Behind The Aesthetic Form Lies The Repressed

The People Recognize Themselves In Their Commodities; They Find Their Soul In Their Automobile, Hi-fi Set, Split-level Home, Kitchen Equipment.

The Society Which Projects And Undertakes The Technological Transformation Of Nature Alters The Base Of Domination By Gradually Replacing Personal Dependence (of The Slave On The Master, The Serf On The Lord Of The Manor, The Lord On The Donor Of The Fief, Etc.) With Dependence On The "objective Order Of Things" (on Economic Laws, The Market Etc.).

By Virtue Of The Way It Has Organized Its Technological Base, Contemporary Industrial Society Tends To Be Totalitarian. For "totalitarian" Is Not Only A Terroristic Political Coordination Of Society, But Also A Non-terroristic Economic-technical Coordination Which Operates Through The Manipulation Of Needs By Vested Interests.

The Functional Language Is A Radically Anti-historical Language: Operational Rationality Has Little Room And Little Use For Historical Reason.

The Truth Of Literature And Art Has Always Been Granted (if It Was Granted At All) As One Of A "higher" Order, Which Should Not And Indeed Did Not Disturb The Order Of Business. What Has Changed In The Contemporary Period Is The Difference Between The Two Orders And Their Truths. The Absorbent Power Of Society Depletes The Artistic Dimension By Assimilating Its Antagonistic Contents. In The Realm Of Culture, The New Totalitarianism Manifests Itself Precisely In A Harmonizing Pluralism, Where The Most Contradictory Works And Truths Peacefully Coexist In Indifference.