Fully reified society is infinitely close to realizing humanity

Evidence

When taken together with the human being’s radical self-alienation, and hence, with the absolutely negative, the process of the radical alienation of labour brought about by the extreme domination of nature also portends an ‘almost-utopia’ at the same time. The fully reified society is infinitely close to the concept of humanity. The ant colony is a projection of those who prepare it yet repress it from consciousness. Its conscious realisation could coincide with its abolition. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1058

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The paradox that complete alienation carries the seed of utopia — that the ant colony’s conscious realization coincides with its abolition — is a dense, dialectical claim resisting easy summary.
• XREF: Echoes Marx’s alienated labor theory and Hegel’s absolute knowing; connects to the reader’s revisionist framing of Adorno against the ‘pessimistic cul-de-sac’ reading. — connects to: Total society makes even hope in posterity a conformist capitulation. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 114; Humanity’s viewpoint and society’s viewpoint remain in principle distinct — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 215; Reified social wholes are objective forces that decide individual existence — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 735 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Humanity’s viewpoint and society’s viewpoint remain in principle distinct #contradicts (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 215
• Reified social wholes are objective forces that decide individual existence #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 735
• Freedom precedes essence and is indistinguishable from being human #contradicts (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 226