The article concludes with the thought
that popular culture is not controlled by the media nor pushed solely by the
people. Popular culture holds both elements. We are fortunate to learn about
certain historians who endeavored to analyze various forms of common
entertainment. This is wonderful information for separating and examining the
trends of each decade.
However, my
overall conception of the forces behind popular culture has not changed. In sociology, we learned about the roots of
mass consumerism and how psychology was implemented for marketing popular
culture. Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays was so powerful that he influenced not
only culture but our government as well. Bernays was the manipulative “master
of capitalism” who defaced democracy with materialism. Century of Self: Part One, was one of the most influential films
that I had to watch in college, and it has continued to leave an indelible mark
on the way I perceive popular culture: “Passive consumerism=key to control!”
