Magic achieves domination through mimetic imitation, not through claiming absolute truth

Evidence

Magic is utterly untrue, yet in it domination is not yet negated by transforming itself into the pure truth and acting as the very ground of the world that has become subject to it. The magician imitates demons; in order to frighten them or to appease them, he behaves frighteningly or makes gestures of appeasement. … The magician never interprets himself as the image of the invisible power; yet this is the very image in which man attains to the identity of self that cannot disappear through identification with another, but takes possession of itself once and for all as an impenetrable mask. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 37

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes magic’s mimesis from Enlightenment’s conceptual domination — key to the book’s whole argument.
• XREF: Anthropological reading of magic as mimesis echoes Frazer and connects to the shamanism literature in The Soundscape research. — connects to: Money functions as magic, making desire immediately effective; Imitation structurally denies the imitator’s own cultural virtues — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1137; Magic is defined as influence acting without objective mediation — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 366 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Imitation structurally denies the imitator’s own cultural virtues #expands (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1137
• Magic is defined as influence acting without objective mediation #qualifies (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 366