Late-capitalist state intervention destroys traditions and cannot offset the loss indefinitely

Evidence

A policy of maintaining the latency of the class structure seemed bound to undermine itself, since increasing state intervention in the sociocultural sphere clearly had the effect of destroying cultural traditions and diminishing meaningfulness, and these effects could not be offset indefinitely through social compensations and the provision of consumable values. Habermas’s analysis of late capitalism thus led to a more precise restatement of an old theme of Critical Theory, that total socialization of society (Vergesellschaftung der Gesellschaft) would stifle its own base. On the basis of his distinction between technology and praxis, out of which his later distinction between system and life-world was to develop, Habermas attempted to link a more pointed version of the older Critical Theory’s critique of society with a crisis theory that relieved Critical Theory of some of its tendency to produce discouragement. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2713

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Vergesellschaftung der Gesellschaft and the technology/praxis distinction that leads to system/life-world.
• XREF: Connects to Habermas’s Legitimation Crisis and the system/life-world thesis; the ‘total socialization stifles its own base’ theme parallels the stagnation critique in earlier Critical Theory chapters. — connects to: Expanded state administration destabilizes cultural traditions and raises legitimation demands — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2710; State intervention made capitalist exploitation political and thereby threatened capitalism itself — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 173; State intervention to save capitalism exposed its supposedly natural order as political — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 169 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• State intervention made capitalist exploitation political and thereby threatened capitalism itself #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 173
• State intervention to save capitalism exposed its supposedly natural order as political #corroborates (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 169