Emergency history

“The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the “emergency situation” in which we live is the rule. We must arrive at a concept of history which corresponds to this. Then it will become clear that the task before us is the introduction of a real state of emergency; and our position in the struggle against Fascism will thereby improve. Not the least reason that the latter has a chance is that its opponents, in the name of progress, greet it as a historical norm. – The astonishment that the things we are experiencing in the 20th century are “still” possible is by no means philosophical. It is not the beginning of knowledge, unless it would be the knowledge that the conception of history on which it rests is untenable.”

-Walter Benjamin, 1940 (‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’)

Ale-house

“The ale-house is the key to every town; to know where German beer can be drunk is geography and ethnology enough”

-Walter Benjamin’s “One Way Street”, 1926 (Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings Volume 1 1913-1926.  Cambridge MA: Harvard.  1996.  Pg 485.)

Banknotes

“A descriptive analysis of banknotes is needed. The unlimited satirical force of such a book would be equaled only by its objectivity. For nowhere more naively than in these documents does capitalism display itself in solemn earnest. The innocent cupids frolicking about numbers, the goddesses holding tablets of the law, the stalwart heroes sheathing their swords before monetary units, are a world of their own; ornamenting the facade of hell.”

-Walter Benjamin’s Tax Advice, 1926 (in “One Way Street”. Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings Volume 1 1913-1926. Cambridge MA: Harvard. 1996. Pg 481.)

Books, Babies

“Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.”

-Walter Benjamin, #10 of ‘The Critics Technique in Thirteen Theses’,  1926.  (in “One Way Street”. Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings Volume 1 1913-1926.  Cambridge MA: Harvard.  1996.  Pg 460.)