Aesthetic commitment can trump political revulsion in intellectual alliances.
Evidence
Adorno’s commitment to modernism in the arts was so deep that he saw Benn as less of an enemy than those who rejected modern art altogether and gave conservative or reactionary significance to the established forms. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 551
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The ranking of aesthetic orthodoxy above political atrocity as a criterion of intellectual kinship is a genuinely uncomfortable paradigm claim about how intellectual milieus police belonging.
- XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School volume’s account of Adorno’s fraught dealings with Benjamin, Brecht, and Heidegger — the same pattern of aesthetic loyalty overriding political objection. — connects to: Political category mistakes often stem from transferring aesthetic concepts into politics — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 744; The Postmodern Condition grew from far older aesthetic-political commitments — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 73; Political commitment is aesthetically preferable to apolitical liberalism even when misguided — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 565 (+2 more)
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Political category mistakes often stem from transferring aesthetic concepts into politics — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 744; The Postmodern Condition grew from far older aesthetic-political commitments — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 73; Political commitment is aesthetically preferable to apolitical liberalism even when misguided — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 565 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Avant-garde art depends on concrete political conditions, not just aesthetic logic
#complicates(0.75) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 243