This essay intends to analyse the deadlocks in setting up the foundations of ethicity in modernity. It is based on the assumption that the classic authors of Illuminism considered this problem a threat to the future of sociability. Marx had the merit of having articulated this subject with the objective bases of the social structure. The twentieth century has witnessed the tragedy of this condition as destiny of mankind. Grounded on Adorno Horkheimer's work, we intend to analyse the developments of this condition in the so-called post-modern culture. It defendes the hypothesis that the crisis of modernity, for lack of radical alternati ves that could overcome it, manifests itself as a slow emergence of barbarismo In a few words, not only the development of capitalism (and its cultural logic) produces barbarism, but also the barbarism is necessary for its continuity.
Reason-rationality; fetishism of merchandise; barbarism