Kirchheimer rejected mass culture as sufficient explanation of working-class passivity

Evidence

In the period before the Nazi take-over of power, Kirchheimer, like the members of the Institut then in Frankfurt, preserved a guarded hope that the proletariat might still fulfill its historical role. In 1932 he argued against the importance of mass culture as a sufficient explanation of the working class’s reluctance to realize its revolutionary potential. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 473

Categorization

• XREF: Presents a contrast with the later Institut (Adorno/Horkheimer) emphasis on mass culture; a useful counterexample within Frankfurt School intellectual history. — connects to: Critical Theory arose from Marxism’s failure to explain workers’ passivity — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 389; Frankfurt School theorists pioneered analysis of mass culture and working-class integration — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 22

Broader Connections

• Critical Theory arose from Marxism’s failure to explain workers’ passivity #corroborates (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 389