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Mass Culture and Repression of Human Individuality and Creativity:

Investigation of Friedrich Nietzsche's Perspective
By,

Dr.Aniruddha Babar
Asst. Professor, Dept. of Political Science, Tetso College, Dimapur

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Abstract

Mass culture have gained a significant attention in literature and different socialist thinkers,
philosophers and scholars have presented their views regarding Mass culture has been
identified as a progressive force by some scholars, while others have also criticised it for its
regressive undertone as well as various negative impacts on the society. One of the most
prominent scholar and philosopher discussed in this research who constructively criticised
mass culture is Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. He had been the first and most prominent
philosopher who had criticised mass culture and its various forms in terms of religion,
politics, progressive movements and press.

He had criticised Christian morality on the basis of the theory of master-slave morality, He
criticised press related mass culture for oppressing human creativity and human energies.
This research provides a very comprehensive perspective about Nietzsche’s criticism of the
mass culture and modernity. He believed that dominant forms of culture supress the humans,
while only a few dominant, elite people control the power. The analysis of his work has
helped in understanding that it is very significant to overcome the dominant cultural forces
that promote oppression and conformity and he demanded freedom from morality and
repressing social, religious and political institutions for promoting the development of
creative, strong and superior individuals.

Keywords: Mass Culture, Nietzsche, Mass culture criticism, Nietzsche’s philosophy

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Modern mass culture, aimed at the "consumer", the civilisation of prosthetics, is crippling
people's souls, setting up barriers between man and the crucial questions of his existence, his
consciousness of himself as a spiritual being.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky

Introduction

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, a poet, a composer and also a
cultural critic. His work has a significant influence over the modern intellectual history. He
had started his career as the classical philologist before turning towards enhancing his work
in the field of philosophy.Nietzsche became the youngest ever to hold the Chair of Classical
Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due
to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing
in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete
loss of his mental faculties. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her
death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900.
Considering the fact that the Nietzsche was a big time critique of everything that he saw,
perceived, witnessed and experienced throughout his life; the approach that he developed to
examine the ‘mass culture’ is worth to assess.Throughout his works, Nietzsche saw culture as
central to human life and believed that strong and healthy cultures would create
distinguished, creative, and powerful individuals, whereas weak and
fragmented cultures would create mediocre and inferior beings.The scientific analytical-
critical approach adopted by Friedrich Nietzsche while examining the nature of ‘mass
culture’ presents him before us as a physician of culture. He considers it his task to make a
diagnosis of the culture of his age, to point to the latent or patent diseases, but also to the
possibilities to overcome them. His diagnosis, prognosis, and prescriptions implied an
overcoming of traditional interpretation of what is going on in the main domains of culture:
knowledge, morality, religion, and art. His strong intellectual attack on the dominant popular
cultural forces, notions and beliefsthat promote oppression and conformity not only shaken
the community of philosophers and thinkers but also laid down the foundation of path to
‘critical discourse’ for the ‘un-born today’.

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The patterns of the mass culture also known as popular culture can be traced in the ancient
history. Studies have also informed that Greek and Roman political theories include various
elements about the critique of mass culture and the mass society. Plato’s ‘Republic’ has also
discussed the modern day relation between the government, political institutions, culture and
the masses. However, the classical philosophers have identified that mass culture, must not be
regarded as a ‘culture’ as it does not create values, but it ends the traditional values and
norms of the society.

Along with Karl Marx, Nietzsche is also identified as a great theorist and a very prominent
critic of modern culture or modernity and has carried out a "ruthless criticism of all that
exists" (Marx& Engels, 2001, p. 142). Nietzsche developed his philosophical work during the
late 19th century. He held a very negative and pessimistic view towards the modern society
and modern culture. He had a very strong opposition of the popular culture. He also held the
view that the press and mass culture led to conformity and also bring about
mediocrity.Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s View towards Mass Culture have been studied and
analysed by various scholars to demystify his strong opposition of the popular culture and its
associated branches.

Nietzsche’s perspective towards the mass culture had identified the activities associated with
mass culture, which may be mass media or sports culture are nothing other than the ‘herd
instinct’. Nietzsche has placed significant efforts in attempting to explain a number of
philosophical problems associated with mass culture or popular culture. Therefore, this
research will also place efforts towards understanding the Nietzsche’s perspective about mass
culture and why he had critiqued mass culture and popular culture and considered them as the
phenomenon that is reducing the significance of human species.

