Today I read Charles Taylor's Article in the New York Review of Books entitled, Radical Hope," in which he describes the potential for a society whose central tenets have been undermined by globalization/modernization to find another motivating value and meaning for itself, whereby all its cultural actions will regain significance. But he seems to assume that cultures as coherent groups need to continue within a blood-defined set of individuals, even if the basis of their culture, what was significant, is gone. This is a blatant admission that cultures are arbitrarily formed, that what they deem as significant is in fact no more than pluralistically tolerable.
Sharma no doubt wanted us to read this piece as it indicates how war can define a culture's hierarchy and social structure. The Crow Amerindian tribe developed a ranking system based on performance in battle, and a culture around honoring these deeds and those of high rank.
I really just feel like Horkheimer and Adorno are just afraid of losing mysticism, of learning that we really all are just a unique combination of very definable, empirical qualities.
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