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

something external to the individual is the experience of “a series of shocks” (Erlebnis)
rather than a full and substantial experience that builds on the past and aims at fulfillment
in the future (Erfahrung). Under these conditions, the experience of modern individuals
is one of constant conscious alert against shock experiences. Driving in a big city
requires constant alertness and responsiveness to the rhythm dictated by traffic. Going to
work by public transport requires being at the bus or train stop just in time; the individual
must follow the machine; the organization of public transportation determines the rhythm
of life. The same is true for the work-day, with its rigid schedule for work and breaks, or
the school schedule and its drills. The individual must be constantly alert in order to
respond to an organization of conscious experience imposed externally on her. 90
According to this view of modern experience, daily life is today structured in such a way
that the individual is an appendage to a fixed structure that she confronts as imposed
externally on her, to whose dictates the psyche must adjust.
And, for Adorno, this experience is not limited to what we might call “public”
activities. Realms of life that were supposed to be protected as private are ever more
contaminated by the same rigidity and external determination. Individuals' experiences
of romantic relationships, for instance, are ever more determined by ideals of love
prescribed by Hollywood romantic comedies and sit-coms. In order to be connected to
another person through romantic love, the individual experiences a social compulsion to
wollenden dürfen”[in which the existence of those who are not allowed to complete what they have started
plays itself out] (Ibid., 635).
90 Changes in technology are relevant to this discussion. We may consider, for instance, changes
in experience that have come about through the development of the mobile phone and the internet.
Whereas just twenty-five years ago a phone call was easily missed and then returned at one’s leisure, or a
message received by mail awaited response for a few days, we are now constantly reachable, “on call,” and
are expected to respond quickly and efficiently to all communications.
85