ARDORNO:
Barbarism always an option.
ME:
Especially after a revolution.
NIETZSCHE:
One herd. Everyone wants the same thing.
ME
(interrupting):
And things.
NIETZSCHE
(continuing):
Whoever thinks otherwise is ostracised.
ADORNO:
State or government control grows in tandem with a growth in
irrationality.
HORKHEIMER:
The world is mad and will remain so. It is no longer possible to
distinguish between good and bad.
HORKHEIMER:
All hope lies in thought.
ADORNO:
True thought is thought that does not insist on being right.
HORKHEIMER:
But theory is theory; often bad theory, when what the world needs is
fundamental change in both thought and
action.
ADORNO:
A happiness brought about by practice.
HORKHEIMER:
Like eating roast goose. To not just think but to do. All our
thoughts and actions must fit together.
ADORNO:
The ideal, the next step, but not grasped directly, only indirectly.
HORKHEIMER:
What is Marx's view?
MARX:
The time is ripe for it.
HORKHEIMER:
Or we take the fatalistic view and declare we cannot bring about
change.
ADORNO:
A message in a bottle, expressed as bluntly as possible, to change
consciousness.
Picture credit: The Marx Lounge, Alfredo Jaar (source: WikiArt).
See
Towards a New Manifesto by Theodor Adorno &
Max Horkheimer (A Verso publication, translated by Rodney
Livingstone).
This twisted version written October 2022.
