Rational self-preservation conquers nature only by imitating nature’s own rigidity

Evidence

The ratio which supplants mimesis is not simply its counterpart. It is itself mimesis: mimesis unto death. The subjective spirit which cancels the animation of nature can master a despiritualized nature only by imitating its rigidity and despiritutalizing itself in turn. Imitation enters into the service of domination inasmuch as even man is anthropomorphized for man. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 63

Categorization

• XREF: This paradox — reason as mimetic rigidity; domination internalized — is the kernel of the Frankfurt School account that Burns extends later. Direct founding formulation. — connects to: Formal logic’s either-or structure derives from the compulsion of self-preservation. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 47; Abstracting gods from natural elements is the first step toward dominating nature — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 36; Both nature’s mechanism and history’s determinism oppress the modern self — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 163 (+20 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that enlightenment’s rational mastery is itself a form of mimesis-unto-death — the subject defeats nature by becoming it — is the densest single insight of the excursus.

Broader Connections

• Ending deprivation requires increased domination of nature and self-repression #corroborates (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1572
• Both nature’s mechanism and history’s determinism oppress the modern self #corroborates (0.82) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 163
• The drive to dominate external nature extends inward to the human self #expands (0.80)
• Domination over nature is a systematic attitude, not isolated events #expands (0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 173
• Nature is the object of reason as liberation, not only domination #contradicts (0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 826
• Self-domination destroys the very subject self-preservation aims to save #corroborates (0.78) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 62
• Coercion and material interests force rational adaptation even without shared values or kinship #corroborates (0.78) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2203
• Liberation-from-control paradoxically requires self-control by a prior autonomous self #corroborates (0.75)
• Nature is constructed by the mind’s synthetic activity from raw sense perceptions #contradicts (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 167
• The physically weaker dominate nature by deliberate adaptation rather than strength #complicates (0.72)