F Scale Reading Group - December 31st 8:30 am

Ring out 2023 with a discussion of the Dialectic of Enlightenment, Anti-Semitism and the Culture Industry as theorized by Adorno and Horkheimer in 1947

Look for the Zoom Invite on December 29, and a reminder December 30. I am wrapping up my stay in Beijing.

I really want to look at a couple of related terms from the D of E that apply here:

1. Reification vs Instrumentalization

2. Anti-Semitism and Modernity

3. Anti-Semitism and the Culture Industry

4. Ideology vs. Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

The Reading Group is gearing up for a dive into The Authoritarian Personality, Adorno’s post-war sociological work that developed the F Scale, or a measure of our susceptibility to Fascism. It is a historical relic and is based on a survey format that we are all used to gaming since we have been trained by the algorithm to provide crunchable data at scale for meta data analysis.

In the meantime, I’m crushed by the news every day and deeply deeply disturbed by the hardening of positions in the Middle East, but also on American campuses and in American campus culture.

The F Scale Reading Group has provided me and I hope participants with a small measure of solace….in the possibility of mutual understanding and shared concerns with strangers.

Thanks to everyone for your patience with me! See you very soon on line!