February 09, 2006: Against Resignation
In one of his most moving essays, Theodor Adorno wrote that "the uncompromisingly critical thinker, who neither superscribes his conscience nor permits himself to be terrorized into action, is in truth the one who does not give up" ("Resignation," in The Culture Industry, ed. J.M. Bernstein [NY: Routledge, 1991], p. 202). More than ever, it seems to me, the left needs to encourage others not to resign themselves to the way things are but to envision new ways to think and act for a better world.
