In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

300 CODES
orchestras precarious. [see Assembly Lines, Dancing, Employees, Jazz]
Rather than this difficult balance, most people want to experience how
it feels to "irresistibly" become "part of a greater force" (Junger, 102-
103). But nobody knows how such irresistible incorporation can avoid
being potentially dangerous. The manipulation of the masses by individuals
thus becomes a topic of public concern. While Spanish intellectuals
generally admire Miguel de Unamuno in his role as "excitator
Hispaniae" (Curtius 245-246), they seem quite relieved that Unamuno
voices his exhortations in exile, beyond the French border. The Revista
de Occidente publishes a satirical article about the theater of the future,
in which so-called moduladores engineer every single reaction of the
audience: "The purpose of a drama . . . was to suggest a simple or
complex existential state, and once the modulador had been informed of
the required degree of intensity, it was incumbent on him to produce the
necessary emotion" (172). [see Engineers]
Siegfried Kracauer, who suspects even architecture of illegitimately
manipulating the population ("Zwei Flachen," 12), has no problem in
hailing Martin Buber as a "leader of Jewish, especially of Zionist, youth"
("Die Bibel auf Deutsch," 173). [see Individuality = Collectivity
(Leader)] What seems like a self-contradiction is just a symptom for the
convergence of two tensions that haunt intellectuals. Much hope is invested
in a morally justifiable Collectivity of the future, but there is little
evidence that society will ever manage to devise such a structure. There
is a vague desire for a leader who, emerging from Collectivity, will
provide guidance and orientation, but this desire is contained by an
almost phobic reaction against whoever dares to take an individual
initiative that may have consequences for others. Mild irony is the attitude
that the aristocratic characters of Rene Schickele's novel Maria
Capponi display in response to this problem: '''Indeed,' said the duke,
'all we can hope for is a revolution. From below or from above or, if
necessary, both at the same time. We're stuck. Nothing is working.
Something has to happen soon, for the sake of humanity ... Here they
come,' he said, pointing to a group of fishermen who had just entered
the room. 'They will be our new masters . . . The Lord be with you,
fellows-we all had to begin somewhere'" (Schickele, 250). Bertolt
Brecht, who is about to find his political identity as a Communist,
likewise chooses an ironic tone to speak about his own longing for a
leader: "The one bad thing about great men (because great men are