Reimagining a More Just and Sustainable Society – The Role of Critical Theory

“A new categorical imperative has been imposed by Hitler upon unfree mankind: to arrange their thoughts and actions so that Auschwitz will not repeat itself; so that nothing similar will happen.”

Theodor Adorno

Introduction

This blog is based on Stuart Jeffries’ wonderful book Grand Hotel Abyss which covers the lives and thought of the Frankfurt School of philosophers, whose leading figures include Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, and later Jurgen Habermas. Beginning in the 1920s, these thinkers passionately struggled to understand the reasons for Hitler’s mass support in Germany, the appeal of Stalinist Communism, and the destructive appeal of unregulated consumer Capitalism. Their deep understanding of culture, how forms of culture can lead humanity to barbarism, and why culture is so difficult to change, are still hugely relevant today as we stare, again, into the Abyss – of climate change, war, and global instability.