Response

I believe Kracauer defines this "mass ornament" as any situation within society which reduces the individual to a indistinct piece of a larger, and in some cases more aesthetically pleasing, entity. He likens this term to synchronized dancing where women's legs and bodies move to create a larger moving body. Kracauer sees this entity, this "mass ornament," as a dangerous creation. While, it might be more immediately impressive then a singular individual it reduces man's capability for reason. When man is not a whole organism in itself, but rather a minor piece of a larger one, man can no longer comprehend himself. His ability to reason becomes progressively duller, and he is destined to return to an earlier state of natural mystified abstraction. To me, it appears Kracauer has developed a rough timeline of mans developmental progression. Man's first attempts at understanding his world gave way to Mysticism, cult like celebrations, paganism, and various other religious worship. This was how man at that time could best attempt to comprehend the unexplained. Over time man developed an understanding of truth, a precursor to reason. Kracauer sees this in cautionary fairy tales, which are an amalgamation of both reason and mysticism. Finally, via the enlightenment, reason took hold and man developed a much more concrete understanding of his place in the natural world. Man was no longer entirely controlled by the abstractness of nature, but could rather navigate his way through it. However, Kracauer sees the capitalist system, which downplays individuality, as synonymous with "Mass Ornamentation". When man enters into this "mass ornamentation" where he is reduced to a minor role, and is unable to explore in a reasonable way, he becomes numb and "ambivalent". Thus, to Kracauer "mass ornamentation" is the desecration of the individual and thus of reason, and is a backward step in mans development. Ultimately, man is thrust back into abstractness and cult-like mysticism. This time rather than "praying" to obscure godly forces rather man is beholden to obscure market forces, knowing only that he must produce (just as man knew only that it must pray to gods) without being able to understand why. He stresses that unless the Mass Ornamentation of the Capitalist system is reversed man is doomed to lose his ability to reason.