CONTRADICTION, CRITIQUE, AND DIALECTIC IN ADORNO A ...

Marxian theses—in particular, Marx’s analysis of the relations of production—he
importantly rejects two central Marxian ideas. The first is that (1) when the relations of
production of a given society become obsolete because they limit rather than foster the
productive and technological capacities of society, a tension arises that necessarily
becomes untenable for the social order. The second is that (2) this tension necessarily
results in a revolutionary change of the existing relations of production, which change
leads to the establishment of new relations that better accommodate the development of
productive forces. Instead, Adorno argues that the conflict that arises when society’s
productive capacities are restricted or irrationally utilized by the prevailing productive
relations, can be and in fact has been allayed through mechanisms that perpetuate these
relations by forcefully bringing the masses and the political arm of the state into
compliance, thus diffusing the tension that could have otherwise provoked revolutionary
change. Thus, Adorno writes:
Allzu optimistisch war die Erwartung von Marx, geschichtlich sei ein Primat der
Produktivkräfte gewiß, der notwendig die Produktionsverhältnisse sprenge. . . .
Die Produktionsverhältnisse haben um ihrer schieren Selbsterhaltung willen durch
Flickwerk und partikulare Maßnahmen die losgelassenen Produktivkräfte
weiterhin sich unterworfen. Signatur des Zeitalters ist die Präponderanz der
Produktionsverhältnisse über die Produktivkräfte, welche doch längst der
Verhältnisse spotten. 132
132 Adorno, “Spätkapitalismus oder Industriegesellschaft?” in Gesammelte Schriften, 8. Band:
Soziologische Schriften (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1969), 363.
Marx’s expectation that historically the primacy of the forces of production was assured, which
forces would necessarily burst open the relations of production, proved all too optimistic. … The
sheer instinct for survival enabled the relations of production to keep the liberated forces of
production under submission through a series of ad hoc devices and particular stratagems. The
signature of the age is the predominance of the relations of production over the forces of
production, even though in the eyes of the latter the relations of production have long been a
laughingstock.
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