On Benjamin’s Consciousness Of History And Time

The low political situation in Socialist movement in the early 20th century made Benjamin be aware of the importance of history and time in the revolutionary consciousness. He expounded again the reality of the Communist movement in Marx’s historical materialism, inspired by the idea of Messiah in Jewish mysticism. In Benjamin’s opinion, history is not accumulation by the past objective facts as historicism ,established on the empty past, present and future linear chain ; likewise, historical time is not continuous and uniform physical time as vulgar Marxist. The development of social history is not made up of continuous non-broken stages, Communist society is not a human society stage in the future, as Marx said the Communism is a realistic movement. Continuous, linear social history is the oppressor’s history that attempts to erase the suffering of the oppressed, real history should interrupt the linear process. The future as ideal of the liberation of man is not pure ideal, but should always become instantly consciousness of human liberation; part is not a segment in linear accumulation, it is fragments of hope loaded with victims liberation, the hope should be rescued from the ruins of a linear history, the past and the future should be connected with in revolutionary consciousness at every possible opportunity of linear history interrupted. The consciousness of Benjamin’s history and time not only interpreted the theory of social revolution and the future in Marx’s historical materialism from the formal, and further demonstrated his profound understanding to dynamic spirit of practice of Marxism and human liberation .