MAX BENSE
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learn to work in concert, the sooner the better; but not before every
one of them, in the measure of his ability, has imbued himself with
the best thought of the age-which includes the making, the
knowing
how,
along with the knowing. "He (the modern rationalist) is artistic;
rather than working on statements about the world he works on the
world directly, and so leaves his trace in every one of its changes or
expansions. . . . His demonstrations are never theoretical; he demon–
strates himself, with utter concreteness, in the immediate reality of
things oppressively close."
There is one thing Bense sees quite clearly: with mind all but
crowded out of the public arena, the most popular programs among
intellectuals today are religion (mysticism) and a crudely naturalistic
ethics. But instead of collapsing that dilemma entirely, through a
critique of its referents, and establishing in its place a viable political
ethics-a tremendous task, to be sure-Bense tries to drive a wedge
between super-naturalism and crude naturalism, and to make his in–
tellectual settle in the narrow gap thus created. Though narrow, the
gap is indubitably deep--which makes matters worse not better, for
the technological 'intellectual is bound to die from want of air. (In
the long run, an oxygen mask is no substitute for oxygen; yet Bense's
planned economy of the mind-toward what shadowy ends?-is pre–
cisely such a mask, and nothing more.) Besides, though raw politics
is eschewed (or because it is) there are nasty political implications:
the Platonic oligarchy, kicked out by the front door, is let in again
through the back. Scholars and artists may, under special circum–
stances, put up with being ruled; what they will not stand for is to
be
rulers. Yet this is, in essence, what Bense wants them to do: to
take their place along with scientist, mathematician and engineer in
the front rank of the age's planners. Here we get at the main unre–
solved tension in Bense's views: the tension between pure techno–
logical thinking, which of necessity eventuates in a creed of equival–
ences and substitutions, and a modern variety of thinking along elite
lines, which involves hierarchical notions-whether the hierarchy pur–
sued be managerial or quasi-artistic, no matter. While sharply felt by
the reader, this tension remains unacknowledged throughout Bense's
work. For the reason, perhaps, that he could never become aware of
its disruptive force, blinded as he was by his own camouflage-a
comprehensive nexus of classifications binding together all the dis–
crepant elements in his system.