Understanding the Concept of Mass Culture and Its Criticism

Mass culture is mainly identified as the set of ideas and values that are generated from the
common exposure to a form of same media, same music, same art or the same news sources
(Strychacz, 1993). Mass culture is the form of culture that is distributed or broadcasted to the
people in the society, which is other than the culture that is developed through day to day
interactions among the people. Studies and scholars have significantly differentiated mass
culture from the ‘traditional’ folk culture, as mass culture is an ‘improvised’ form of culture

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that lure people towards it and motivate them to become the part of mass culture (Yumibe,
2012). Traditionally, culture has been the most significant way that informs about the
perceived difference among the people and also explains various ways of exclusion and
inclusion. Culture has an impact over the hierarchal structuring of the society and of families.

Cultural values and norms help people to carry out every day activities and to control their
conduct and actions according to their cultural norms (Pease, 2000). The social structures of
the societies are also defined through culture, but the mass culture has resulted in blurring the
lines of norms and values of culture in the modern societies (Lowenthal, 2017). Mass culture
has been deeply ingrained in the modern societies, because of a significant role that media
has played. People display preference to certain form of music or certain type of films is the
part of mass culture (Lowenthal, 2017). However, there are various scholars who have
criticised mass culture because they found mass culture to have the ability of social
domination, which in turn reduces the quality of human existence (Beaty, 2005).

This is the reason that mass culture is criticised by many scholars and philosophers because
they found it to be the means of creating the crisis of values. The economic, political and
technological changes that developed in the pre-industrial era, had gained a significant
growth in the industrial-era and the new forms of mass culture or the popular culture started
to develop. The production activities that were earlier limited started shifting towards mass
production and the economy of the societies became consumption-oriented. The urbanised
masses also started displaying the preference towards the commercial leisure activities,
because of the changes that occurred in societies as the result of industrial growth.

Mass culture exploded at the end of the 19th century, when American society experienced the
new forms of mass communication, such as the growth of the newspapers, books and
theatres. One of the significant impacts of the increasing mass culture was that the mass
communication tools were being produced for masses and were reaching a large number of
people. Therefore, people had the similar stories and ideas to discuss that were being
produced by mass communication. Lowenthal (2017) identified that the most significant
impact of mass communication was that it resulted in bringing together people with similar
ideas and interest and encouraged the development of popular culture. Mass culture includes
the cultural products that are not only mass produced, but also for the mass audiences.

One of the significant examples of mass communication through news stories is of the two
urban tabloids newspapers, one was that of Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and the other

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one that of William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Both the newspapers significantly
pioneered in mass communication and influenced the masses through their news stories
(Juergens, 2015). Some of the significant features of these newspapers were that they used
the hyperbolic banner headlines, witty cartoons and interesting photographs and expertly used
the concepts of ‘yellow journalism’ (Alef, 2010).Campbell (2013) argued thatthe main goal
of the yellow journalism was to sensationalise the news stories, gain the attention of the
audiences and emphasis on the stories related to crime and drama, so that more people
purchase their newspapers and that it could help in driving the growth of mass culture.
Another significant aspect of mass communication and sensationalising the news stories was
to give rise to a mass emotion or a feeling and diminishing the other human values and norms
by exaggerating the mass cultural values (Campbell, 2013).

Although the growth of mass culture had accelerated in the wake of the 20th century, as many
of the mass communication sources like radio, television, cinema, music, advertising, mass
magazines and books had started appearing, but the intellectual commentators have already
started understanding the negative influence of mass culture on the human society
(Popović&Popović, 2014). Mass culture had resulted in giving rise to the mass society that
was formed during the industrialisation process in 19th century. Henry Blanke in his study of
mass culture has argued mass culture as “a brutish trampling on esthetic and cultural values,
standards, traditions, and authority, in short a vulgar degeneration which threatened the very
foundations of Western civilization” (Blanke, 1993, p. 31).

The critique of mass culture and the press had already started to emerge during the late 18th
century. The origins of such criticism were mainly rooted in the leisure and modern life that
started to appear in the 16th century after the demise of feudalism (Perkins, 1990). The
democratic and industrial revolutions were also accompanied with the emergence of the
journalism and the development of the modern press that resulted in increasing the debate
about their impact and consequences. Main writers of that period like Goethe had identified
that how mass culture and press are providing a diversion to the individuals in the society to
escape from social reality. Goethe had also identified that “press constitutes a squandering of
time wherein the reader "wastes the days and lives from hand to mouth, without creating
anything” (as cited by Best &Kellner, 1990, p. 32).

Another significant perspective that is presented against the validity and efficacy of mass
culture is that it creates the crisis of values. Mass culture has given rise to many cultural

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goods and a significant revolution in the field of information generation and information
transfer has resulted in providing new ways of cultural goods (Brantlinger, 2016). However,
studies have identified that mass culture has generated the crisis of values as the cultural
goods are produced of masses with the intention of financial gains, which do not balance with
the values of art, music and traditions (Brantlinger, 2016). One of the most prominent
critiques of mass culture was Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. According to him mass culture
would result in eroding the main values that are associated with humans and this resulted in
the development of the criticism of mass culture.

