Benjamin and Collectivism

I was struck by Benjamin's comment that "the greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed and the truly new is criticized with aversion." He notes that an individual person's reactions "are predetermined by the mass audience response." Anotherwards, people follow the crowd. Few want to take the risk of sticking their necks out with an opinion that has not already been confirmed by the mass audience. Benjamin was referring to movies, but his comment is applicable to the digital technology of our era. In "Digital Maoism," Lanier wrote "Every individual who is afraid to say the wrong thing within his or her organization is safer when hiding behind a wiki or some other Meta aggregation ritual." Lanier termed this collectivism "a hive mind." Benjamin believed that our reactions and perceptions of art are influenced by the medium through which they are received. He noted that in earlier eras the available technology did not allow for "simultaneous collective experience." He gives the example of viewing a painting versus viewing a movie. While a painting might be exhibited in a hall, it could not be viewed on simultaneous screens across the country, or even the world. The simultaneous transmission is a function of the medium, or technology. Benjamin's observation is apt for our fast-paced digital era, when much of our artwork is created and transmitted on line.

The question that deserves further investigation is this: Does our new technology--and its "simultaneous collective experience"-- stifle the original creative impulse, still the voice of the pioneer? In writing about the mindset of collectivism, Lanier lamented a "loss of insight and subtlety, a disregard for the nuances of considered opinions, and an increased tendency to enshrine the official or normative beliefs of an organization." Perhaps 50 years from now we will have the hindsight to assess the digital revolution's impact more objectively.