Benjamin valued distraction and habit in perception where Adorno required concentration.

Evidence

Moreover, whereas Adorno always demanded concentration on the part of the viewer or listener — we have already mentioned his stress on the praxis of genuine aesthetic reception - Benjamin was more sympathetic to the positive implications of distraction: “The tasks which face the human apparatus of perception at the turning points of history cannot be solved … by contemplation alone. They are mastered gradually by habit… . The ability to master certain tasks in a state of distraction proves that their solution has become a matter of habit.” 211 It was on this assumption that Benjamin could end his article by calling for the Communist politicization of art as a response to what he called the fascist “aestheticization of politics.” 212 Adorno, as we have seen, was far less sanguine, and responded to Benjamin in his article “On the Fetish Character of Music and the Regression of Hearing.” — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 632

Categorization

• XREF: Benjamin’s ‘aestheticization of politics’ vs. Communist politicization of art resonates with Sontag’s ‘Fascinating Fascism’ and later media-engagement studies. — connects to: Adorno and Benjamin independently converged on the same cultural-critique objects from opposite directions — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 348; Attention-economy distractions accumulate to erode autonomy and selfhood — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 403; Adorno’s core concepts originate from Benjamin but his political economy developed against him — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 294 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno and Benjamin independently converged on the same cultural-critique objects from opposite directions #qualifies (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 348
• Attention-economy distractions accumulate to erode autonomy and selfhood #complicates (0.75) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 403
• Adorno’s core concepts originate from Benjamin but his political economy developed against him #responds-to (0.72) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 294