Totalitarian susceptibility persisted from technological and economic developments

Evidence

In the rest of the study, however, these hopeful prospects had the ground cut from under them by Adorno’s hypothesis that the anthropological conditions' for manipulative mass psychology continued to exist, as did a susceptibility to totalitarian systems, caused by the technological and economic tendencies that were developing in society as a whole. Hopeful signs were also undermined by his statement about the virtuosity that moral defensiveness develops, which may correspond to the extent of unconscious guilt one has to suppress’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2029

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘virtuosity of moral defensiveness’ correlates with unconscious guilt — a mechanism claim echoing the psychoanalytic depth Adorno applied in the authoritarian personality studies. — connects to: Totalitarian political regimes are symptoms of deeper economic systematization; Totalitarianism is inherently, not just contingently, connected to modernity — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 401; Bureaucratic chaos and anti-Western irrationalism emotionally prepared Europe for totalitarianism — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 626 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Totalitarianism is inherently, not just contingently, connected to modernity #qualifies (0.85) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 401
• Bureaucratic chaos and anti-Western irrationalism emotionally prepared Europe for totalitarianism #expands (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 626
• Surveillance capitalism is a species of power comparable in significance to totalitarianism #expands (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1699
• The Second World War made technological progress appear menacing for the first time #corroborates (0.75) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 226