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About this quote

What does it mean?
People tend to view recent history as if it were destroyed by sudden catastrophes.
In plain terms
We see the past as broken by disasters.
What can you take from it?
Historical narratives often emphasize dramatic events over continuity.

Where it applies

  • media analysis
  • education
  • political debate

Putting it to work

  • balanced historiography
  • contextual teaching

Questions to consider

  • Why do we focus on crises?
  • How does this view affect future planning?

Another view

Not all periods are defined by catastrophes.

More from Theodor Adorno

  1. 'The poor are prevented from thinking by the discipline of others, the rich by their own.'

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  2. 'The scientific industry has its exact counterpart in the kind of minds it harnesses: they no longer need to do themselves any violence in becoming their own v…

    Permalink to quote #109
  3. 'The overbearing matter-of-factness which sacrifices the subject to the ascertainment of the truth, rejects at once truth and objectivity.'

    Permalink to quote #106

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