Category: Abstracts

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

Addiction …. Mill and Bataille

My territory is addiction; I chose addiction as it is a contemporary issue of concern today! I have examined most areas of addiction, such as; Drug/ alcohol abuse, gambling, sex and eating disorders. Essentially it is not about what addiction one has; rather why one is addicted in the first place. Thus, I have explored contemporary answers. The two concepts of Philosophy I have  chosen are that of Mill and Bataille. 

Bataille is related to my topic of addiction because he blames Society!!! Due to the Rise of Capitalism All time is spent on useful means leaving no  time for useless expenditure…addiction is a way of escaping  this monotonous regimented lifestyle!!! 

The methodology: The method I have used throughout my project is the hermeneutic interpretive, as I attained all my information from books and the internet.

Mill is associated with my territory because his philosophy is based on Hedonism: Addiction is based on pleasure and addicts do it to release pain. This is also following Mill’s principle of Utilitarianism. Also, I have explored Mill’s work on education; his basic doctrine related to addiction would be that a good education from a young age would prevent behaviours like addiction occurring. He distinguishes higher and lower pleasures, higher pleasures being things such as; theatre and literature. Thus an alternative for addiction, for Mill, could be through art.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

A Foucauldian Investigation into Conceptions and Opinions of Tattooing held by the British General Society in the Present Day

My Stage three project is a Foucauldian investigation into tattooing in England  in the present day. I have based my research around Foucault’s theories of  power, history and governmentality. 

I have also investigated psychological and social theories that relate to the Foucauldian ideas of power and governmentality. 

From working through my investigation, I decided that I should make history the greatest aspect of my analysis, and that allowed me an insight into collective notions in what I termed the “general society” and this  has made up the main body of my work. 

I have also investigated how the view of the tattooed community has changed, as well as investigating where negative opinions held by the societies at each point in history originated from. 

I have discovered through my investigation that negative attitudes towards tattooing stem from the orthodox Judeo-Christian belief that the Body is the property of God, and that to scar or tattoo it is a sin against God. Tattooed Jews are still not allowed the same burial rites as non‐tattooed Jews.  

This project represents a new understanding of tattooing as a genealogical  entity, as much has been written about the social, psychological and  anthropological impact of allowing tattooing in civilised society.  

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

Art Incorporated: Exploring the Growing Relationship between Capitalism and Art

Whether or not the realm of freedom apparent in the plurality of styles used by contemporary artists is actually a way of concealing its true function, as a slave to business? In contemporary art’s exploration of the human psyche, it appears to hold out no consolation; conventional styles are broken and indiscretions of morals all define the basic contemporary art world orthodoxy. However although contemporary art has reinvented itself this also means that art’s existence now comes in relation to world politics, commerce, consumerism and the worlds of business and finance. In this project I will discuss how art has changed and been shaped by the demands that these external pressure points have put upon it, and what that means for the way we ‘read’ art and treat artists in contemporary culture. I will centre my argument on how the mass consumer culture of our society has lead to the commodification of art. I will focus on the artists Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst, and how both artists have embraced commercial success and celebrity status, buying into the values that art originally transcends, suggesting that they themselves have become a brand name out of which their art is made. The key philosopher that I will be using is Karl Marx and his theory of capitalism. He believed that the continual modernization in industry means that old structures, traditions and attachments begin to dissolve, so that in his famous phrase “all that is solid melts into air.” This can be applied to art’s status which is conventionally and ideally aligned with truth, beauty and ethics but with capitalisms involvement there is a shift from ethics to aesthetics. Contemporary art has become about creating pieces that are morally ambiguous, that promote corporations and entertain the mass culture. I will also be using Guy Debord and his Society of the Spectacle to elaborate on Marx’s theory and explain how he felt art had become commodified and the consequences of this, such as alienation and the loss of art’s function.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Is the BBC Still an Important Moral and Cultural Institution within Contemporary Society?

