«Mirabile mondo nuovo!». Adorno e Horkheimer lettori di Huxley

This article retraces the discussions Adorno and Horkheimer devoted to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. While the two Frankfurt School thinkers recognize the sharp critique Huxley offers in his dystopian novel – depicting a modern mass society where every-thing is smoothed over, pacified, and mediated by consumption, and where pervasive con-formity erases any space for individual autonomy – they simultaneously distance themselves from the conservative framework through which the British writer formulates his analysis. Contrary to Huxley’s intentions, Horkheimer and Adorno seek to apply his critique of mass society not as a condemnation of technology, progress, or modernity itself, but rather of the domination these elements can foster. At the same time, they acknowledge that conservative or reactionary critics of modernity, precisely because of their disenchanted detachment from mass society, have often been better at exposing its shortcomings and degenerations than many progressives, whose superficial optimism prevents them from doing so.