Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer

One of the best pieces of pessimistic cultural theory you are likely to ever encounter. The entire work seethes with revulsion at the black hole of late capitalism, which the authors portray as draining meaning out of every human life sucked into its vacuum. But Adorno and Horkheimer are at the absolute peak of "it's all going to hell" brilliance with their chapter on the culture industry. Riffing primarily on the effects of film and radio, which they diagnose as instruments of mass conformity, one can only imagine their response to the all-pervasive media of our 21st Century cum electronic womb. A clear forerunner to later important works, such as Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment is a must read for anyone with even just a shred of doubt as to where this is all going.