Thursday, September 11, 2008

Under a Doom

Under a Doom
by Theodor W. Adorno

What the common sense made ill by its very health resists most fastidiously is the supremacy of all things objective over individuals, in their social existence as well as in their consciousness, which may be starkly experienced every day.  This supremacy is dispelled as groundless speculation, so that individuals may preserve their flattering illusion, their standardized ideas made the unconditioned truth in the double sense in the meantime, in the face of a suspicion: that is not so, and our lives are under a doom.

Today is the birthday of Theodor W. Adorno (11 September 1903 - 6 August 1969).  The text above is a translation of the beginning of Part 3, Chapter 2 ("Weltgeist und Naturgeschichte.  Exkurs zu Hegel") of Negative Dialektik.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi.

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