Adorno

The Institute of Social Research 163

between Indian Joe and Muff Potter, on the one hand, and Dr Robinson,
on the other. The three have met in the graveyard at this unusual hour
in order to rob the corpse of ‘Old Williams’, who has only just been
buried. While quarrelling about the spoils, Joe stabs the doctor in the
belly. The scene ends with Tom and Huck singing the ‘Song of the
Bystanders’:

Tom A man has died

No one saw it happen

No one is guilty.

Huck A man has died

Another saw it happen

One man is guilty.

Tom A man has died

Two saw it happen

Both are guilty.

Huck Whether anyone is guilty

When a man dies

Depends on whether someone sees.

Both A man has died

Two saw it happen

All are guilty.

With emphasis As long as they don’t talk.^105

The climax of the following scene is the song of Muff Potter, who is
under arrest. The text of the song contains motifs to which Adorno was
to return later on in Minima Moralia. Inside the tower where he is
locked up, Muff Potter sings:

In the woods, the lovely green woods,

everything is lovely,

the sun shines, the moon shines

and they never set.

The hunters go out hunting,

the hares and deer abound.

All of them are killed,

The hunters all fall down.

The snow lies on the green fields,

All is so warm and cold,

Nature lies quite still,

When the bugle sounds.