Society is a system of social interaction where the members belong to a common culture, although it may have diversity within it. The cultural identity of the people of the community reflects the heritage and ethnicity of that race. Michael Miller discusses the issue of capitalism and culture in his lecture. However, in the phase of Late Capitalism, with the effect of globalization, the cultural diversities of different communities are on the wane with the rise of a universal culture that aims to commercialize every aspect of art to fetch monetary benefits for the bourgeoisie. Consumer culture becomes the normative under the influence of the mental conditioning meted out to the innumerable people through mass media institutions. This in turn gives rise to commodity fetishism and a sense of lack that channelizes the individual to weigh everything in terms of its monetary value
Popular culture includes the beliefs, practices and objects that are parts of everyday traditions. Pop culture is mass produced and mass consumed. It has enormous significance in the formation of public attitudes and values, and plays a significant role in shaping the patterns of consumption in contemporary society. The role of mass media in the conditioning of the mass is insurmountable.
The features of a particular community being wiped out by globalization, art becomes a public domain and loses its avant garde attribute. Everybody can practice art and it thus becomes publicized. It is now seen as a commodity fetching monetary benefit to the producer or artist. Other cultural markers too are commercialized and the uniqueness of a culture is lost.
Culture loses its power of imbibing the human mind with rich thoughts and insight. Popular culture ‘produces’ entertainment and relaxation and overshadow the minds of the people and somewhere down the line the mass is alienated from its roots, left in a free space of post-modernity and consumer culture.
References
Miller, Michael. "Does Capitalism Destroy Culture?" Lecture. YouTube. YouTube, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.
