[FRA:] Marcuse question

[simon smith]

Matthew - as you probably know, Adorno wrote an answer to your post in 
the essay 'Resignation'. Last paragraph -

"... the uncompromisingly critical thinker, who neither signs over his 
consciousness nor permits himself be terrorized into action, is in truth 
the one who does not give in. Thinking is not the intellectual 
reproduction of what already exists anyway. As long as it doesn't break 
off, thinking has a secure hold on possibility. Its insatiable aspect, 
the resistance against petty satiety, refuses the foolish wisdom of 
resignation. ...Open thinking points beyond itself. ...Whatever has once 
been thought can be suppressed, forgotten, can vanish. But it cannot be 
denied that something of it survives. For thinking has the element of 
the universal. What once was thought cogently must be thought elsewhere, 
by others: this confidence accompanies even the most solitary and 
powerless thought. Whoever thinks is without anger in all criticism: 
thinking sublimates anger. _Because the thinking person does not have to 
inflict anger upon himself_, he has no desire to inflict it upon others. 
The happiness visible to the eye of the thinker is the happiness of all 
humanity. The universal tendency towards oppression is opposed to 
thought as such. Thought is happiness, even where it defines 
unhappiness: by enunciating it. By this alone happiness reaches into the 
universal unhappiness. Whoever refuses to permit this thought to be 
taken from him has not resigned."
(Combination of two translations. "The Culture Industry" p175, "Critical 
Models p292-293. My emphasis.)

All well as an injunction against anger, this passage is also one 
against fretting and wallowing in hopelessness.

>As Foucault considered, the overt critical disposition and resistance 
>feeds power.

Foucault's notion of 'power' is amorphous and not thought through, as 
far as I'm aware. If power is everywhere, it is surely also nowhere.


In message <BAY102-F30A5A80840B7128C38330ABDFF0 at phx.gbl>, matthew 
piscioneri <mpiscioneri at hotmail.com> writes
>Simon,
>
>>What does this mean? You've stopped thinking critically about all this 
>>horror?
>
>Yes, as much as I can.
>
>>If you choose to reify 'Critical Theory' into a given set of doctrines 
>>or systems of thought that people feel they must worry about for some 
>>reason, then you may indeed want to lead yourself away.
>
>In some respects i believe that thinking critically about oppression et 
>al. does fulfil this sort of role for some people. As part of 
>critically thinking about myself i realized that my *meditation* on 
>human suffering was satisfying under-productive, even regressive, 
>tendencies in my way of being in the world.
>
>>Critical theory is a response to the world you describe - a means to 
>>help you understand it.
>
>Yes, I agree - critical theory has helped me to understand the world.
>
>>Where 'masochistic fretting' comes in, I don't know. If you give up on 
>>critical thought, you give up.
>
>well, some of us are predisposed to wallowing in the hopelessness of it 
>all for strange masochistic reasons that betray 1000s of years of 
>religious inculcation probably. I'd like to read more of where the F.S 
>theorists turned the blowtorch of critical self-examination on the 
>cultural-psychological background of their participation in the 
>(masochistic) frettings over the human condition.
>
>Now, I'll read the F.S writings till the cows come home...but the 
>critical disposition embedded in their/our stance toward the world says 
>something about us. What is it? i don't think that's giving up at all. 
>Marcuse's essay on _Reality_ (see Ralph's link prior post etc.) links 
>often to the Socratic paradigm of the unexamined life etc as well as 
>the Know Thyself tenet. I think it is always worth asking why *we* 
>engage in the fretting, and also worth considering the possibility that 
>meditating on fear and oppression is counter-productive. As Foucault 
>considered, the overt critical disposition and resistance feeds power. 
>Always the practical challenge appears to be more cunning than the 
>reason's cunning. I am not sure it is possible, that's all ;-).
>
>For I think that many very caring and well-intentioned people put their 
>own journey toward Enlightenment on hold or in the service of the 
>interests of helping others, of helping the world to move beyond the 
>finitude of negative energy and into the realm of happiness and 
>abundance. Yet in their well-intentioned work they come to meditate 
>wholly on the manifestations of negative energy that they hope to 
>ameliorate, or to dissolve. Their ‘negative’ meditation creates 
>despair. Their despair feeds the circulation of power. In the end, the 
>consciousness that seeks to alleviate the oppressive manifestations of 
>power actually helps instead to maintain it. On this point, I agree 
>strongly with the Buddhist teacher Tarthang Tulku who writes:
>
>“The teachings of Buddhism, called the Dharma, tell us that to 
>understand the hopelessness of samsara [our everyday experience] is to 
>enter the path to nirvana, or liberation from suffering.”
>
>“The moment you completely let go of samsara, nirvana is there.”
>
>Alleluia
>
>
>best regards,
>
>mattp
>
>
>
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>
>
>


-- 
Simon Smith




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