THE STARS DOWN TO EARTH

The Stars Down to Earth shows us a stunningly prescient Adorno. Haunted by the u
gly side of American culture industries he used the different angles provided by
each of these three essays to showcase the dangers inherent in modern obsession
s with consumption. He engages with some of his most enduring themes in this sem
inal collection, focusing on the irrational in mass culture - from astrology to
new age cults, from anti-semitism to the power of neo-fascist propaganda.



He
points out that the modern state and market forces serve the interest of capital
in its basic form. Stephan Crook's introduction grounds Adorno's arguments firm
ly in the present where extreme religious and political organizations are common
place - so commonplace in fact that often we deem them unworthy of our attention
. Half a century ago Theodore Adorno not only recognised the dangers, but procla
imed them loudly.