Investigation of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s View about Mass

Culture

Culture has been of a significant interest among the sociologists and the philosophers. A
significant attention towards understanding different aspects of culture had also resulted in
giving rise to a phenomenon called as ‘cultural wars’ among the scholars(Lowenthal,
2017).Nietzsche is one of the most prominent philosophers and the critique of the mass
culture, who found that mass culture or the popular culture display lack of progression
(Nietzsche, 2002). Nietzsche’s strong arguments against religion, culture, morality and
philosophy are mainly identified to the Enlightenment-inspired criticism, which is mainly
based on attacking the life-negating aspects of the modern culture (Yumibe, 2012).

Nietzsche had criticised many of the modern institutions, values and democracy in the
modern societies because he believed that such institutions and their values are resulting in
oppressing the human energies and their creativity (Lowenthal, 2017). He also believed that
mass culture is blocking or restricting the development of a generation of stronger humans
and the development of a more vigorous society and culture (Marx & Engels, 2001). He
appraised the modern society that was being developed in the late 19th century with the
increasing industrial revolution and his appraisal led him to become a sustained critique of
mass culture, bureaucratic discipline and production of the modern perspectives that
significantly influenced the later discourse of modernity (Nietzsche, 2002).

One of the main aspects of the modern culture or the mass society was the growth of
capitalism. Capitalism resulted in the development of mass society that significantly lacked
order and integration of traditional values. Belliotti (2013) has identified that for Nietzsche,

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mass culture was the culture without roots, as his views were significantly aligned with those
presented by Plato in his most famous work about the criticism of democracy. According to
Santas (2001), Plato had argued that vulnerable individuals are influenced and get caught up
in the contagious enthusiasm of the crowd (a reference to a mass society and mass culture)
that they eventually lose their own values and their essential skills of critical thinking. A
similar perspective has also been presented by Nietzsche when he identifies mass culture as
corrupt and impure, due to which humans lose their essential skills and values (Monoson,
2000).

Rosner (2011) in his study has identified that Hitler used the masses to generate hate and to
accomplish his political goals. Similarly, Nietzsche have also identified that mass culture is
also a way used soporifically to calm the masses into an unresponsive stupor for its political
advantage. Therefore, Rosner (2011) have argued that-

“Products of mass culture thereby function as mechanisms of distraction by which the

capitalist system anesthetizes its citizens from the reality of their own oppression, “never
leaving the consumer alone long enough to reflect upon their boring exhausting jobs and
their low socio-economic status” (p. 39)

The similar perspective about the capitalists system has been provided by Nietzsche, for
which he had argued that some people become superior to others and also become the
producers of mass culture and cultural goods, which result in oppression of the others and
restrict the way of developing the healthier human beings (Kellner, 1999). Another
perspective presented by Nietzsche against the mass culture is that it results in the promotion
of mediocrity. Mass culture feed the individual and societies with the steady and bland diet of
the harmless entertainment, which also result in levelling down any morally significant
insight in their stories resulting in the increasing weak mediocrity (Wilkerson, 2009).

According to Conway (2005), Nietzsche’s criticism of the mass culture is mainly related to
surpassing modernity for developing a more superior culture and society that could be helpful
in developing more intelligent individuals. Owen (2013) identified that Nietzsche believed
that eruption of modernity and the modern age is significant for enhancing the creativity
potential of the humans and for developing a higher form of culture. He also believed that
superior levels of human creativity potential is being curtailed and suppressed by the modern
political and social institutions that require the radical cultural and social change (Rampley,
2007). According to various evidences, he was also the first who saw and understood the

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mass culture as the most significant theme prevailing in the modern society and modern
social reproduction process (Kellner, 1999).

He identified that most distinctive feature of the modern societies is eradication of

individuality and massification resulting in the formation of ‘heard societies’ and
encouraging mediocrity (Ansell-Pearson, 2012). Therefore, he has been identified as the
major critique of the later mass society, which according to him was “forces of decadence
and nihilism, sapping cultural vitality and preventing the creation and dissemination of
genuine culture and strong individuals” (Kellner, 1999, p. 2). Considering the perspective of
Goethe, Nietzsche had also criticised the modern press and the ways of entertainment
produced under mass culture for promoting passivity and conformity and he also believed
that modern press is eager to provide its audience with anything except dissenting ideas
(Naremore&Brantlinger, 1991).

According to Hardt (2000), although Karl Marx have presented an optimistic perspective
towards the role of press in the society by identifying free press as an embodiment of the
vigilant eye, yet Nietzsche identified that free press is the main tool that is being used by the
political groups, who are also developing their own presses in order to shape the public
opinion for their own interest. Therefore, mass culture significantly affects the individual’s
ability to think critically and rationally (Antonio, 1995). Nietzsche identified that low level of
the cultural criticism that being provided by the education and newspapershad resulted in
humiliation of the contemporary art and in inability in getting the genuine appreciation for the
art.

