Late capitalism’s irrationality thwarts the rational systematic theory Marx could achieve

Evidence

It is conceivable that contemporary society [resists coherent theorization]. Marx had it easier [insofar as the elaborated system of liberalism laybeforehiminscholarship].Heneededonlytoinquirewhethercapitalisminitsowndynamiccategoriesfitintothissysteminordertoproducea quasi-systematictheoryof hisown,indeterminatenegationof thesystem he found before him. In the meantime, the market economy has become so full of holes as to [make a mockery of] any such confrontation. The irrational nature of contemporary society inhibits a rational account of it in the realm of theory. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 903

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Adorno’s claim that social irrationality blocks rational theorization — theory fails not for lack of rigor but because its object has become irrational — is a paradigm-level argument about the very possibility of critique.
• XREF: This is the exact warrant behind the ‘pessimistic cul-de-sac’ reading, yet it is a diagnosis of the object’s structure, not a capitulation — central to the revisionist debate. — connects to: Habermas overstates late capitalism’s success in overcoming Marxian contradictions — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 444; Horkheimer broke with Marxist orthodoxy by treating irrationalism as heterogeneous — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 208; Capitalism can preserve ‘irrational’ features like unfree labor rather than abolish them — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 590 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism can preserve ‘irrational’ features like unfree labor rather than abolish them #exemplifies (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 590
• Technical rationality makes irrational social control appear reasonable and rational #complicates (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 124