sible for the social adversities. The eternal Jew deserved all blame and hated.
His/her very existence polluted all that was good and pure. Given psycho-
social dispositions to submit to authority inculcated by the bourgeois family,
Nazism offered an “escape from freedom”, a surrender to powerful leaders
who articulated ideologies of submission to authority and retribution against
enemies (Fromm 1941). The parallels with contemporary Islamisms are striking.
Critical Theorists attempted to locate Weber ’s understanding of Rationality
as a value, and its expression in goal oriented action, within the critique of
domination. More specifically, they saw Instrumental Reason, purposive ratio-
nality, as the legitimating ideology of capitalism that ensured an efficient,
predictable, calculable capitalist economy and administrative organization.
Moreover, while for Marx, alienation expressed the extent to which prole-
tarian labor power was commodified, for Weber, the “disenchantment” of the
modern world meant that everyone was dehumanized in a society of “tech-
nicians with heart” and “specialists without feelings”. Further, Weber noted
that in such societies, people might find meaning by following charismatic
leaders-the kinds that emerge in times of crisis. Politics as a realm of passion
and meaning was a way out of the “iron cage” of sterile rationality. Further,
Critical Theory took Freud’s psychoanalytic theory seriously, especially not-
ing how authority became internalized as character. This, in turn, disposed
a complex of domination and subordination that led to a glorification of lead-
ers, rule, and uncritical obedience to their dictates.
In the following pages, I will suggest that the Frankfurt School analysis
of the rise of Fascism crafted in the 1930s and 40s, offers important insights
into the nature of contemporary theological absolutism. Marx’s critique of
political economy notes how capital has radically changed economic and
social life; today, for many traditional societies, globalization has precipitated
reactionary solutions. Weber ’s concern with religion, especially the “elective
affinity” for charismatic leadership at moments of crisis, suggests that
fundamentalism can be a palliative reaction to the adverse consequences of
economic change. But further, as Habermas (1975) suggested, crises in the
political or economic sphere can migrate to the realms of culture, identity
and motivation-identity. The passionate embrace of fundamentalist identi-
ties, and the ferocity of hatred to the secular Other, requires us to not only
consider the political economic factors, but examine the depth psychological
moments of identity, emotion and desire. Moreover, identities and motivations
emergent under conditions of crisis can reflux back and impact the political
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