Territory: I chose to consider the BBC and the recent scandals in which it had been involved, focusing particularly on the Ross and Brand voicemail scandal and rigged phone-ins involving Blue Peter and Comic Relief. Concepts: My territory led me to consider morality and identity for the individual within modern society, focusing on the relationship between these concepts and institutions such as the BBC. Aims: Following the BBC scandal involving Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand and the public outrage this caused I decided to evaluate the role of the BBC today. My objective was therefore to determine the ways in which the BBC had changed over the years in order to debate whether it was still morally and culturally important today. In order to evaluate these changes I chose to look at Beck and his notion of Individualization to understand our changing society and the problems faced by the BBC today. To further consider the effects of cultural institutions such as the BBC for the individual I chose to look at Adorno’s “The Culture Industry” and Taylor’s “Sources of the Self”, which both highlighted the significance of cultural institutions within the formation of morality and identity. This led me to argue that the BBC still has an important role to play within society today both morally and culturally. However it must attempt to balance its traditional values with the developing attitudes of our society if it is to retain this significance.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

To Whom are we Responsible?

Who can possibly be responsible for the two extreme eating disorders? The state, family, media and culture all have their parts to play. How do we know what is best for us?… If the state, family and individual all disagree? Parentalism – should an individual with an eating disorder be considered not fully rational and is this justification for some of that person’s right to freedom to be taken away, on the grounds that they would be ‘better off’. Hegel asserts that the individual’s highest freedom consists in membership in the state. BUT: Does society protect us?

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

The Threat of 21st Century Global Terror: are Terrorist Organisations Psychotic [Freud]?

Territory: Terror and the Suicide Bomber.
Terrorism is not a new weapon but in the 21st Century we have seen it used to devastating effect. A 21st Century phenomenon is the suicide bomber, the human bomb willing to sacrifice their own life for terrors cause. The suicide bomber is an utterly baffling weapon 9 times out of 10 it is unable to be defused and its explosive force can cause widespread damage to infrastructure, troops and civilians. For counter terror organisations around the world the suicide bomber presents the ultimate nightmare and risk to the civilian population. It is a bomb combined with human thought and human emotion, a bomb that shouldn’t exist.

Concept: Freudian Psychosis.
The aim of my project is to engage with the terrorist’s mind-set, in particular the suicide bombers with respect to Freudian psychology. The simple answer is to declare terrorism and its follower’s psychotic thought, but could this assumption merely be just a Western attitude?

Secondary Concept: Levinas’s Autrui.
For further discussion I will also engage the terrorist with Autrui [the Other] to discuss if the suicide bomber truly understands the people it destroys as Autrui.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

International Development in a Global, Post-Modern World

My time volunteering in development projects in Tanzania inspired me to delve further into the logic and processes of international aid and development. The barriers which development initiatives come up against struck me to be as a result of the postmodern world we live in: globalization, technological advances, a disposable, fast changing society, a multiplicity of sources from which to develop an identity, and of which we need to have a knowledge. So do the changes in our world mean aid and development is pointless? Are developing countries ever going to catch up with the superpowers? Can a poverty stricken individual get on in this fast-paced world? Will they ever have all the tools they need to survive? Giles Bolton’s inside account of why globalization and good intentions have failed the world’s poor has been a useful insight. I wanted to explore Zygmunt Bauman’s account of the consequences of globalization and a postmodern world for the individual and David Harvey’s ideas about the loss of the particular in the universal in the world we live in. Can international development be fruitful then? Are we simply going about things the wrong way? Do we need a new approach to development accounting for the shift from our Kantian disinterested subject to the complex nature of the subject in today’s society? These are the key themes for exploration in my project. KEY SOURCES: Giles Bolton: ‘Poor Story’, David Harvey: ‘Spaces of Hope’, Zygmunt Bauman: ‘Globalization,’ ‘Liquid Life,’ ‘Wasted Lives.’

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Identity Theft: an Investigation into the Repercussions of the Identity Card on the Identity and Existence of the Individual

Territory: Through the developments especially within recent years, the identity card has become a prominent part of modern life. The territory under examination is the identity card. The debate of protection over control and the amount of information that is held about each individual has become evermore important. The identity card suggests the ability to allow people to be recognised as the individual they are through the information contained on and within the card. The identity card therefore appears to present implications to the idea of identity presenting it as a fixed material idea which seems to do against the modern understanding of the self and the individual identity.

Aims: The primary aim of this project was to explore the extent to which identity cards impact the creation and development of the individual identity. Through the development in technology, particularly those within the area of the identity card it is possible to recognise a decline within the understanding of the individual and unique identity. The secondary aim of this project was to examine the effect that the restriction on the ability of the individual in the creation of the identity would have on the idea of existence that the self would have within the world. It is possible to suggest that existence is affirmed within the world through authentic experience and the projection of the identity in its individual being. Therefore if we are unable to create the self as we wish and perpetuate the individual identity this would seem to have a detrimental effect on projecting our existence.

