Making Adorno's Ethics and Politics Explicit [Review Essay: J.M. Bemstein, Adomo: Disenchantment and Ethics

The opening line of J.M. Bemstein's preface to Adomo: Disenchantment and Ethics rings true: "Readers of Adomo are inevitably stmck by how everything he wrote was infused with a stringent and commanding ethical intensity" (xi). Adomo's lavish invectives chase out the ethical depravity he found hiding in every comer of modem life, and he has thus become a cult figure among the growing demographic of those suffering from a deep dissatisfaction with consumer culture, inching toward complete cynicism, and yet holding dearly to the notion that things should be better. Although disparaged as unreadable by many professional theorists, his esoteric writings often hit home for even newcomers to philosophy because the practical import of his critiques of instramental rationality becomes obvious when he applies them to our suburbs, shopping malls, and media. Adomo's high-brow venom pools in the soft spots of contemporary life, and we can all follow his arguments far enough to notice an uncomfortable resemblance between the style of thinking goveming mass culture and that which ran the death camps of Nazi Europe. The "culture industry"—the term Adomo and Max Horkheimer used to describe the nexus of media, advertisement, and instrumental rationality—has become exponentially more powerful in the information age, and Adomo's seemingly prophetic works have been the subject of renewed interest. Indeed, something like an "Adomo industry" appears to have arisen. This essay reviews two recent contributions to this trend.