The cult of life for its own sake is repressive, ruthless and deadly

Evidence

Such argument is countered by pointing to the holiness of life that shines forth precisely in what is ugliest and most distorted. However, this light does not come to us directly, but only refracted: something that must be thought beautiful solely because it exists, is for that very reason ugly. The concept of life in its abstraction, that is resorted to here, is inseparable from what is repressive and ruthless, truly deadly and destructive. The cult of life for its own sake always boiled down to the cult of these powers. Things commonly called expressions of life, from burgeoning fertility and the boisterous activity of children to the industry of those who achieve something worthwhile, and the impulsiveness of woman, who is idolized because appetite shows in her so unalloyed; all this, understood absolutely, takes away the light from the other possibility in blind self-assertion. Exuberant health is always, as such, sickness also. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 88

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Adorno’s reversal — that hypostasized life, abstraction of life, is inseparable from destructiveness — is a dense dialectical inversion of vitalism and bios-optimism.
• XREF: Connects to the critique of vitalism and ‘rationality of life’ running through critical theory, and echoes Benjamin’s and Freud’s doubts about the life-drive. — connects to: Cults can institutionalize suicide bombing and redefine natural death as cowardice; The oppressed’s hatred of life fuels recurring puritanical violence; The heroic-mother cult lets society claim the right to kill soldiers’ sons — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 369

Broader Connections

• Cults can institutionalize suicide bombing and redefine natural death as cowardice #expands (0.85)
• The oppressed’s hatred of life fuels recurring puritanical violence #expands (0.80)