That Which Is Cannot Be

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.

The Music Of The Soul Is Also The Music Of Salesmanship. Exchange Value, Not Truth Value Counts. On It Centers The Rationality Of The Status Quo, And All Alien Rationality Is Bent To It.

The Range Of Choice Open To The Individual Is Not The Decisive Factor In Determining The Degree Of Human Freedom, But What Can Be Chosen And What Is Chosen By The Individual.

Technical Progress And More Comfortable Living Permit The Systematic Inclusion Of Libidinal Components Into The Realm Of Commodity Production And Exchange. But No Matter How Controlled The Mobilization Of Instinctual Energy May Be (it Sometimes Amounts To A Scientific Management Of Libido), No Matter How Much It May Serve As A Prop For The Status Quo - It Is Also Gratifying To The Managed Individuals, Just As Racing The Outboard Motor, Pushing The Power Lawn Mower, And Speeding The Automobile Are Fun.

It Is Generally Admitted That The Cultural Values (humanization) And The Existing Institutions And Policies Of Society Are Rarely,if Ever, In Harmony. This Opinion Has Found Expression In The Distinction Between Culture And Civilization, According To Which "culture" Refers To Some Higher Dimension Of Human Autonomy And Fulfillment, While "civilization" Designates The Realm Of Necessity, Of Socially Necessary Work And Behavior, Where Man Is Not Really Himself And In His Own Element But Is Subject To Heteronomy, To External Conditions And Needs.