Techno-optimism and dismissal of professional estimates produced a catastrophic postwar occupation

Evidence

None of the authors concerned themselves with topics such as the constitutional welfare state, Weimar democracy or Italian fascism. But none of them doubted that the future belonged to socialism. However, such optimism was increasingly undermined by the analyses of the effects of the world economic crisis, and of capitalist crisis policies and the planned economy, which were conducted by the Institute’s economistsPollock, Kurt Mandelbaum (alias Kurt Baumann) and Gerhard Meyerwho were more concerned with current events. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 142 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Techno-pessimists and techno-optimists share flawed determinist and exceptionalist assumptions — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 60; Confidence in expert systems can be catastrophically misplaced — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 13; Confident socialist optimism among Institute theorists eroded as economists analyzed capitalist crisis management. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 142 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Confident socialist optimism among Institute theorists eroded as economists analyzed capitalist crisis management. #complicates (0.74) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 142
• Postwar historians rejected the contemporary pessimistic verdict on industrialization’s costs #complicates (0.71)