Adorno saw authenticity as irrationality used as a control mechanism

Evidence

In Jargon of Authenticity Adorno finally reduced the part played by Heidegger, which continued to be a fatal one, to the formula: `irrationality in the midst of the rational is the working atmosphere of authenticity’. This corresponded to the position of the technocratic conservatives: an artificial naturalness was to be built into technological civilization as a control mechanism. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2515

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures Adorno’s central formula against Heidegger: ‘irrationality in the midst of the rational is the working atmosphere of authenticity’.
• XREF: This ‘artificial naturalness as control mechanism’ line connects to Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment and to the broader Critical Theory account of administered society. — connects to: Adorno valued avant-garde provocation because authentic despair in art foreshadows reality’s collapse. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 552
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2515