Letter to Theodor Adorno
August 4th, 1969[1]
Dear Theodor,
I hope your travel to Switzerland was pleasant.[2] I am writing to return your favor of sending me an unpublished copy of your essay “Resignation.”
I am truly sorry about what happened during your lecture last month.[3] It is deplorable that so many so-called intellectuals do not realize the reality of their actions––Pseudo-activity is rampant. I agree with you that so many people confuse regression with revolution. Students nowadays have to remember that having leftist views do not save them from falling into the all-subsuming power of instrumental reason. If we do not acknowledge our own deep entanglements within the society that make all of us prone to the impulse to pseudo-activity and the urge for total identification with whatever “agenda” that is supposed to bring substantial changes to our political situation, we are bound to fail and be subsumed into what we intend to criticize.
The last few sentences of your essay were particularly intriguing to me. You write: “Whoever thinks is not enraged in all his critique: thinking has sublimated the rage. Because the thinking person does not need to inflict rage upon himself, he does not wish to inflict it on others. The happiness that dawns in the eye of the thinking person is the happiness of humanity. The universal tendency of oppression is opposed to thought as such. Thought is happiness, even where it defines unhappiness: by enunciating it. By this alone happiness reaches into universal unhappiness. Whoever does not let it atrophy has not resigned.”[4] In the process of authentic thinking, we abstract ourselves away from talking about the immediate social realities that ground our thoughts. It takes great effort, patience, and unstopping self-reflection to prevent thinking from atrophying and it can only be done on an individual level. We enunciate and bring out problems in the empirical reality in the way that resists totalization of ideas, and this preserves the possibility of coexistence without domination. Yes, the happiness dawns in the eye of the thinking person––but how does our individual happiness lead to the happiness of humanity? Yes, happiness reaches into universal unhappiness, but only insofar as it does so on an individual level. I can’t stop thinking what you’re saying here is our wishful thinking and the preservation of authentic thought and action can only take place––I imagine you’d agree with me on this point––on an extremely mediated and limited playing ground. At this point, I am quite entirely “resigned,” as they say, about the possibility of authentic revolution. I would love to hear what you have to say in response to my question.
I wish that you regain your health and spirit back and I hope to speak to you in person soon.
Yours truly,
BJL
[1] Adorno died on August 6th, 1969.
[2] Adorno left for Switzerland from Germany after the incident with the student protestors.
[3] In 1968, students were protesting against Adorno in his lecture for his decision not to support 68 student uprising by writing “If Adorno is left in peace, capitalism will never cease” on the black board. Three women revealed their breasts in front of Adorno, scattering flower petals on Adorno’s head.
[4] Adorno, Theodor. “Resignation,” Critical Models 3 293.