History changes only through historical means, not eternal truths

Evidence

During the inter-war years there was somethmg desperate about the search for a mythology that could somehow straighten society out in such troubled times. … The reasonĐ for which Picasso was compelled to resort to signs and allegones should now be clear enough: his utter political helplessness in the face of a historical situation which he set out to record; his titanic effort to confront a particular historical event with an allegedly eternal truth; his desire to give hope and comfort and to provide a happy ending, to compensate for the terror, the destruction, and inhumanity of the event. Picasso did not see what Goya had already seen, namely, that the course of history can be changed only by historical means and only if men shape their own history instead of acting as the automaton of an earthly power or an allegedly eternal idea. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 261

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes Goya’s historicist vision from Picasso’s mythic universalism — a key contrast in Harvey’s account of modernist myth-making.
• XREF: The Goya/Picasso contrast echoes the tension between historical-materialist and mythic-aesthetic responses to crisis that runs through Harvey’s whole argument. — connects to: Truth for critical theory is historically conditioned, not timeless.; History is constant only as progress toward hell. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 256; Sameness across history is knowable only through what is new. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 256 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Historical change arrives as a qualitative leap, not gradual growth #complicates (0.75)