Page 43 - Critical Theories of Mass Media

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28 Then
dropping seeds from airplanes it drops incendiary bombs over
cities; and through gas warfare the aura is abolished in a new
way.
(Essay: Epilogue)
Industrialized warfare is for Benjamin the inevitable result of a
failure to culturally align technology and the masses. It furnishes
‘proof that society has not been mature enough to incorporate
technology as its organ, [and] that technology has not been suffi-
ciently developed to cope with the elemental forces of society’
(Essay: Epilogue). Benjamin saw the First World War and the
increasing dominance of fascism in European politics as a direct
result of this arrested development, and thus defined fascism as a
strategy for organizing the masses born of industrial capitalism into
a collectivity while leaving untouched the traditional distribution of
resources and power so that: ‘only war makes it possible to mobilize
all of today’s technical resources while maintaining the property
system’ (Essay: Epilogue). This accounts for the peculiar mix within
fascism of traditional stereotypes and mythical figures and the very
latest in technological developments. Fascism’s political project calls
both for an active exploitation of mechanical reproduction, but
simultaneously, the firm repression of its emancipatory potential –
fascism seeks to use today’s tools to perform yesterday’s work.
Fascism clings to, and accentuates the auratic function of art. The
concentration and contemplation required for traditional aesthetic
forms, in conjunction with its ritualistic elements, is a powerful tool
for recruiting the masses. The early twentieth-century artistic move-
ment of Futurism prefigured fascism’s reactionary aestheticism in
relation to industrial technology. Futurism declared:
War is beautiful because it establishes man’s dominion over the
subjugated machinery by means of gas masks, terrifying mega-
phones, flame throwers, and small tanks. War is beautiful
because it initiates the dreamt-of metalization of the human
body. War is beautiful because it enriches a flowering meadow
with the fiery orchids of machine guns. War is beautiful
because it combines the gunfire, the cannonades, the cease-fire,
the scents, and the stench of putrefaction into a symphony.
(Essay: Epilogue)
Futurism thus embraced and celebrated the qualitative shift in
perception brought about by new media, while refusing the political
changes that Benjamin saw as the natural outgrowth of their
interaction with the masses they helped create. The Futurist mental-
ity ushered in an era in which the destruction of humanity became
a pure spectacle staged for the predilection of humanity. In Ben-
jamin’s estimation this was not an unavoidable consequence of

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