Totalitarianism expresses rather than repudiates Enlightenment’s inherent dynamic.

Evidence

Totalitarianism was less the repudiation of liberalism and the values of the Enlightenment than the working out of their inherent dynamic. The exchange principle underlying the Enlightenment notion of nature as fungible atoms was paralleled in the increasing atomization of modern man, a process that culminated in the repressive equality of totalitarianism. The instrumental manipulation of nature by man led inevitably to the concomitant relationship among men. The unbridgeable distance between subject and object in the Enlightenment world view corresponded to the relative status of rulers and ruled in the modern authoritarian states. The objectification of the world had produced a similar effect in human relations. As Marx noted, although restricting it to an effect of capitalism, the dead past had come to rule over the living present. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 786

Categorization

• XREF: Directly echoes Marcuse’s earlier article cited in the passage and connects to the marxist story of dead labour dominating the living. — connects to: Enlightenment’s totalitarianism lies in deciding outcomes before inquiry begins; Enlightenment does not eliminate myth but re-enters it as secularized domination — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 46; Anti-enlightenment ideology unconsciously reveres what it seeks to destroy (+12 more)
• FICTION: The ‘dead past ruling the living present’ inversion is a haunting image for speculative fiction about machine or algorithmic domination.

Broader Connections

• Totalitarianism is inherently, not just contingently, connected to modernity #corroborates (0.95) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 401
• The Frankfurt School saw Enlightenment’s collapse into totalitarianism as latent in its own reason #corroborates (0.92) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 342
• Enlightenment rationalism generated new monsters instead of eradicating them #corroborates (0.88) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 352
• Rousseau’s general-will system inevitably yields totalitarianism #expands (0.85) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2535
• Enlightenment must critique itself rather than merely defend cultural values #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 24
• The Enlightenment’s self-image required the Rest as its suppressed opposite. #corroborates (0.75)