The aim of jazz is the mechanical reproduction of a regressive moment, a castration symbolism. 'Give up your masculinity, let yourself be castrated,' the eunuchlike sound of the jazz band both mocks and proclaims, 'and you will be rewarded, accepted into a fraternity which shares the mystery of impotence with you, a mystery revealed at the moment of the initiation rite.

In the end indignation over kitsch is anger at tis shameless revelling in the joy of imitation.

Once the last trace of emotion has been eradicated, nothing remains of thought but absolute tautology.

Because thought has by now been perverted into the solving of assigned problems, even what is not assigned is processed like a problem.

The culture industry not so much adapts to the reactions of its customers as it counterfeits them.

In the end, glorification of splendid underdogs is nothing other than glorification of the splendid system that makes them so.

The good man is he who rules himself as he does his own property: his autonomous being is modelled on material power.