Something’s Missing: A Study of the Dialectic of Utopia in the Theories of Theodor W. Adorno and Ernst Bloch By Michael R. Ott In response to the strategically planned and increasingly deadly globalization of U.S. led neoliberal transnational corporate capitalism as well as of its neoconservative covert and overt acts of espionage and wars for regime-change and empire[1], this essay raises the question of the contemporary meaning and relevancy of a depreciated concept that for most of the 20th and now 21st centuries has been relegated to the trash heap of history as being anachronistic and thus, worthless for addressing the increasing crises of modernity. This disdained and all but forgotten concept is utopia: that future-oriented, religious and/or secular expression of a society so organized as to put to an end to the horror of humanity’s pre-history through the production and reproduction of itself in all of its structures for the well-being and happiness of all its people, as well as that of nature. As such, utopic thinking is expressive of the humanistic and humanizing longing that has the potential of creating a historically grounded, revolutionary theory and praxis for that which is “not-yet,” for that which is “other” if not the religiously conceived totally “Other” – the new creation of God – than the globally metastasizing systems of domination, exploitation, suffering and death. Because of its revolutionary potential, especially in the midst of the contemporary globalization of Western capitalist “interests” and the corollary of military domination, the notion of utopia has been devalued strategically to the realm of culture in the forms of science fiction, video games, and/or narrative apocalyptic projections of the historically experienced horrors of class warfare, experienced particularly in the lives of the oppressed masses, into its consummation in a totally administered, instrumentalized, cybernetic, “iron cage” [Horkheimer & Adorno 1972; Adorno 1973, 1974, 2008; Marcuse 1964; Weber 1958:181] future society – a dys- or cacotopia.[2] As an expression of resistance and alternative to this strategic historical and systemic debasement of the critical and liberating potential of utopic thinking and concrete action, this study addresses the dialectic of the religious and secular complexities of utopic thought and of its relevancy in any revolutionary struggle for a more reconciled and humanistic future global totality. The focus for this study is on the theoretical work on this topic by the critical theorist of the Frankfurt School, Theodor W. Adorno, and the Marxist philosopher, Ernst Bloch. This paper concludes with a brief analysis of Adorno and Bloch’s 1964 public discourse in which they present and defend their dialectical theories on utopia. Early Utopias: Freedom in Space The first use of the word “utopia” has been attributed to Sir/Saint Thomas More, who in 1516 used it in the title of his book – De optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia, which translates literally into English as, “Of a Republic’s Best State and of the New Island Utopia.” However, as the word at least became more common, the book has been entitled solely by the name, Utopia [More 2003]. In creating this term, More is said to have adapted the Greek word eutopia, meaning “good place”, into outopia or utopia, which means “no place” or “no land.” As the first of this utopic genre written in the midst of and as an expression of Renaissance Humanism, More’s book is what is called a social utopia conceived of being in space, as he situated his good, alternative society to that of Europe on an island in the South Sea of the so-called New World. More’s island Utopia was the place of the greatest realization of human freedom and happiness. Utopias of freedom in space were depicted as already existing in the present but in some remote part of the world. The utopia already existed; people were just not there yet. Due to the burgeoning exploration of the world via sea travel, made possible by the scientific discoveries of navigation, this already existing utopia of freedom in space gave expression to the longing of people to move from one place to another in search of a better life. This was expressed in More’s description of the main character of his utopia, Raphael Hythloday, who is described as having travelled with Amerigo Vespucci in his voyages of “discovering” the New World, and then through his own further travels arrives at the island of Utopia. The content and the particular place of such utopian expression in space changed over the centuries according to... Read the rest of this paper here: heathwoodpress/somethings-missing-study-dialectic-utopia-theories-theodor-w-adorno-ernst-bloch/
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 16:14:29 +0000
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