Philosophers: Through the work of Sartre I have explored the way in which we strive to live an authentic life and the importance that Sartre places on this. I have explored the manner in which the identity card restricts the possibility for the individual to live this authentic life and create the self as they wish. The writings of Sartre were also used in the exploration of the idea of affirming our existence within the world, in that we are only an identity within our action, and through our action we are able to have existence within the world. The work of Heidegger was also important to this idea and his understanding of being. If we identify ourselves as a certain idea we are conforming and reducing the self to something that is less than the existence that we have. The idea that we are much more than we understand ourselves as being was important for Heidegger. We must not reduce our identities and our ability to exist by taking the identity card to be all that we are.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

Fakebook: is Technology Mediating Human Interaction?

It is estimated that there are 150 million active Facebook users worldwide. • Once a website aimed solely at students at Harvard University as a means of keeping in contact with classmates, Facebook has grown exponentially since its inception in February 2004. • Recently it has excelled in the 35‐54 year age demographic with a reported 279% increase in users in this age bracket. The worry is that, in domino effect of sorts through the generations, it will soon be a reality that everyone who has regular access to a computer will be communicating through a website and human contact and interaction will be a seldom practiced pastime. With the arrival of the mobile telephone came a whirlwind of irreversible change. Advancements in Telecommunications opened the gateway to a so‐called ‘Thumb culture’ in which communication and media interaction are all dictated by some form of digital interface. It seems as though, with each technological step forward, we take an interpersonal step back. For example, first there were phone conversations to close friends and family, then came text messaging, a far less personal way of communicating but, nonetheless it was a progression, or perhaps digression, that was mutually embraced by contacts that once knew each other well enough to interact verbally. From this stemmed the birth of instant messaging as a cheaper but very similar alternative. The concept of social networking through sites such as Myspace and Facebook is a commendable one. They aim to maintain correspondence with people that would have otherwise slipped off one’s communication radar. But the reality is that our strong relationships become diluted by becoming ‘Facebook friends’ with people we would call mere acquaintances. With the addition of Facebook chat in April 2008, Facebook became a ‘one‐stop shop’ for all our communication needs. Engaging in duologues on Facebook meant that their monopolisation have become so conglomerate that face‐to‐face conversations end up actively referring to Facebook. With a limitless online friend capacity, people with thousands of friends either have to spread themselves very thinly across all these people, or spend hours and hours chained to a computer to maintain a valid friendship. In order to explore this territory, I will be looking at the work of J.G. Ballard and Guy Debord as well as looking into Communication Theory. My aim for this project is to investigate where we go from here. Will face to face, or even verbal communication exist in the future? Or will technology sever our personal relationships to such an extent that meeting with people will be simply a distant memory; something the future generations will dismiss as ’something their grandparents did’?

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Is the Shaping of Self-Identity in the Post-Modern Era in a Crucial Sense a Body Project?

I cannot help feeling as though there is something seriously wrong with society at the moment if the way we look is the main concern for many individuals. There are a number of things that one must take into consideration as to why and how all of this possibly came about: internet, mass culture, mass consumption the list goes on, ultimately it seems there is a distinct relationship between the way in which we perceive ourselves today and modernity, and the ultimate question then is, are we autonomous subjects within modernity? And is this ultimately affecting our transcendence? I believe the most appropriate research methods for this particular topic will be mainly observational and qualitative. I am also interested in the historical context of identity thinking and the relationship it has with the body for instance the history of dieting, the fashion industry and investigating whether or not there is a specific source or reason as to why we think about our body shapes and physical appearances the way we do today. It becomes obvious that this particular topic is relevant to history and the attitudes people have on the subject matter are tied within the social situations at various times. In my project I will be making philosophical reference to Kant and the autonomy of the subject, discussing how in our present day there are various structures between subjects, for instance the internet, networking systems which mediate our relationships with others. Today bodily existence and spiritual existence are projected as the same…is this making it harder for subjects to know themselves? Are we fragmented selves? Jean Baudrillard points out in the Consumer in Society that the body has taken over the soul’s moral and ideological role as an object of salvation, and Oscar Wilde says “To be really medieval one should have no body. To be really modern one should have no soul.” We have become a society obsessed with the way we look, but does the way we look in such a superficial sense really tell us anything at all about us as individuals… and is this way of thinking pulling us further and further away from ourselves and the understanding of others. In the case of a traditional dualism between the soul and the body, as especially found in Platonic and Christian traditions, the identity of the body will be relatively unimportant, because identity will primarily have to do with the soul, not the body. Increasingly however, it is the body that has taken centre stage in connection with the shaping of identity.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

