Returning to private enterprise would simply restart the same horror.

Evidence

[One claims i]t would be sentimental to remain opposed to state capitalism merely because of those who have been slain. [It is said] that the Jews were for the most part capitalists, and that the small nations have no justification for their existence. State capitalism is said to be the only thing possible today. As long as the proletariat does not make its own revolution, [it is argued,] there remains no choice for it and its theoreticians but to follow the Weltgeist on the path it has chosen. Such opinions, and there are plenty of them, are neither the most stupid nor the most dishonest. This much is true, that with the return to the old private enterprise system, the entire horror would start again from the beginning under new management. But the historical outlook of such reasoning recognizes only the dimension of the cycle of progress and regression; it ignores the active intervention of men. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 576

Categorization

• XREF: Directly links to Horkheimer’s ‘The Authoritarian State’ and ‘The Jews and Europe’ debate — connects to the historiography of critical theory versus state capitalism.
• QUESTION: Why does Horkheimer reject the revolutionary fatalism of following the Weltgeist? The ‘active intervention of men’ claim could bear scrutiny.