m3,2, pt. 2 (after-history)

The citation falls into the discussion not just based on what preceded it in the convolute, or what it might be seen to paradoxically prepare for (to pick up the meaning of the citation itself), but what comes after or follows it, in this case a discussion or critique of "long experience" and the particular way in which it is "shattered," or how its meaning loses "social importance," to carry over an idea from m2a,5. Now, is the citation referring to long experience, in other words tradition, when it talks about these "great experiences of the past"? Contrary to the way it folds into the thematics at play in the convolute, this does not seem clear cut, thought certainly we could see an historian like Dilthey, contemporary to Benjamin, coming in for a criticism like the one seemingly implied, where "great experiences" is used to mean only "long experiences" and thus to build a framework of ideas that has been "shattered" by what is taking place, at least according to Horkheimer in this passage. In any case, to stay with m3,2, we can look at how the confusion here might be quite pertinent. In question, as it has been all along, the meaning of "experience" and the difficulty of distinguishing between what is work and what is its opposite, idleness. That we are not able to tell if this citation refers to long/work experience or not is perhaps the key way in which the citation folds into the overall argument, the way in which it "presents" us with our subject matter. The meaning of experience is a "certitude" whose meaning and place in society falters with the advent of bourgeois culture. Does the quote express this idea, or not? Is it impossible to tell? Does that question have any relevance, does it miss the point? Again we can note that at this level, different from what we've already mentioned, the citation again does the work of Benjamin's argument in such a way that it places itself in the position of a singularly prominent or persuasive voice in the exhibition of that argument, this time more abstract.