ABSTRACT
Adorno does not have a posthumous reputation for being a tearfully sentimental man. He did, however, consider the response to suffering to be one of the most crucial issues of his time. Adorno wrestled with the question of how to develop a critically informed reaction to the tragedies and catastrophes of the twentieth century, and also with how to articulate and interrogate the longing for redemption and reconciliation which arises from the dreadful predicaments witnessed in a catastrophically broken world. Passive self-satisfaction, even comfort with one's own emotional response to another's suffering , serves to sustain, even reinforce, the status quo. The response should be both critically self-reflective and one of dynamic engagement. The new forms of cultural mediation in the technological world were a widespread source of profound suspicion because of anxieties concerning their seemingly powerful potential to manipulate and dissimulate the artwork.
