Hi! Invitation accepted.

Movingly written, but I have no idea why you recommended that I read this (aside, perhaps, from the possibility that I might leave claps--which I did, because it's movingly written).

It adds perhaps more of a human touch to Adorno, but adds nothing to what I've read about his views or of his works. It furthermore is consistent with my characterizations with which you have disagreed with vehemently (but in such a content-free way that I can't tell what the disagreements even are).

I'm not particularly interested in Adorno's melancholy, or in his intent. More than anything, I am interested in the impact of philosophers' ideas because that is often lasting where all else is fleeting. And impact often does not match intent.

Regarding ideas, you share few which are actionable, save perhaps the reference to the problem of machine-thinking--which admittedly was a huge issue at least through the 60s or so, and we continue to live through the negative consequences. But the most robust way out has been through embrace of Critical Theo...haha, no, of course not. It's been through social psychology and cognitive science, using the good old quasi-positivist approach but without their unsupportable dogmatism, to more fully understand and appreciate the ways in which we are very unlike machines.

Perhaps, though, I now do understand why you had such an apparently visceral reaction to my article: I am attacking the legacy of one of your heroes. Could it be that the reason in three messages to me (elsewhere) that you managed to convey zero substantive points is that you don't even have a point beyond your offense at my labeling of your hero as effectively one of the bad guys? The closest you came to a point was that I was too focused on oppressor vs oppressed thinking (no evidence, of course)...and then you send me here, where you yourself quote Adorno starting with: In a world of brutal and oppressed life.... And it goes on to say that in the protest of the powerless is our only hope. People who feel very strongly about something often have difficulty formulating a coherent argument--perhaps this observation is of some use in explaining what we observe when juxtaposing your prior comments to me, and this story of yours? It is difficult to discern the actual mental states of others, but since you have so profligately done so of me, I thought it only polite to attempt to reciprocate.