On a spring Wednesday I revel in blossoming trees.

And no, Adorno can’t take the pleasure away from me, hard as he may try.

The excerpt below is from his Minima Moralia (Reflections from the Damaged Life, 1944) written during the horrors of the war. He argues in #5  that it is unacceptable to rejoice or take pleasure in anything lest one forgets the horror around us. A conscious gaze has to be directed at the horror at all times.

Doctor, that is kind of you. – Nothing is harmless anymore. The small joys, the expressions of life, which seemed to be exempt from the responsibility of thought, not only have a moment of defiant silliness, of the cold-hearted turning of a blind eye, but immediately enter the service of their most extreme opposite. Even the tree which blooms, lies, the moment that one perceives its bloom without the shadow of horror; even the innocent “How beautiful” becomes an excuse for the ignominy of existence, which is otherwise, and there is no longer any beauty or any consolation, except in the gaze which goes straight to the horror, withstands it, and in the undiminished consciousness of negativity, holds fast to the possibility of that which is better. Mistrust is advisable towards everything which is unselfconscious, casual, towards everything which involves letting go, implying indulgence towards the supremacy of the existent [Existierende]. (The doctor, by the way, refers to a line in Goethe’s Dr. Faust, joining the peasants for Easter celebration.)

 

Well, I am staring often enough at the damages done to the world here and elsewhere, as so many of us do. Let there be moments of unmitigated joy in nature, if only to re-fuel one’s energy and will to fight for that which should be protected! Otherwise we might eventually get so overburdened that we shut down and become full-time privatiers, or we end up so obsessed that there is no longer room for rationality or critical analysis. Neither one a desirable outcome (and speaking of outcome: the Georgia run-off slate for June MUST be supported for Ossof! Man, was he close. Close, but no cigar.)

And then I whistle to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7p0nU0xQsY