“Their ecstasy is without content...The ecstasy takes possession of its object by its own compulsive character. It is stylized like the ecstasies savages go into in beating the war drums. It has convulsive aspects reminiscent of St Vitus's dance or the reflexes of mutilated animals”. Theodor Adorno "On The Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening"
The ambiguous thing about illegal chemical intoxication is its blindness: in itself it is pure “nothing” a void of chemistry …chemical voids or as Adorno said of “popular music” “ecstasy without content”. The chemical itself is without meaning/semantics so what makes the difference? Ecstasy, LSD etc… experience “might” well be as “meaningless” as getting drunk or having “casual” sex….Where does the “meaning” or “content” come from…if any?. What is the Huxley effect? …or Adorno for that matter…
Still waiting for Dionysus….
