Appeals to kindness conceal the social privations imposed on individuals.
Evidence
But he refused to see Freud’s attitude as representing a lack of kindness which could be relieved merely by supplying kindness. Rather, it was a repressive attitude, but it did not permit the illusion that it would be possible to improve conditions merely by kindness, or that it would be possible for kindness to relieve the drive to achieve satisfaction. Only someone wanting to moderate the demands of this drive, or prepared to conceal the extent of the privations forced on the individual by society, would come up with such an idea. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 289
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Adorno’s later critique of ‘warmth’ and pseudo-personal care in therapeutic and welfare relationships. — connects to: An individual’s exclusion from society enables their social participation — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 178; Selfless kindness directed even at inanimate objects is held up as an ideal — , A Year of World Stories, 8454; Societies apply courtesy norms to people but not to the natural world — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 668 (+1 more)
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: An individual’s exclusion from society enables their social participation — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 178; Selfless kindness directed even at inanimate objects is held up as an ideal — , A Year of World Stories, 8454; Societies apply courtesy norms to people but not to the natural world — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 668 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Behaving oddly in cities can elicit kindness rather than rejection
#complicates(0.71) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1020