Cultural manipulation and the strategy to overcome it: thePeruvian case

Abstract

Augusto Salazar Bondy dealt with the concept of domination in order to elaborate a theory that accounts for the way in which an entire people are subjected at a cultural level. For him, cultural domination consists of keeping the population properly occupied and distracted. Hence the idea of “cultural manipulation” can be raised. In this regard, Antonio Gramsci explained that the current social class in power manages to achieve the cultural hegemony of society by imposing its agenda, its needs, and priorities (its vision of the world) on all citizens. Adorno's concept of “cultural industry” is extremely useful for understanding specific aspects of how the aesthetic sensibility of citizens is seduced by constantly altering the cultural products that constitute their worldview. Likewise, the domination of society becomes more evident considering the role that technological devices play in social reality, according to Marcuse. In this way, the submission that capitalism exercises is justified by appealing to the technological fruits that this society is enjoying. However, it’s necessary to remember with Salazar Bondy that in order to overcome our situation it’s necessary to recognize that society is immersed in a culture of domination that can be ideologically combated. Finally, Gramsci's proposal is used to indicate that the dominated social class will have to react to such a political ruse by articulating its point of view with the group of exploited in an amalgam of ideas to produce counterhegemony and thus change the uncritically adopted cultural perspective by the great majorities.