Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life

In their lives, early bloomers do not benefit much in the end. Early bloomers are damaged by their own successes and become “immature” (161). They also suffer from a kind of guilt inflicted by society, which comes from the sense that they achieved their successes without the proper amount of effort.

When someone runs on the street, they look afraid. Even a person running to catch a bus looks like their primeval ancestor who was running in terror. In the past, bourgeois culture valued walking as a way to have solitude. With the decline of bourgeois liberalism, people have turned to cars. Even then, people will easily resort back to running when situations like work demand it.

When someone fears something for no rational reason, that thing often comes true. Adorno gives the example of someone fearing that a certain person will meet their loved one, and the two are eventually introduced to each other. This is especially seen in people’s fears of being persecuted, a specific type of fear Adorno thinks is “contagious” (163). In practice, fascism is initiated by people obsessed with the possibility of their own persecution, leading to the realization of its victims’ own persecution fears.