The Joke Of Our Time

He Who Has Loved And Who Betrays Love Does Harm Not Only To The Image Of The Past, But To The Past Itself.

The Film Has Succeeded In Transforming Subjects So Indistinguishably Into Social Functions, That Those Wholly Encompassed, No Longer Aware Of Any Conflict, Enjoy Their Own Dehumanization As Something Human, As The Joy Of Warmth. The Total Interconnectedness Of The Culture Industry, Omitting Nothing, Is One With Total Social Delusion.

Everything About Art Has Become Problematic; Its Inner Life, Its Relation To Society, Even Its Right To Exist.

The Usual Reproach Against The Essay, That It Is Fragmentary And Random, Itself Assumes The Givenness Of Totality And Suggests That Man Is In Control Of This Totality. The Desire Of The Essay, Though, Is Not To Filter The Eternal Out Of The Transitory; It Wants, Rather, To Make The Transitory Eternal.

To Hate Destructiveness, One Must Hate Life As Well: Only Death Is An Image Of Undistorted Life ... Organic Life Is An Illness Peculiar To Our Unlovely Planet.