Horkheimer’s strategic indecision reflected a Jewish condition requiring Machiavellian skill for security

Evidence

To act for strategic purposes and remain inwardly undecided was characteristic of Horkheimer; it was his way of reacting to the Jewish condition (an expression to be seen as analogous to Simone Weil’s `condition ouvrière’), a condition in which achieving a forever fragile sense of security demanded Machiavellian skill. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1744

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘the Jewish condition’ as an analytic concept framed analogously to Simone Weil’s worker condition.
• XREF: Horkheimer governing the Institute by giving staff contradictory private information (ch39) reads as the practical expression of this Machiavellian skill. — connects to: Horkheimer’s cautious tactical maneuvering stemmed from Jewish insecurity — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1744; Horkheimer held that Jews’ apparent passivity masked rational insight into the futility of countermeasures — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1532; Horkheimer prized political aggressiveness over intellectual amiability in his associates — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 654 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer’s cautious tactical maneuvering stemmed from Jewish insecurity #expands (0.90) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1744
• Horkheimer held that Jews’ apparent passivity masked rational insight into the futility of countermeasures #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1532
• Horkheimer prized political aggressiveness over intellectual amiability in his associates #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 654
• High social dominance orientation predicts Machiavellian manipulation beliefs strongly #expands (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1013
• Russian official nationalism differed from Spanish colonialism in being self-consciously Machiavellian #exemplifies (0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 347