The Politics of Unreason: the Frankfurt School and the Origins Of

THE POLITICS OF UNREASON SUNY series, Philosophy and Race Robert Bernasconi and T. Denean Sharpley- Whiting, editors THE POLITICS OF UNREASON THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL AND THE ORIGINS OF MODERN ANTISEMITISM LARS RENSMANN SUNY PRESS An original version of chapter 8 of this book first appeared as “Guilt, Resentment, and Post-Holocaust Democracy: The Frankfurt School’s Analysis of ‘Secondary Antisemitism’ in the Group Experiment and Beyond,” in Antisemitism Studies Vol. I, 1 (April 2017), pp.4–37. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2017 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www .sunypress .edu Production, Jenn Bennett Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Rensmann, Lars, author Title: The politics of unreason : the Frankfurt School and the origins of modern antisemitism Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2017] | Series: SUNY series, philosophy and race | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: ISBN 9781438465937 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438465951 (e-book) Further information is available at the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii 1. Introduction 1 How the Frankfurt School Has Shaped the Study of Modern Antisemitism 2. From Odysseus to Postliberal Subjectivity 29 Revisiting Freud and the Civilizational Genesis of Social Domination 3. Loving to Hate 65 The Antidemocratic Syndrome and the Social Psychology of Modern Authoritarianism 4. Objectifying the Other 145 The Ideology of Antisemitism as False Projection 5. The Societal Origins of Modern Antisemitism 215 Judeophobia and Critical Social Theory after Marx and Weber 6. Power, Desolation, and the Failed Promise of Freedom 275 Rereading the “Elements of Antisemitism” 7. The Politics of Paranoia 321 From Totalitarian Antisemitism to Political Mobilizations of Judeophobia in Democracies 8. Guilt, Responsibility, and Post- Holocaust Democracy 359 Interpreting “Secondary” Antisemitism vi Contents 9. Why Critical Theory Matters 391 Antisemitism, Authoritarian Politics, and Human Dignity in the Global Age Notes 421 Bibliography 539 Index 571 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book has been a long time coming. The project orig- inated more than twenty years ago, when I was a young graduate student of political science and political theory at the Free University of Berlin. Back then, I wrote my mas- ter’s thesis on the Institute for Social Research—commonly referred to as the Frankfurt School, or Critical Theory with capital letters—and antisemitism. My early research led to the publication of the German book Kritische Theorie über den Antisemitismus (Argument Verlag, 1998), which to my surprise was widely received and found a positive academic echo. I subsequently published articles on the subject, and the Frankfurt School’s work also played an important role in shaping the theoretical framework of my PhD thesis and second monograph on antisemitism and democratic political culture, Demokratie und Judenbild (VS Verlag, 2004). While my primary academic research interests shifted to other issues and areas of political science and political theory, I always intended to return to my early work on the Frankfurt School and antisemitism— revisit my research, pick up important threads, close gaps and rethink lose ends, and finally add a comprehensive English volume on the subject. In its ideational origins, The Politics of Unreason can be traced even further back: namely to 1992, when I had just graduated from Luther College in Iowa. I had the unique opportunity to visit one of the founding fathers of Critical Theory in the twentieth century and a member viii Acknowledgments of the “inner circle” of the Institute for Social Research: Leo Löwenthal. Löwenthal had escaped from Nazi persecution to find refuge in America, where he continued his academic career at prestigious institutions of higher learning. Responding to a letter I had written to him, Leo was so incredibly generous to invite me, the twenty- two- year- old student, to come to visit him, the ninety-one- year- old professor, in Berkeley—where he taught sociology at the University of California since 1956—and to stay at his home. So I did, and we spent days talking about Critical Theory—an experience I will never forget. In my conversations with Leo, for the first time I fully grasped the Frankfurt School’s rich historical and philosophi- cal trajectories and Critical Theory’s potential as a living tradition that can be relevant in the contemporary world. Leo Löwenthal passed away just half a year later, before I could visit him again. But much of my academic work is inspired by him, from my first theoretical mus- ings to my later work on the Frankfurt School, political sociology, the radical