Aestheticization of politics

Common card · No. 284236

The aestheticization of politics was an idea coined in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" by critical theorist Walter Benjamin as being a key ingredient to fascist regimes. Benjamin said that fascism tends towards an aestheticization of politics, in the sense of a spectacle in which it allows the masses to express themselves without seeing their rights recognized, and without affecting the relations of ownership which the proletarian masses aim to eliminate. Benjamin said: Fascism attempts to organize the newly proletarianized masses without affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate. Fascism sees its salvation in giving these masses not their right, but instead a chance to express themselves. The masses have a right to change property relations; Fascism seeks to give them an expression while preserving property. The logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political life. [...] Mankind, which in Homer’s time was a...

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