objects to my description of 'Dialectic of Enlightenment' as Adorno and Horkheimer's 'metaphysical rubbish version' of 'Neumann's superb
> account of German Fascism, Behemoth'
Dennis:
'Ah, yes, a little tome called "Dialectic of Enlightenment", which is only one of the ten most important books of the 20th century.'
Well, a lot of 'important books' are rubbish, and Dialectic of Enlightenment is indeed a spurious metaphysical account of Fascism, which locates its origins in man's mastery over nature.
Sadly, given Adorno's rather brilliant critique of Heidegger (Jargon of Authenticity), the argument of Dialectic of Enlightenment is a warmed-over version of Heidggerianism. Indeed it is the same argument that Hannah Arendt gives in On Totalitarianism. Like Heidegger, Adorno and Horkheimer, and Arendt, see all the world's ills coming from science and technology. Where the pupils depart from the master is that they see the world's ills as culminating in fascism, where Heidegger sees them culminating in bolshevism on the one hand, and American democracy on the other. He sees Fascism as the answer to 'the endless etcetera of indifference'. But even Adorno and Horkheimer's characterisation of Fascism as necessary outcome of technology owes its origins to Heidegger - to his hasty attempt to re-write his critique of technologism, only this time with Fascism as a sick symptom rather than the solution.
By contrast Neumann analyses Fascism as a movement and in power in terms of its specific characteristics and relation to a capitalist class who can no longer rule through democratic means. First published in 1942, yes '42, Neumann shows from published census returns that the Nazis had rid themselves of a substantial part of the Jewish population of Germany. Next to Neumann, Adorno and Horkheimer are just apologists for capitalism, seeking to blur the specific relationship between the capitalist class and Fascism, by tying it to a transhistorical trend towards ever-greater technologisation. -- James Heartfield The 'Death of the Subject' Explained is available at GBP11.00, plus GBP1.00 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'