right, and authoritarian politics of resentment; and so is this book in particular—in which Leo’s academic research and theorizing play a major role. In this study, Löwenthal’s contribution to the Frankfurt School’s thinking about the “antisemitic question” is attributed the central place in the scholarly canon it thoroughly deserves. For him, as he told me then, the problem of antisemitism remained a pressing concern of our time. The book is, like my first one almost two decades ago, dedicated to the memory of Löwenthal, one of the great intellectuals of the twentieth century. While in recent years some new studies have been published that address the relationship between the Frankfurt Acknowledgments ix School and the problem of antisemitism, including path- breaking contributions by Jack Jacobs and Eva- Maria Ziege, The Politics of Unreason is the first systematic study of the Frankfurt School’s research on and theories about antisemitism in English. Considerable parts of this book’s research go back to my original study, which still also largely serves as the conceptual and theoretical backbone, and several chapters have been translated from German before being thoroughly reworked, revised, and supplemented. The book is greatly indebted to many friends, colleagues, and institutions that took part in its production. First and foremost, Kizer S. Walker took a very promi- nent role: he translated several chapters of the German book, which found their way into five newly designed chapters of The Politics of Unreason. I had the great pleasure to work with Kizer Walker on this manuscript, without whom this book would simply not exist. Kizer is not just an outstanding scholar of Jewish and German Studies, and an expert on Critical Theory, antisemitism, and German philosophy. He is also an amazing transla- tor, the best one could imagine, a fact from which this work greatly benefited. Kizer spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on this book project, for which I will never be able to thank him enough. My wonderful colleague and cherished friend Jennet Kirkpatrick is the only person who, apart from the copy editor Pat Hadley-Miller , read and tirelessly discussed with me every chapter and every line of the manuscript. In 2009, when we were both still teaching at the Univer- sity of Michigan, Jennet and I started a working group with weekly meetings to discuss each other’s research, and we have been meeting every week since then, though x Acknowledgments mostly—as we are now living and teaching on different continents—via Skype. Jennet’s intellectual rigor, colle- giality, and knowledge of political theory played a crucial part in the development, reshaping, and final presentation of my arguments. I do not know what the book would be without Jennet’s contribution and incredible capacities as a meticulous and critical reader. The book would also lit- erally never have seen the light of day without the support of two other fantastic colleagues: Jonathan Judaken, who encouraged me to go back to the subject of the Frankfurt School and antisemitism. Moreover, Jonathan went out of his way to contact publishers to find a suitable press for my study. This enthusiasm found its match with Robert Bernasconi, whose praise of my work on Critical Theory and antisemitism was energizing and who initiated the birth of this book by proposing it for the State University of New York Press’s Philosophy and Race series. The idea to dive back into this material and subject was sparked at a conference at Yale in August 2010, which was organized by Ulrike Becker and Charles Asher Small. Hajo Funke, who served as my thesis supervisor, Doktorvater, and mentor when I was a graduate student and “wissenschaft- licher Assistent” at the Free University of Berlin, offered generous support and advice for the original project, and has been a good friend ever since. Throughout my academic career, including this long- term research endeavor, I have also immensely benefited from the staunch support by Andrei S. Markovits as a mentor, friend, and later on collaborator and colleague at the University of Michigan. Over the years, many conversations with experts on the subject of Critical Theory and antisemitism helped me revise and refine my research. These include my many conversations with the brilliant intellectual historian and Acknowledgments xi political theorist Richard Wolin, who has always been extremely supportive of my work, in New York, Berlin, and Copenhagen; in-depth discussions with Jack Jacobs in New York about his work and mine; an intriguing talk with James M. Glass over a long lunch in Washington, DC, that led me to sharpen my argument about Critical Theory’s distinct take on authoritarianism; exchanges with Marcel Stoetzler, whose comments have always been helpful, in Rome, St.

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