The Morality of War: the War in Afghanistan and the UK Experience

Territory
The War in Afghanistan; which began on October 7, 2001 as the U.S. military operation, ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’, was launched by the United States with the United Kingdom, and Natoled, UN authorized ISAF in response to the September 11 attacks. This conflict will form the basis of my project. I will discuss the various ethical issues which have arisen from it and attempt to clarify the different arguments for and against such a war.

Object
There are many issues surrounding this conflict, for example the justification of the war itself, Increasing civilian casualties, lack of support for troops, both from the public and in terms of equipment. The detrimental effect on the population, especially farmers and industrial workers. The lack of sufficient troop numbers. The requirements of the Afghan population. There are many philosophical proponents of these theories and I intend to apply the theories of a number of philosophers to the problems we see in this conflict; Plato, Hobbes, Kant, Hegel Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Locke & Rousseau, are some of the philosophers I will use to discuss the moral issues which result from these problems, from the just war arguments to the opposing teleological and deontological notions of war. Change I am particularly interested in the attitude of the UK towards this conflict, I will investigate the extent to which our attitude to war has changed, from the first and second world wars to the present day conflict in Afghanistan, with reference to the Falkland’s conflict and the Northern Ireland troubles. I wish to understand how these conflicts have affected the way the UK views war. To what extent has our perception of it changed over the past one hundred years? And what can we learn from these past conflicts? This shall be the ultimate goal of my project.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

The Impact of Scientific Knowledge on the Philosophical Questions of Creation

Object/Territory: The James Webb Space Telescope / The impact of the advancement of scientific knowledge. Aim: To investigate the differences between types of knowledge. Comparisons: • William Paley’s Watchmaker Analogy vs. The Existence of Dark Matter and Dark Energy • Thomas Aquinas’ First Cause Vs The Big Bang Theory. C.P. Snow: Two cultures know little or nothing about each other. Communication is difficult if not impossible. No common ground to achieve creative chances. Thomas Kuhn: Encompassing Vs Overthrowing. Isaiah Berlin: Growing tension, path to progress, elitist view of science, defence by Vico, new form of science. Jean-François Lyotard: Correspondence theory of truth. Language Games. Truth. Progress. Problem justifying scientific knowledge. God of the Gaps. In conclusion the distinction we have made between science and other forms of knowledge leaves us at a disadvantage. Both forms of knowledge are needed for us to gain true knowledge about our world.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

The Transformation of Japan. A Philosophical Investigation of Japanese Cultural Change

Japan today is a nation synonymous with contemporary culture and ambitious technology that tries to transform the way in which we live. However, it is hard to imagine that just over a century ago; Japan was in the midst of a massive change which saw it go from a country of feudal military foundations to an industrious world power which would contribute to world history in a substantial way. This project aims to look at the History of Japan over the Meiji Restoration in the late 1800s and see how this event was the catalyst which caused a nation to turn its back on 800 years of uniform history and become a contending power on the world stage. The cultural principles of Japan at this time shall lead me to look at the post war writer Yukio Mishima, whose ideas on the culture of Japan after World War II provoked him to write some of the most defining Japanese literature of the 20th Century. Ultimately, his views in this area led to his highly publicised ritual suicide in 1970 prior to which he tried to start a coup against the new media based, industrial Japan. To link this project philosophically, I shall be referring the ideas of Mishima to those of Georges Bataille, who Mishima himself had a fascination with. Bataille’s theories brought forward notions related to sacrifice within a culture. This includes specifically the concept of Potlatch, wherein Native American tribal chiefs would appease opposing leaders by destroying resources and objects of value. With this in mind, I shall show how the Japanese transformation was a Potlatch on a grand scale, and how Mishima was a microcosm of this in the 20th Century. The conclusion of this project will come to the point where justification of Japan’s change will be shown.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

How has the Rise in Technology Changed the Way we View the Human Environment and Human Identity?

