Notes on “Cultural Catastrophism”: Nietzsche and the Mass Culture

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss on the mass culture and, more specifically, on the issue of “cultural catastrophism”, that is, if [a] Western culture is somehow
in a process of decay, and why it would be so, or if on the contrary [b] that is a false perception, however, historically repeated, and what would be the cause. To do this we’ll make a comparative study of Nietzsche and other authors who have more recently elaborated on mass culture. The study is structured in three stages: [1] A correct approach to the controversy of mass culture, beginning with Eco, Bauman and Jameson; [2] the use of Nietzsche’s concept of “nihilism” as a theoretical tool to address this controversy, and [3] the explanation, with Harris’ cultural materialism, of the causes of this nihilism, and thus the response to the initial questions.