Devitalization as a society’s epiphenomenon of mass culture

Overgrowth of mass culture institutions in the everyday life of the society became one of the main consequences of post-Soviet countries that experienced a period of fundamental socio-cultural changes. Most modern Russian authors consider mass culture as a certain social and cultural phenomenon, with its characteristic only for the development trends. One important trend is the interdependence of mass culture on its carrier and the consumer - the mass. Anyway, but the mass culture was found guilty of that “mass-man” becomes a relay-unit that aggravates the experience of identity crisis, loneliness, loss of vitality and activity, that is all that constitutes “devitalization”. The answer to the question: "Which place does devitalization occupy in the structure of mass culture, along with its other philosophical and hedonistic aspects?” has been presented in this article. In the context of the disclosure of the essence of the claimed concept, the author refers to the legacy of Jose Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher, who introduced the concept of the above philosophical discourse. Ortega meaningfully identified semantics with the spread of “mass” in the social space, clearly outlined the epiphe-nomenon of devitalization as a defined range of social pathologies carrying devastating consequences for society. Cultural regression, forgetfulness of the history, solitude, spread of apathy and indifference virus with regard to social life, increasing of aggression and violence - it was all those components that were hiding under the term of ”devitalization” and simultaneously opened its structure and process. Another reason for the cancer proliferation of devitalization can be considered a loss of vital energy source, which acts as a set of elements: dialogic, empathy, ability to support and transfer of life, social, ethnic and cultural traditions.

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