the demand of the absolute

"...It is, as we know, through the demand for the absolute (as that which is grounded upon itself and necessary) that reason makes itself known in man. This demand, since it can never be wholly satisfied in any single condition of his physical life, forces him to leave the physical altogether, and ascend out of a limited reality into the trealm of ideas. But although the true purport of such a demand is to wrest him from the bondage of time, and lead him upwards from the sensuous world towards an ideal world, it can, through a misunderstanding (almost unavoidable in this early epoch of prevailing materiality), be directed toward physical life, and instead of making man independent plunge him into the most terrifying servitude."

(notes on the potentially facist individual, walter benjamin in correspondence with theodore adorno and the dangers of certitude.)