Bloch combines romantic, messianic and materialist temporalities in a critique of the modern progress narrative, which inscribes historicity in the mere next-ness of each now. The continued oppression, exploitation and alienation of human beings under conditions of modern capitalism stands as testimony to the falseness of this assumption. True genesis is not at the beginning, but at the end, and is starts to begin only when society and existence become radical, that is, grasp themselves by their roots.
But the root of history is the working, creating human being who reshapes and overhauls the given facts.
That the Blochs had been granted a visa by the East German government confirms the privileged position they still enjoyed, though who knew for how much longer. Initially full of enthusiasm for the new socialist state, he soon ran into trouble. His students were threatened, his publications blocked, and eventually in he was forced into retirement. The discussion ranged over philosophy, art, and religion, but politics hovered in the background.
The question with which Bloch and Adorno were concerned is thus still fundamentally a contemporary one: what is the value of utopian thought and practice today? Can we really imagine a better world? Can and should such images be a compass for political action? Such an idea must have been heretical to Adorno, whose commitment to the ban on images of utopia [ Bilderverbot ] was in part motivated by the desire to avoid precisely the kind of abstract violence so often committed in its pursuit.
Jacoby, For what can be greater riches than to live joyfully? Meanwhile, J. Schnabel, The depiction of these spatially distant worlds threw a critical light on contemporary Europe: the idea that a perfect society might exist somewhere else compensated for the ills perceived at home.
