothing cultivated by variations of brands
that embodies the exact scheme from one another. Individuals would have no option but to purchase the
item, for the intention of keeping up with the trends. Even when the prices vary from different brands, no
matter how much the worth, people would settle for it. People therefore gladly give in to help to maintain
the system by taking part in it. In this scenario, people are compensating for name of the item, not the
product itself. This illustrates that humans are being used for the sake of currency. This is the truth that
we cannot repudiate, humans are being deluded.
. Popular Culture has overtaken our freedom to reality. According to Adorno and Horkheimer,
culture industry eradicates autonomous thinking and criticism, serving to preserve the reigning order. It
makes people to be the same and give up their own autonomous identity for the sake of ‘fitting’ in the
society. There is no way to show who you really are and do what you want because of the standards that
people adapt from the popular enlightenment. When you share your insight to other people, be it in social
media platforms or in face-to-face, they will always criticize and nullify your opinion. The community
have the inadequate bravery to speak up and express their selves.
The fact that people were easily deceived, castigated and mortified, the system of uniformity is
formed, wherein, originality is the least focus of the community. Ideas of a single entity is being
improvised by many, which exemplifies an injustice movement to the original creator. In illustration, on
present day, Tiktok has been one of the popular social media platforms for entertainment. There are lot of
content creators, and are now well known to different countries because of their natural contents and
ideas. Out there, there are aspiring creators that tend to imitate the ideas of the widely known idealists.

#16S Quiling Sur, City of Batac, Ilocos Norte

 cas@mmsu.edu.ph  +63(077) 600-20-74 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business, Economics, and Accountancy

Following the same path taken by a successful individual is not wrong, but this drives us to reject one’s
own.
Humans are limited for their experience. It is perhaps one of humanity's most innate traits to seek
for more, to explore the unknown, and to test our own limits over and over as individuals and as a
society. We developed tools and technology to help us survive and navigate our daily lives and we always
used them to shape the environment we live in, sometimes with unintended consequences. But how can
we strive and seek more if there’s someone whose stopping us in obtaining such experiences?
Nowadays, the pop culture is continuously expanding from generation to generation. Wherein it
rapidly influences not just only the people but also the worldwide itself. According to Adorno and
Horkheimer ,they argued that culture industry has taken over reality as the prism through which people
experience reality, thus completely shaping and conditioning their experience of life. Popular culture
appears to be offering a refuge and distraction for work, but in fact it causes the worker to further dwell
into a world of products and consumerism. Truly, this argument is a fact in the sense that they are
manipulating the people by the controlling their works. Humans are seen as programmed robots that are
only limited to execute an assigned action. Pop culture ought to reject their opportunity to gain more
experience. In such case, the worker would be enslaved and lost his or her independency. This trick had
made individuals to continuously trust the system with the belief of shaping them for the better, where in
fact, the system is slowly stealing their chances to improve and enhance their confidence.
With all things considered, human beings are viewed as an asset in our community. Society is
nothing but a tool for revenue. Manipulating the innocent minds of the individual whose satisfaction is at
stake. Taking the freedom away that allows them to participate freely in the spread of ideas and in the
creation of meanings that, in turn, help constitute them as persons. The essence of being free had been
eradicated and is replaced by improvisation. The deserved experience has been omitted and displaced by
a readily plan One’s experience should be explored rather than controlled. Thus, popular culture is rather
a mass deception than of an enlightenment
There is a lot room for improvement if we could just escape from this prison of deception. As we
live in this year 2020’s, we witnessed the cruelty of our society, but we chose to ignore it, right?? This is
the unfortunate reality we tend to avoid. Wherein deceiver and being deceived exists.

References:
 https://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.com/2013/12/adorno-and-horkheimer-culture-industry.html

 https://themaxklinger.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/a-summary-of-adorno-and-horkheimers-
slightly-interesting-and-staggeringly-pretentious-views-on-art/?
fbclid=IwAR2nwdsN0XoiqptlHYRviaCxVIPq3XHyeMLYusO_jL7fwhhQbobaqA04Ug0
 https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1944/culture-industry.htm

 https://www.ifs.org/blog/free-expression-culture-demands-tolerance/

#16S Quiling Sur, City of Batac, Ilocos Norte

 cas@mmsu.edu.ph  +63(077) 600-20-74 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business, Economics, and Accountancy

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have
within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to
change the world.” -Harriet Tubman

Good afternoon, everyone, presenting today is Chesta, yours truly, Nicole,

Janine, and Aprilyn.

After reading several articles about Pop Culture, we had formulated our stand
as POP CULTURE: A MASS DECEPTION.

To formally begin, I would like to start with a quotation summary of our

presentation, after which, I would share a brief history about pop culture.

“Humans are viewed as an asset”

This is the tragic reality that we tend to neglect. Humanities are focused on
fulfilling one’s satisfaction and had never outlook for its reason of existence.
Nobody notices that we are slowly falling into the trap of deception. We are
deceived by our own decision, perception and gratification in perceiving the
nature of pop culture.

The emergence of pop culture had allotted in to the evolution of our society.
Recently, the pop culture in our civilization is categorized as entertainment,
politics, fashion and clothing and technology. It was in the 19 th century when
the term “popular culture” was coined. Traditionally, it was associated with
poor education and with the lower classes, which is the opposite of the “official
culture” and higher education of the upper classes. During the Victorian-era,
Britain experienced social changes with the rise of the Industrial Revolution in
the 18th and 19th centuries, which caused an increase in literacy rates. With
the growth of capitalism and industrialization, people started spending their
money on entertainment, such as sports and commercials.

The presence of pop culture has been witnessed by many scholars and
argued about its significance. Truly, pop culture had rebuilt our society in
standardization and rationalism, however the value of the human being is
seen only as tool to generate revenue.

With such, we had formulated 3 arguments that support our stand in

identifying Pop Culture as a mass deception. The next slide would be further
elaborated by Miss Nicole, Nicole please proceed.

#16S Quiling Sur, City of Batac, Ilocos Norte

 cas@mmsu.edu.ph  +63(077) 600-20-74 www.mmsu.edu.ph
 MARIANO MARCOS STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business, Economics, and Accountancy

After conclusion…
In relation to the quotation mentioned beforehand, “Every great dream begins
with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the
patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” -Harriet
Tubman, with the presence of this deception, individual lacks trust on their
selves, feel pressured and just comply to what is popular. In this sense,
passion has least implication on what they execute. Pop culture had led our
society into standardization; however, it threatens the individuals to ignore
their rights and purpose. The only solution to this deception is to bring back,
focus on our own enrichment, and realize that we are more than just an asset
in this community.

Thank you everyone!

#16S Quiling Sur, City of Batac, Ilocos Norte

 cas@mmsu.edu.ph  +63(077) 600-20-74 www.mmsu.edu.ph