50 DAWN & DECLINE, ‘man's tongue. When, as he reads on, it turns out thatthe sentence merely states that that person spoke the German tongue the reader ‘may feel temporarily reassured. But his anticipatory instinct wil prove correct in other eases, ona later page Buddhism: From a certain point of view, the earist form of ‘Buddhism appears a particularly vile poston. It direets that possess which cannot be preserved through one's own efforts be feomned, Everything falls into this category life, health, wealth, even the vl “The Little Man and the Philosophy of Freedom: In socialism, freedom is to become a reality. But because the present system is called “free” and considered iberal it is wot teribly clear what this may mean. Yet anyone who keeps his yes open and hasa litle money Jn his pocket actualy has ample ocasion to familiarize himself with this concept He may, for example, ask an acquaintance for aja in his fem. "That has nothing to do with philosophy. But his acquaint ‘ance knits his brow and sajs that that i objectively impossible Business is bad, he says, and he's even been obliged to let many ‘employees go. The man should not be angry with him, for tis not ‘within his power, his freedom doesn't extend that fa. "The businessman is subject to laws which nether he nor anyone se nor any power with such a mandate created with purpose and ‘eliberation. "They are laws which the big capitalists and perhaps he ‘mse skilfully make use of but whose extence must be accented asa fact, Boom, bust inflation, wars and even the qualities of tings land human beings the present ocety demands ae a function of such Ts ofthe anonymous social reality, jst a the rotation ofthe earth express te laws of dead nature, No single individual ean do any- thing aboot them. "Bourgeois thought views this reality as superhuman. Ut fetishes the social process. IE speaks of fate and either calls it lind, of attempts a mystical interpretation. It deplores the meaninglessess of the whole, or submits to the inscutabilty of God's ways. But in actuality, ll those phenomena which are ether experienced as acci- dental or given a mystical interpretation depend on men andthe way Max Hortheimer st they arrange their soil existence, They can therefore abo be changed, If men consciously took thei if in society in hand and replaced the struggle of capitalist enterprises by a claslss and planned economy, the effects the process of production has on yhuman beings and their relationships could also be understood and regulated. What today appears sa fact of nature in the private and busines dealings of individuals are the eects of social life asa whole. ‘They ate human, not divine products Because these fects of life in society ae present but not con scious, willed or controlled, and are the results of an equal number Of individual wills that grasp neither theie dependence nor their power, the limitation on individual freedom in ou time is immeasura- by greater than would be necesary, given the available means. ‘When the businessman whom his acquaintance asks Fo ajo refuses ‘beast conditions dont permit it, he thinks he i refering to some- thing purely objective and totally antonornous—reality itself Since everyone ele, inching the petitioner, feels the same because the reality they themselves created through their social activity appears «a8 something alin by which they must abide, it follows that there {re many agents but no conscious and therefore fre subjects of social condo Men mut ebm fo cnn they hee om tantly ereate at to something alien and overwbelmingly powerful Insight snot enough, of couse, to change this state of affairs. For the eror i not that people do not recognize the subject but thatthe subject docs not ext. Everything therefore depends on creating the free subject that consciously shapes social life. And this subject is nothing other than the rationally organized socialist society which tegulats its own exttence. Inthe society asit now is, there are many invidal subjects whose Freedom isseverely limited because they are "unconscious of what they do, but there is no being that creates reality, no coherent ground. Religion and metaphysics claim that such a ‘round exist In 90 doing, they try to keep men from creating it through thei own eflots. OF couse the present lack of freedom does ‘ot apply equally to all. An element of freedom exists when the Products consonant with the interest ofthe producer. Al those who work and even those who don't, have share inthe creation of Contemporary reality, but the degree ofthat consonance varies con-52 DAWN & DECLINE siderably. "Those for whom i high sem responsible for realty in 2 sense’ They speak of “ou realty, if they were royally, and Fahy so Foraltough they didnot themucheseete te word one aot bot suspect that they would have made it exact as tis. 1 tthe thy tht te pin ad eration of ety A ee eee ey eect al egal the product of this blind procs and therefore support all egends onceaingitsrigin Bat Fr thee nan who turned down when fermi fora ob because objective conditions make it imposible, ‘oot important that tei origin be brought to the lit of dy 30 that they d ot continve being unfavorable ohm. Not only isawn Jacko redo bot that other 3 wel pel his doom. is interest Ties nthe Manis acai of the eanoept of fredam. ‘An Ola Story: Thee once was arch young man. He was so charming and captivating that everyone Hed him. And he was ‘Sarming not only wih hs ena but especial with sbordnates. Wien bce tof pe of bcs hated ah Full with the employes, and whenever he wen shopping i {ak put the sales people in goed spins for the rst ofthe day, Hit snout snabiity was evident n everyting he id. He gt engaged toa peor gland sympathized with por ait and intelectual ‘Tenses Went neg Tage seo che wate in the enue qualtis of ou pice. When he made his smal pur ‘see cated as chamingy be always had he Ket up hit onnetions wth artists and adored hs Gane. But lo and behold, the ales people became anoyed ith him because he took up thei time, the atts discovered his lack of any sort of productivity, and tre the poor gl found him incompetent snd nd and ally an of "This isan ld stor and would not be worth repeating iit werent ahvaysmisnderstood Fort athe prince that remained thesame, {tinvt the eters that changed—that would be the eustomary and Supercial interpetation. Tes the oters that remained the same tv the father’s bankruptcy gave the character of eur prince an “ntl diferent meaning A person may suddenly seem tpi, and futhing more need have changed than his bank Secount ‘Max Hortheimer i (Our story would become even more pointed and disquieting ifthe rest of the world had known for some time thatthe father’s busines ‘wast doing well and only the young man had no inkling of it In that ese, our talented prince would have becomea dodo, yet nothing in his consciousness would have altered. That's how dependent we realy are, ‘The Disintersted Striving for Truth: If we wish to tet the statement that there issuch a thing as pure, interested striving for tet that we havea deve to knowledge which independent fl other instincts, the following thought experiment shuld be made dneshoul abstract from one love for others, ones hit for eog- tion upto and inclding its most sublime manifestations ne should radcly destroy in thought the posit of any and every Kind of desire and thus of any pain of oy, one should imagine ttl Lack of intrest inthe fate of soit anda ts members that not oly ‘0 love or hated, er or vanity, but nat even the tiniest spark of Compassion, et alone aida, rein. Oe should in the words, lay the rol ofthe dead that appears as aghot (although with the dlference that ones ot only impotent ikea ghost but also without fn ito past oF presents hat One would nt even have reason to hat anyone or anything, nd one wil discover that under the conditions of the thought exerent, there sts ina disquieting indifference to any sot of knowledge whatever. The world looks as the female by des othe al man whose divs are dead. Theclaim that there isa disinterested striving fortathand its complement, the lie that there ae penonaliis that se somehow above and beyond Society, isa phiesophicl delusion which hasbeen made ideologically effective. Original, the bourgeois doctrine of the pure stevng or truth may have been proclaimed asthe opposite of thought in the servic of religious ends. Nowadays, capitalist profesor deny that any emotion enters their work They don't want anyone to find out {hat they pursue wisdom forthe sak of ther earcer ‘Although thete sno disinterested sting for rth, here is such a thingas thinking foe thinking’ sake itualzed thinking which has lost its parpore, namely ara means to prone peopel, t should ot be eonfsed with the please that es inthe activity oF thinking