TERRITORY: West Ham United. AIM: In my investigation I wanted to see how the rise of technology has affected the human environment and identity. As a keen West Ham supporter I thought this would be an interesting place to start. From its humble origins as an amateur club to the rise of its top premiership I assumed this community has been subject to a lot of technological modifications over the years. Method: I examined how the club has changed from over 50 years ago in order to see the affect technological advancements have had with regards to the club; satellite television, the internet and advanced forms of transport illustrated how the human environment has turned into a global network. I also wanted to see how this has affected the players of West Ham United in order to see if the human subject has changed. After establishing this I could then see which philosophical theories were relevant to the past and present eras of West Ham United. I considered Kant’s theory of knowledge which places the rational human subject above the causal necessity of reality. This notion seemed to express how the individual in West Ham (the footballer and manager) related to the club in the past. I then decided to look at postmodern ideas on reality and the human subject. It expressed a more complex view of reality where the individual’s autonomy is undermined as man is unable to establish what is image and what is reality. I believed this expressed the organisation of West Ham and how the footballer relates to his environment in contemporary times. After examining both these attitudes I could then draw some conclusions about how we must view our human environment and human identity.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Marketing Ethics: a Critique of Capitalism

TERRITORY: The Marketing World. Ethical problems of marketing such as target marketing, standardization, stereotyping, exclusion and the removal of personal autonomy, all caused by forms of marketing. CONCEPTS: Capitalism – Economic structure that gives all power to the private owner. Thinkers – Karl Marx. Theory – Commodity fetishism – Attributing false value to commodities. Theodor Adorno. Theory – Culture industry – producing mass commodities, mass culture and popular culture, all of which fool the consumer into a state of happiness and Satisfaction with capitalism. COMPARISON: Marx and Adorno’s theories of capitalism highlight many of the ethical problems of marketing in capitalism that are clearly seen in the modern day, ultimately capitalist marketing creates commodities that have gained power over the individual and removed our autonomy.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

Advertising. A Study into the Causes and Consequences of Advertising with Reference to Bataille and Schopenhauer

Advertising and consumerism is undeniably significant in modern society and this study takes an alternative philosophical approach towards the issue as well as considering modern thinkers that have discussed the medium previously.
Schopenhauer argued that an individual is controlled by their will and this leads them to live a life of dissatisfaction and suffering. This study shows that advertising does not produce this suffering but intensifies negative feelings because it forces desires on individuals. Schopenhauer argues that to discover metaphysical truth is a temporary release from this cycle and so this study also considers its applicability to contemporary society. The texts used will be ‘The World as Will and Representation volume I and II’.
Bataille considers how a homogenous society seeks to remove unproductive elements from this sphere but I argue that because modern society is dominated by capitalism and homogeneity, it seeks to remove unproductive behaviour from all of society. This study then examines how advertising could be used as a tool to remove unproductive or heterogeneous behaviour by shaping our desires. The negative consequence is that heterogeneous behaviour is inseparable from productive behaviour. This insight is taken from a collection of essays by Bataille.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

“Kill Me and Save Yourself!” How Friendship Affects Morality

Aims
In my project I will discuss how the relationship between friends affects our ability to make objective moral decisions. In doing so I hope to clarify some of the philosophical positions on friendship and assess my own views philosophically in order to attain whether moral theories should devote specific attention to this idea.

Object
The object for my project is the documentary film “Touching the Void”. This film tells the story of two friends who set out to climb the previously un-summited west face of “Siula Grande” in the Peruvian mountains. In doing so both friends were plunged into a life and death struggle and one was forced to make an arduous decision to end his friend’s life.

