Adorno broke with Benjamin by denying even a weak messianic power to history

Evidence

Shortly before his death, Benjamin had written that “our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of redemption… . Like every generation that preceded us, we have been endowed with a weak messianic power.” 110 In Minima Moralia Adorno seemed to agree with the connection between redemption and happiness, but denied even a weakened messianic power to his age. Positive freedom and the genuine reconciliation it promised, he implied, were perpetually utopian hopes incapable of earthly realization. The negation of the negation, that dream of alienation returning to itself which motivated both Hegel and Marx, must remain frustrated. The dialectic, as the title of one of his subsequent books indicated, could be only negative.”’ Horkheimer’s later expression of interest in Schopenhauer confirmed this turn in Critical Theory’s focus. When Horkheimer wrote that “to stand up for the temporal against merciless eternity is morality in Schopenhauer’s sense,” 112 he was merely seconding Adorno’s observation in Minima Moralia that the demands of the totality could not be met without the destruction of the finite and contingent. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 837

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the Benjamin-Adorno divergence over redemption — connects to Horkheimer’s Schopenhauer turn and the wider diaspora-era shift away from Hegelian-Marxist reconciliation. — connects to: Adorno rejected Benjamin’s philological method as trapped between magic and positivism. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 620; Adorno and Horkheimer kept Benjamin’s corrupted-speech premise while stripping its theology. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 789; Adorno judged Benjamin’s Marxism an unwitting productive misreading, not orthodoxy — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 297 (+2 more)
• ADDENDUM: The theme of sacrifice of the finite/contingent to the totality parallels the ‘On Sacrifice’ article’s examination of how individuals are consumed by larger systems.

Broader Connections

• Adorno judged Benjamin’s Marxism an unwitting productive misreading, not orthodoxy #expands (0.75) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 297
• Adorno’s final philosophy denied the achievability of salvation while keeping its standpoint #complicates (0.72) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 836