Critical theory ignoring material improvements itself becomes a fetish

Evidence

When a critical theory disregards that in many respects, circumstances faced by human beings today are better than they were in Marx’s time, it ultimately fails to ‘incorporate those aspects where the way things have so far gone materially has not actually resulted in the extreme situation predicted by Marx’. As a consequence, this theory ‘itself becomes a fetish’ insofar as it ‘neglects the state in which human beings find themselves’. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1417

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that a theory refusing to register material betterment becomes a fetish is a dense, self-reflexive critique that cuts against the stereotype of Adorno as unremittingly pessimistic.
• XREF: connects to: Excessive theorizing can empty power of its material exercise; Academic institutionalization threatens the political stakes of critical theory — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 257; Critical consciousness without a material base cannot change society — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 877 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Excessive theorizing can empty power of its material exercise #corroborates (0.85)
• Critical consciousness without a material base cannot change society #corroborates (0.82) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 877
• Academic institutionalization threatens the political stakes of critical theory #complicates (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 257