Territory
The philosophers I will use in my project are;
• Aristotle, who writes explicitly on the conditions of complete friendship in his book
“Nicomachean Ethics”
• Hegel, most importantly his concept of recognition and how that is affected by
friendship and how this in turn affects his moral theory
• Hobbes, the idea of rational egoism and how friendship is affected by this

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2009 Abstracts Stage 2

Sacrifice, Martyrdom and the Sacred

In my project, I wanted to explore the notion of sacrifice in relation to Christianity, specifically looking at the idea of martyrdom. I wanted to contrast this with Bataille’s ideas on religious sacrifices and his notions of the sacred. My aim for my project was so that I could understand the reason as to why people are willing to sacrifice their lives for their beliefs. To understand martyrdom in Christianity, I decided to look at their beliefs and values that they uphold and teach. I then looked at the meaning of martyrdom, and how it has changed from meaning martus, ‘to witness’ to die for a purpose or a cause.
To illustrate this point, I looked at Simone Weil as an example. She starved herself to death as a protest to the treatment of French citizens under Nazi-Germany. I wanted to explore her biography and her philosophy so I could understand her values and her beliefs. I then wanted to contrast Christian thoughts, with Bataille. He argued that sacrifice is religion portraying the heterogeneous. It breaks the means-end lifestyle for those who witness it, however, for the person martyring their self, he argued that they want to do it to break away from ‘things’. After looking at Bataille, I wanted to finally look at Yukio Mishima. I wanted to see whether his death was for a greater ‘good’ or belief he supported, or whether it was an attraction to the heterogeneous.

Key Books for my Project
Christian Beliefs and Martyrdom— “Christian Beliefs and Modern Questions” by O.Quick-Chase and “Martyrdom—The Psychology, Theology, and Politics of Self-sacrifice” by R.M Fields.
Simone Weil—”Simone Weil” by S. Pétrement and “Gravity and Grace” by S. Weil
Bataille—”Theory of Religion” by G. Bataille and “After Bataille – Sacrifice, Exposure, Community” by P. Ffrench
Mishima— “Life and Death of Yukio Mishima” by H. ScottStokes and “The Sea of Fertility” by Y. Mishima

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

The 2007-2009 Financial Crisis: Enlightenment Reason in the Financial Markets

Project Territory, Object and Aims: “We are in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.” This is the opening statement from economist George Soros found in ‘The New Paradigm for Financial Markets’. Due to the importance of this event I decided to study the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis within the Territory of Economics with the aim of diagnosing its causes. The object contains many smaller fields which have contributed to its emergence such as the growth and collapse of the United States housing bubble and the collapse of Mortgage lenders and related businesses. House prices and the value of the FTSE 100 are depicted below. Quantitative Economic versus Qualitative Hermeneutical Analysis: I discovered the causes of the crisis by collecting quantitative economic data to understand the preceding events. Initial analysis led me to the conclusion that the financial crisis was caused by poor lending policies of mortgages that could not be repaid. To contrast this research and fully engage with my object I then collected Qualitative evidence from economist George Soros and philosophical data from my chosen field of Critical theory. Specifically I used the works of Theodor Adorno and Jürgen Habermas regarding types of reason born in the Enlightenment era. After collecting this research I was led to a deeper, more fundamental finding stating that: the financial crisis was in fact caused by the use of Instrumental and Subject Centred Reason within the financial markets leading to the use of Identity Thinking. With the actual philosophical causes of the crisis identified I then investigated Adorno and Habermas’ solutions to those types of derogatory reason. These solutions are: Communicative Action and Negative Dialectics. I then applied these as a solution to the financial crisis itself.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Media Immobilising Britain: Educational Aspiration

This project investigates social mobility in Britain within the last 20 years, and after finding Britain to be socially immobile looks into the role that education has within making Britain immobile. The education system is then evaluated to explore the possibility of education having a causative role in forming an immobile society. A common underlying factor in education’s role within an immobile society is a poor level of aspiration among the lower classes. I then look at the possible role British media has to play in forming poor levels of aspiration under the theories of the culture industry from Adorno and Horkheimer, and Vattimo’s ethics of provenance , which is transposed onto the issue of false consciousness and Marxist ideologies. This project uses government figures to show that Britain is immobile; that the education system plays a key role within immobility, and that media is responsible for breeding students with low levels of aspiration. This, when explored with Adorno and Horkheimer’s views on the culture industry, shows that mass media deceives its consumers in order to keep the bourgeois’ advantage over the lower classes and reinforce Britain’s immobility throughout the generations by depicting mobility as unlikely within the media. This is backed up by figures which show that class and the media consumed is closely linked so the elite few in charge of the majority of media consumed by the masses can install a false consciousness in which it promises mobility to the lower classes whilst never having an intention of delivering it.