The Precarious Ontological Link Between

Where These Reduced (operational - E.w.) Concepts Govern The Analysis Of The Human Reality, Individual Or Social, Mental Or Material, They Arrive At A False Concreteness - A Concreteness Isolated From The Conditions Which Constitute Its Reality. In This Context, The Operational Treatment Of The Concept Assumes A Political Function. The Individual And His Behavior Are Analyzed In A Therapeutic Sense - Adjustment To His Society. Thought And Expression, Theory And Practice Are To Be Brought In Line With The Facts Of His Existence Without Leaving Room For The Conceptual Critique Of These Facts.

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.

Freedom Of Enterprise Was From The Beginning Not Altogether A Blessing. As The Liberty To Work Or To Starve, It Spelled Toil, Insecurity, And Fear For The Vast Majority Of The Population. If The Individual Were No Longer Compelled To Prove Himself On The Market, As A Free Economic Subject, The Disappearance Of This Freedom Would Be One Of The Greatest Achievements Of Civilization.

The Avant-garde And The Beatniks Share In The Function Of Entertaining Without Endangering The Good Conscience Of The Men Of Good Will.

The Organism Is Thus Being Preconditioned For The Spontaneous Acceptance Of What Is Offered. Inasmuch As The Greater Liberty Involves A Contraction Rather Than Extension And Development Of Instinctual Needs, It Works For Rather Than Against The Status Quo Of General Repression - One Might Speak Of "institutionalized Desublimation". The Latter Appears To Be A Vital Factor In The Making Of The Authoritarian Personality Of Our Time.