Nationalist anti-Semitism channels religious fanaticism’s energy into race hatred

Evidence

Religion was subsumed, and not abolished, when it became a cultural commodity. The alliance between enlightenment and domination has cut the link between the aspect of truth in religion and the consciousness, and has retained only the objectified forms of religion. This is a dual benefit for the Fascists: uncontrolled longing is channelled into nationalistic rebellion, and the descendants of the evangelistic fanatics are turned—like Wagner’s knight of the Holy Grail—into sworn members of blood brotherhoods and elite guards; religion as an institution is partly embodied in the system and partly converted into mass culture. The fanatical faith of the leader and his followers is no different from that for which men were once willing to submit to the stake; only the content has changed. But the hatred for all who do not share the faith remains. Anti-Semitism is all that the German Christians have retained of the religion of love. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 133

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains how religion persists in secularized political form: subsumed as cultural commodity, its truth-connection severed, leaving only objectified forms ripe for fascist appropriation.
• XREF: Directly anchors the ‘culture industry’ thesis — religion as cultural commodity is the same mechanism mass culture uses to pacify. Ties to the reader’s stated purpose of tracing the Adorno critique line. — connects to: Antisemitism functioned as generalizable political hatred of society and the state — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 310; Hatred of Jews became detached from any specific Jewish deeds; Anti-Semitism deflects class hatred onto merchants who embody the whole system’s exploitation. (+1 more)
• SEED: Angle: how political movements convert residual religious energy into secular blood-and-race loyalty — the twentieth century’s ‘religion of love’ emptied of love but retaining hatred.

Broader Connections

• Hatred of Jews became detached from any specific Jewish deeds #expands (0.80)
• Antisemitism functioned as generalizable political hatred of society and the state #complicates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 310