The Swedish political scientist Johan Tralau (Uppsala) makes an attempt at comparing Marx' alienation with his own reading of Der Arbeiter (see underneath his own summary of the book). The result=20 is even published by a Swedish left wing publishing company. Juengerian greetings Bertil Johan Tralau The Twilight of Man Alienation, Liberty, and Hegel's Problem in Karl Marx and Ernst J=FCnger Brutus =D6stlings Bokf=F6rlag Symposion, Box 148, 24122, Esl=F6v, Sweden -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- Abstract Tralau, J. 2002. Maenniskoskymning. Fraemlingskap, frihet, och Hegels = problem hos Karl Marx och Ernst Juenger. (The Twilight of Man: = Alienation, Liberty, and Hegel's Problem in Karl Marx and Ernst Juenger. = ) . 206 pp. Stockholm/Stehag. ISBN 91-7139-561-X This thesis is about the problem of alienation, that is, the fact that = man can experience society, nature and his fellow human beings as = something strange and even threatening. One way of dealing with this = dilemma was envisaged by Hegel, who held that alienation could be = superseded when the alienated person discovered the alien object as part = of himself. This book explores a radicalised version of this path. In the utopian society of the young Karl Marx, man is supposed to = overcome alienation. Here, a new interpretation is presented. In = contradistinction to what generally has been claimed about the Marxian = Utopia, it is argued that the supersession of alienation entails not = only abolition of the state and of the division of labour, but complete = unity with society, nature and other men, and hence annihilation of = individuality and dissolution of the human being. The Worker=91s Utopia of Ernst Juenger suffers from the same problem. = This new interpretation claims that a secret doctrine can be found in = Juenger=91s work, namely, that man is completely subjected to = technology, to a totalitarian state, and to the nihilistic destruction = of all values. However, it is possible to make this alienating process = bearable by portraying it as the mobilisation of the world by a = metaphysical force that makes man, nature and technology merge. = According to this interpretation, then, this attempt to overcome = alienation is a myth that turns the complete loss of independence into = an aesthetic phenomenon. The supersession of alienation thus meant the end of individuality. It = is therefore claimed that alienation is a prerequisite of human liberty. = A concept of liberty is developed that is neither exclusively determined = as the absence of repression and social bonds, as it is in some liberal = and anarchist theories, nor as the supersession of the alienating = boundaries between the human being and the world. It is argued that the = former is incompatible not only with human nature, but with negative = liberty itself. Furthermore, on the basis of the Aristotelian insight = regarding the nature of pleasure, it is claimed that the latter, and = indeed any utopian attempt at superseding alienation inexorably fails = =96 for the experience of non-alienation cannot be continuous or final. Keywords: Alienation, liberty, individuality, political theory, subject, = self, utopia, G W F Hegel, Karl Marx, Ernst Juenger
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