The stupidity of technicians is a proliferation, not an absence, of thought

Evidence

At the same time, their mental power has, in a number of dimensions, been prodigiously increased by control mechanisms. The collective stupidity of research technicians is not simply an absence or regression of intellectual faculties, but a proliferation of the thinking faculty itself, which consumes thought with its own strength. The masochistic malice of young intellectuals springs from the malignance of their disease. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 151

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The paradox that stupidity under capitalism is literally a hypertrophy — ‘a proliferation of the thinking faculty itself, which consumes thought with its own strength’ — is one of Adorno’s most demanding inversions, resisting easy paraphrase.
• SEED: Article angle on ‘the productivity of stupidity’ — how overthinking-under-control is itself the mechanism of intellectual death, not some failure to think enough. Could pair with the earlier ‘revenge of stupidity.’
• XREF: connects to: Stupidity is a social product, not a natural capacity — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 120

Broader Connections

• Stupidity is a social product, not a natural capacity #expands (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 120