The formation of a mass culture because of technology is worrisome. People start to lose sense of their individuality and responsibility. Ellul uses car as an example of an invention that betrays our individuality. A car is suppose to represent the freedom of travel. By obtaining a car, one could go anywhere on land. However, people always seem to head to one destination for holidays. There are so many places to go but a mass of people come up to the same conclusion. How can individuality survive if the majority follow the same thinking.

I connected this mass culture to the play The Visit. As the play goes on, the development of a mass culture becomes evident. The characters adapted the same ideas of materialism, and fashion. Many start buying the same yellow shoes. Even with an high likelihood of future income, many residents of Guellen decide to purchase the same shoe. There is no individuality even though they have money to purchase something else. In addition, all the townsman wanted the better brand of a good. Domestic beer became inferior to imported beer and off brand cigarettes were no longer wanted. People started to think the same way.

This poses a threat to society because similar thinking will lead to an agreement. Guellen came up to agreement that Alfred must “die”. Even though they voice their support for Alfred living, they do not act in support. Alfred’s death resulted from the constant paranoia and intimidated from the townspeople. The town killed Alfred without a weapon but because of emotional and mental torture from the masses of people thinking of his death.

There is no justice in the end. This mass culture is the one who is responsible for creating a society that is beneficial for the members within. When something wrong happens like the death of an outcast such as Alfred, it becomes almost impossible to prosecute the perpetrators especially if is a mass of people that form the majority of society. So exceptions like these become ignored since the mass of people will not recognize that the society they created is unjust. The mass culture makes responsibility for the individual more difficult to identify. Mistakes are more likely to be caused by society as a whole. The majority within society will not punish themselves for conforming to the unjust society they live in.