Modern societies employ the powerful instrument of technology as a sort of colonialization of mind and, thus, implement control in a new manner in society. Replacing the dream of utopia in modern societies with a nightmare of anti-utopia, consumer technology creates a new space leading to the creation of a thoroughly totalitarian regime. Hence, such theorists as Adorno and Marcuse believe that what scientific advances bring is not order but imitation and homogeneity of individuals with society as a result of which not only one's awareness but also all man's cultural inheritance and his manner of articulation become homogenized. In such societies, the propaganda of commodities upholds consumerism as an alternative to protest or rebellion. Thus, mass consumption and mass culture set up the condition for totalitarianism through different systems of control, technology being one of which. Individuals in such societies will be seduced by the force of technology which brings about mass consumption and constructs passive submissive masses who lack a voice of their own. Don DeLillo warns against how modern masses' passive consumption of commodities will lead to inertia and how a consumer culture diminishes people's social relationships and their sense of autonomy. Therefore, the present study aims at analyzing the way DeLillo's novel urges readers to reconsider the way that consumer technology and mass cultural forces might affect individuals' lives. The main finding of the research is that DeLillo displays how totalitarian systems utilize modern consumer technologies as agents of manipulation and indoctrination to discipline their subjects.

Keywords: White Noise, Don DeLillo, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Totalitarian Politics, Modern Consumer Technologies and Mass Media.

     

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