Summary: The last century or so has seen the kitschification of the world. This phenomenon is unprecedented in human history. It was accompanied in historical tandem by the equally unprecedented phenomenon of totalitarianism. The paper talks about what kitsch is, and what might explain its spread. While freedom, independence, and imagination have all expanded in the modern world, this has been accompanied by the amplification of regressive feeling states, sometimes in a totalitarian guise and sometimes in the guise of kitsch. In the early twenty-first century, we have seen plenty of instances of totalitarian theocratic rage. At the opposite end of the spectrum, in democratic societies kitsch is commonly exhibited in politics, education, and art. Film, for instance, was once a very promising art form. Today, for most intents and purposes, it has become a vehicle for the fantasy-like representation of drives and affects. It infantilizes at every turn, leaning either in the direction of the grotesque or the sentimental. Today sentimentality is the dominant feeling mood in democratic societies. Friedrich Schlegel defined sentimentality as ‘shallowly emotional and lachrymose’. He observed that it is ‘full of those familiar noble feelings, the consciousness of which makes people of no character feel so unutterably happy and grand’. Schlegel’s definition tells us much about the interior landscape of many of our contemporaries. They are characterless squibs in love with their own noble feelings and infatuated with the dreams of their fathers.
