ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a challenge to "new left" intellectuals to rethink their theoretical orientations about the role of the contemporary bourgeoisie (in both its emerging and more traditional forms) and democratic societies. The new bourgeoisie comprise a new ruling class, enforcing their power through bureaucratic norms, standardized thought, uniformity, and an emphasis on consumption and the pursuit of pleasure. The resulting social reaction of such "people processing" by the managerial and administrative elite is citizen individuation, privatization, passivity, an alienation in their everyday lives. Theunissen discussed the attempt to turn ethics into a fundamental philosophy in an even more principled way. His central verdict was that there was actually a denial of the reality of the modern world in current models of ethical obligation. Principles of universalization and reciprocity, developed in the context of social and political theory, may then serve as the basis for reflections about "relational reason" and "inter-ethical relations".
