Alienation and Authenticity from Hannah Arendt to Billy Wilder

This article could have had the title, “The Ethics of Weimar Intellectuals in Exile.” Comparing Adorno, Arendt, Kracauer, Remarque, and Billy Wilder, the article reconstructs a conceptual and rhetorical space of reflection. The topic of this shared space of reflection is social alienation. The article identifies an ideal typical moral difference between two opposing strategies for addressing alienation. It examines 1) the speaking subject’s claims to authority and 2) moral ideals that alienation is measured against. It sees Adorno and Arendt as occupying an idealistic-authoritarian pole and Kracauer, Remarque, and Wilder as taking up a point of view of compassion.