MY QUESTIONS

See my preparations for the interviews below!

Episode 1: Ingar Solty

1. First, can you describe Max Horkheimer and his role in the Frankfurt School?

2. How were the School’s thinkers influenced by their historical context— their exile in the United States, experiences with fascism in Europe, and the overall failure of socialist experiments in Europe at the time?

3. What is the difference between Horkheimer’s critical theory and the mostly traditional theories of other mainstream scholars at the time?--Traditional scholarship preserved and replicated capitalist ideology and upheld the status quo.

4. How exactly, in Horkheimer and Adorno’s view, does the “culture industry” keep us oppressed? Do you agree with this?

5. You talk about Horkheimer’s pessimistic Marxism and how, as you describe it, his “very un-Marxist methodology” (more about culture and less about political economy) was foundational to the Institute for Social Research’s creation. Can you explain this a bit more? Is it possible the School was too pessimistic?

6. What happened after the Second World War that made the left lose its spirit? Why were so many potentially “revolutionary” groups on the fringes, with most of the working class “integrated” into capitalism?

7. You mention that the School lacked a sense of praxis. In my research I’ve seen a lot of the same things, that perhaps they were too elitist and isolated from regular people and sought to observe and lament rather than change conditions. So what could they have done?

8. Lastly, what do you think Horkheimer would have said about our 2020 culture—whether from the lens of authoritarianism, or the culture industry?

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Episode 2: John Abromeit

1. First, can you briefly explain what authoritarian populism is and how the Frankfurt School viewed it?

2. What was Horkheimer’s argument in his 1937 essay “Egoism and Freedom Movements”? What I understand from your article is that while popular movements mobilizing “the people” can be progressive, they can also be authoritarian, and this tendency led to the rise of fascism in 1920s and 30s Europe.

3. You talk about how around the time of the “Golden Age” of Capitalism, authoritarian populist social movements were not coming to fruition in the US, though the Frankfurt School still studied the possibility that they could. What about the period from after World War II to about 1970 was so unfavorable to populist movements in the United States? 

4. What were the School’s theories on how we could get authoritarian populist movements in the United States? (Patriotism, “rededication to the established institutional and ideological framework of the American republic as it has persisted since the founding fathers;" aggressively anti-intellectual; hostile to politicians and government; identifies with law and order and the police; Adorno adds that there is some sense of “usurpation” of America from real Americans; lack of empathy for the poor and a rejection of social welfare, think of the poor as “parasites” vs “producers”)

5. How did the transition to neoliberal capitalism in the 1970s and 80s create conditions more favorable to right-wing populism in the United States and Europe?

6. How do the Frankfurt School’s theories explain the emergence of the Tea Party?

7. Similarly, what would they say about the rise of Trump? 

8. Martin Jay talks about the racket society theory with regard to Trump. What do you think about that?

9. You argue that it is perhaps more his economic populism than his xenophobia and racism that attracts his supporters. What does that look like?

10. Since you completed this article in 2017, Donald Trump has lost the election. Does this signal a shift away from authoritarian populism? 

11. What would Horkheimer, Adorno, and the others say about our current moment? What advice would they give to prevent the rise of fascism?

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Episode 3: Martin Jay

1. So, the first thing I guess we should start with is, what was the Frankfurt School’s theory of the racket society and where did it come from? 

2. Horkheimer said “protection is the archetype of domination.” What did he mean by that? How does protection/personal loyalty lead to fascism?

3. This is a two-part question. Can you tell us why you think the racket society theory is often an overlooked element of the Frankfurt School’s analyses of how we get fascism, and why you now think that it is relevant and applicable to today? You talk about how watching The Irishman revealed this to you.

4. What does it say about American society that Donald Trump became president in 2016? Do we just love gangsters? Especially because, as you mention in the article, racketeering used to be thought of as a secretive arrangement but Trump is publicly corrupt.

5. Since you wrote this article, Trump lost the election. Does that signal any kind of change or revelation in our society? Do you predict a continuation of the Trump dynasty in politics? Will Trump face consequences legally? We just saw today that he pardoned Michael Flynn.

6. To end, I want to hear what you think are the ways that we can break out of this racket society.