Re: OT: Congress

Cynicism
Horkheimer in Eclipse of Reason:
„Although most people never overcome the habit of berating the world for
their difficulties, those who are too weak to make a stand against
reality have no choice but to obliterate themselves by identifying with
it. They are never rationally reconciled to civilization. Instead, they
bow to it, secretly accepting the identity of reason and domination, of
civilization and the ideal, however much they may shrug their shoulders.
Well-informed cynicism is only another mode of conformity. These people
willingly embrace or force themselves to accept the rule of the stronger
as the eternal norm. Their whole life is a continuous effort to suppress
and abase nature, inwardly or outwardly, and to identify themselves with
its more powerful surrogates—the race, fatherland, leader, cliques, and
tradition. For them, all these words mean the same thing—the
irresistible reality that must be honored and obeyed. However, their own
natural impulses, those antagonistic to the various demands of
civilization, lead a devious undercover life within them.“
—
„The last point that I wish to extract from Adorno and Horkheimer’s
essay is about cynicism, which like many “advanced” moderns is an
attitude I once bore with pride, believing it an appropriate ethical
choice. Horkheimer and Adorno demystify and denounce this cynicism,
itself a manipulated effect of the culture industry:
In this age of universal publicity any invocation of an ideal appears
suspect to us. We have learned how to identify abstract concepts as
sales propaganda. Language based entirely on truth simply arouses
impatience to get on with the business deal it is probably advancing.
Horkheimer and Adorno close their essay, noting that rampant cynicism
about popular culture and commodification does not obstruct its
consumption. Consumers acknowledge its manipulative intent and yet take
part, which is the systematic “beauty” of the cultural model. But the
cynicism that is engendered supports complacency, reducing expectations
of the state, of media, of business, and diminishes political will to
mobilise against injustices.“
https://timesflowstemmed.com/2013/04/20/thought-control-and-cynicism/