The claim that totality does not exist is every bit as metaphysical as the claim that it does. In any case, every actual explanation that wants to move beyond the realm of mere description must act as if the world were an intelligible whole.
Got to teach Minima Moralia yesterday after Aristotle, and it occurred to me that the stupefying density of Adorno’s negativity at times flips over into something so simple and concrete: if everyone were fed, everything would be different.
Ultimately one probably has to understand Adorno hate as resistance to the idée fixe that runs through all of his writing from the 20s until his death: that there is inescapable suffering everywhere and that it need not go on for another second.
Johannes Weiß R.I.P. Er bleibt unvergessen in meiner Erinnerung als ein großartiger Soziologe mit Mut und klarem Blick. Ein Antidot gegen die Gefahr der Verlotterung von Verantwortung ist immer noch: "Handeln und handeln lassen. Über Stellvertretung" 1998.