Liberalism and totalitarianism rest on one and the same social order.

Evidence

Marcuse’s article “The Struggle against Liberalism in the Totalitarian View of the State” is worth examining in detail because of the number of points he makes that were subsequently developed in other works by the Institut. The essay is also a model of dialectical thinking, treating totalitarianism as both a reaction to and a continu ation of certain trends in liberalism. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 404 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

However, the transformation from liberalism to totalitarianism was more organic than liberal theorists acknowledged. As Marcuse wrote in his first essay in the Zeilschrijt: “The turn from the liberalist to the total-authoritarian state occurs within the framework of a single social order. With regard to the unity of this economic base, we can say it is liberalism that ‘produces’ the total-authoritarian state out of itself, as its own consummation at a more advanced stage of development.” 39 In short, fascism was intimately related to capitalism itself. In one of his most frequently quoted phrases, Horkheimer wrote in 1939, “he who does not wish to speak of capitalism should also be silent about fascism.” 40 As we shall see, however, when we discuss Franz Neumann’s Behemoth, the Institut was never fully in agreement about what this relation really was. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 403 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

First, from a normative point of view it allows one to approach the question of the relevance of the idea of the good life for social and political theory from a different standpoint than the state-centered one that has dominated the liberal-communitarian debate in political philosophy during the last two decades of the twentieth century. … In Rosa’s view this is precisely the case in modern liberal polities, not as a positive result of state action, but because they are embedded in capitalist socioeconomic orders. For this reason, the apparently extensive and endlessly celebrated individual liberty that is supposedly ensured by the neutral or impartial norms of liberal constitutions leads to a surprisingly homogeneous and limited set of realized possibilities with regard to conceptions of the good, possible careers, educational options, personality structures, consumption choices, leisure activities, and family structure, among others. “Liberal freedom” ironically turns out to go hand in hand with “capitalist necessity.” This reality is occluded by the usual state-centric focus of the “right versus good” debate in mainstream political philosophy. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 44 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Neutral liberal states channel citizens toward one homogeneous capitalist form of life. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 44; Fascism emerges organically from liberalism within a single capitalist social order — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 403; Formally neutral liberal states in capitalist orders produce homogeneous life outcomes, not real pluralism — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 44 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Fascism emerges organically from liberalism within a single capitalist social order #corroborates (0.90) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 403
• Marcuse’s dialectical method treated totalitarianism as both reaction and continuation of liberalism #corroborates (0.90) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 404
• Neutral liberal states channel citizens toward one homogeneous capitalist form of life. #corroborates (0.85) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 44
• Formally neutral liberal states in capitalist orders produce homogeneous life outcomes, not real pluralism #corroborates (0.85) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 44