He believed that theatres were the places that could provide the moral education to the
people, but journalists and press in the society was resulting in “art degenerated into a
particularly lowly topic of conversation, and aesthetic criticism was used as a means of
uniting a vain, distracted, selfish, and moreover piteously unoriginal sociability” (Lenson,
1987, p. 131). This was the main problem that led Nietzsche to see the consequences of the
massified culture, which was resulting in undermining the authentic art and creating a
mediocre perspective towards art. This was also a significant reason for which he had found
that mass culture supress the culture and values associated with human culture and their
individuality (Golder, 2012). Massification had resulted in supressing the authenticity and
superiority of various human values, such as art, culture and social values that are significant
for creating strong individuals (Golder, 2012).

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For Nietzsche, mass culture encompassed various forms of cultures that were being
developed through press, magazines, various scholarly publications, religious discourses,
politics and nationalism. According to Aktaş (2016), although Nietzsche identified the
significance of the development of the modern modes of communication and technologies
and their contribution towards modernity, yet he believed that mass culture is something that
is creating mediocre individuals and mediocre culture. For example, religion was also a form
of mass culture for him, as he believed that religion result in spreading a similar beliefs and
values among the individual who follow it and restrict them from further growth (Nietzsche,
1996). This is also the reason that he was accused of being irrational sometimes. Nietzsche
criticised Christianity and claimed that Christ whom people think to have the kindest heart
"promoted the stupidifying of man, placed himself on the side of the poor in spirit and
retarded the production of the supreme intellect" (Nietzsche, 1996, p. 112).

He also focused on dissenting and analysing the Christian trans-valuation of values, which
according to him declare wisdom and strength as bad, while submission, humility and
lowliness as good values (Owen, 2014). Therefore, Nietzsche in Genealogy of Morality,
argued religion to be a part of mass culture because it also a highly promoted the slave
morality and excessively promoted spirit over body that was a significant reason being the
societal regression and repression (Owen, 2014). Rampley (2007) had identified that modern
politics was also a form of mass culture for Nietzsche and he held an anti-political view
because he believed that contemporary political institutions and their mass politics led to herd
conformity. He believed that such form of conformity is associated with the loss of
individuality and lead towards homogenisation and mass manipulation.

One of the earliest critics of the modern state that was carried out by Nietzsche was found in
his work named as Thus SpakeZarathrustra. In his work he had identified the modern state as
the ‘death of people’ and as ‘a cold monster’ (Nietzsche, 2008). Nietzsche critiqued the
modern politics (which was a form of mass culture) because the modern state spread lie and
pretensions among the public in order to fulfil their interest and such lies are spread through
the use of press and mass culture (Strauss, 2017). He believed that modern politics and
modern states promote isolation and withdrawal in the mass society instead of enhancing
engagement and participation. According to StankovićPejnović(2015), his critique of the
modern state is associated with the critique of mass culture that specifically focus on
homogenisation, which is significantly harmful for the individuality, creativity and life
energies of the people in the society. He also believed that modern concepts of liberalism,

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democracy and the enlightened social movements have collectively contributed towards
repression of the modern man and have their individuality from them (StankovićPejnović,
2015). Nietzsche’s texts have mainly promoted the significance of the life energies and have
criticised everything that supress the expression of the primary human instincts.

Conclusion

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, who had been a prominent German philosopher have
significantly contributed towards understanding the negative and undermining effects of mass
culture. This research article focused on understanding and analysing the Nietzsche’s critical
perspective on mass culture and how it impacts the human creativity and individuality. He
criticised forms of publications like press and magazines, religion, morality and modern
political states for being the part of mass culture that are also responsible for limiting the
thinking and wisdom of the people in the society and for supressing the energies of lives.

His perspective can be considered to be true in the modernera of mass culture, where people
in the society are significantly influenced by the messages that mass culture promotes and
restrict the human’s creativity and rationality of understanding various things. Nietzsche
believed that mass culture, mass society and the modern states are responsible for
homogenizing various human tendencies and thus, working as the antagonists which is
working against genuine culture. Evidences also informed that Nietzsche believed the mass
culture and mass society are producing cultural backwardness and mediocrity.

Therefore, Nietzsche have displayed a pessimistic view towards the modern social
developments and mainly believed the modernity and mass culture have undermined the
‘creative force’ among the people. He also developed the work over providing a systematic
critique of the mass culture and various progressive movements. This research concludes that
mass culture and forms of mass culture, which are often seen as the part of social progress,
significantly promote mediocrity by limiting the human individuality and generating a
homogenous perspective or a mind-set which is lethal to the growth and survival of human
race.

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