Vs: Adorno, theory & praxis & the FBI

[Rauno Huttunen]

Adrew Rubin's remarks are very interesting. Its is true that there is two version of DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT. They are published in Horkhheimer's collected work. It is also true in latter version many explicitly marxist terms are either removed or reformulated. But I am not sure is the reason for this same as that Antonioni Gramsci had when he wrote his PRISON NOTES. It is more likely that bot Horkheimer and Adorno wanted to diverge from socialist ideals. In his "NACHTRAG" (to essay TRADITIONAL AND CRITICAL THEORY; Gesammelte Schriften, Band 4, pp. 217-225) Horkheimer clearly express his own version of planned economy, but Soviet Union was not his model. In DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT Horkheimer does not consider planned economy as alternative to instrumental reason. 

So called Fascism debate in Frankfurt School indicates which members of the school kept "the flag of socialism high" and which didn't. Neumann, Gurland, Kirchheimer and Marcuse consider that Fascism is just a form of monopolistic state capitalism. Horkheimer, Pollock and Adorno on the other hand think that Nazi Germany is capitalistic version of planned economy. I think that borderline in this debate indicates the political sympathies of the members of Frankfurt School. After fascism debate and DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT socialism was not an option for Horkheimer. One might also ask was the idea of critical theory invalidated  in  DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMEN.

Dr. Rauno Huttunen
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of Jyv�skyl�  
Finland
  



>>> rdumain@igc.org 04/08 7:00  >>>
One of the panels in the recent Socialist Scholars Conference in New York 
was "Rethinking Adorno."  I shall have more to say about the panel later 
on, but now I just want to focus on the second speaker Andrew Rubin 
(Georgetown University), whose talk is of some relevance to the current, 
rather fruitless discussion of Adorno.

This is not very helpful, I know, but what matters here is the middle part 
of the talk, based on FBI files on Adorno obtained via the Freedom of 
Information Act.  All members of the Institute for Social Research and 
associates of Adorno such as Eisler were all spied on by the FBI, from 1935 
on.  The FBI made a note of everything, from the car he drove, to the 
contents of his correspondence they opened and read.  FBI surveillance 
affected the work of Adorno and Horkheimer, inducing a rewrite of DIALECTIC 
OF ENLIGHTENMENT to conceal its Marxism.  The word "capitalism" for example 
was changed to "existing conditions".  Apparently, they were successful, 
because the FBI could never pin them down as Marxists regardless of their 
suspicions.  Government paranoia was also coupled with ignorance and 
stupidity.  Hoover thought reference to Nietzsche in Adorno's 
correspondence was some kind of secret code or language.