Rational counter-arguments fail against anti-Semitism rooted in domination

Evidence

All the rational, economic, and political explanations and counter-arguments—however accurate they may be in part—cannot provide a justification, because the rationality associated with domination is also based on suffering. Attacking or defending blindly, the persecutor and his victim belong to the same sphere of evil. Anti-Semitic behavior is generated in situations where blinded men robbed of their subjectivity are set loose as subjects. For those involved, their actions are murderous and therefore senseless reflexes, as behaviorists note—without providing an interpretation. Anti-Semitism is a deeply imprinted schema, a ritual of civilization; the pogroms are the true ritual murders. They demonstrate the impotence of sense, significance, and ultimately of truth—which might hold them within bounds. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 126

Categorization

• XREF: Directly anticipates the reader’s later Burns material on the culture industry pacifying audiences — same structure of a domination-rationality that reason cannot dissolve. — connects to: Anti-Semitism cannot end until instrumental Enlightenment domination itself is abolished — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 702; Critical theory that identifies reason with domination cannot justify its own critique — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 380; Alternatives failing to address structures of domination cannot achieve abolition — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 286 (+3 more)
• ADDENDUM: Connects to ‘On Sacrifice’ article: pogroms as ritualized civilization, murder as ritual confirming the order one must resign to.
• DEEPTHINKING: The tight equation of domination’s rationality with suffering, and persecutor and victim sharing one sphere of evil, is among the most compressed and paradigm-level claims in the book.

Broader Connections

• Anti-Semitism cannot end until instrumental Enlightenment domination itself is abolished #corroborates (0.90) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 702
• Alternatives failing to address structures of domination cannot achieve abolition #expands (0.85) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 286
• Critical theory that identifies reason with domination cannot justify its own critique #complicates (0.82) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 380
• Antisemitic images of Jews function to perpetuate the rule of domination. #corroborates (0.80)