Thought That Accepts Reality As Given Is

Such Abstraction Which Refuses To Accept The Given Universe Of Facts As The Final Context Of Validation, Such "transcending" Analysis Of The Facts In The Light Of Their Arrested And Denied Possibilities, Pertains To The Very Structure Of Social Theory.

[art] Can Speak Its Own Language Only As Long As The Images Are Alive Which Refuse And Refute The Established Order.

The Way In Which A Society Organizes The Life Of Its Members ... Is One "project" Of Realization Among Others. But Once The Project Has Become Operative In The Basic Institutions And Relations, It Tends To Become Exclusive And To Determine The Development Of The Society As A Whole.

The Society Which Projects And Undertakes The Technological Transformation Of Nature Alters The Base Of Domination By Gradually Replacing Personal Dependence (of The Slave On The Master, The Serf On The Lord Of The Manor, The Lord On The Donor Of The Fief, Etc.) With Dependence On The "objective Order Of Things" (on Economic Laws, The Market Etc.).

The Truth Of Literature And Art Has Always Been Granted (if It Was Granted At All) As One Of A "higher" Order, Which Should Not And Indeed Did Not Disturb The Order Of Business. What Has Changed In The Contemporary Period Is The Difference Between The Two Orders And Their Truths. The Absorbent Power Of Society Depletes The Artistic Dimension By Assimilating Its Antagonistic Contents. In The Realm Of Culture, The New Totalitarianism Manifests Itself Precisely In A Harmonizing Pluralism, Where The Most Contradictory Works And Truths Peacefully Coexist In Indifference.