"Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines: one does not go up to a turbine and pour machine oil over it; one applies a little to hidden spindles and joints that one has to know"
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Benjamin imagines society as a machine and opinions as oil, a humble but necessary substance that reduces friction and keeps motion smooth. The point is not that opinions are useless, but that their value depends on tact, placement, and restraint. One does not splash oil across the turbine housing to make it run better; one finds the hidden joints and applies a little, precisely. Social life has such joints: the tacit norms of conversation, the pressure points of institutions, the small negotiations that allow cooperation. An opinion tossed indiscriminately into the public air does little, and often gums up the works. An opinion given at the right time, in the right measure, to the right person can free a stuck gear.
That emphasis on knowing where the spindles are turns opinion from self-expression into a kind of practical knowledge. It implies familiarity with how the apparatus is built, who has leverage, which words soothe, which demands stall. Overabundance becomes counterproductive, like oil pooling and attracting grit, increasing wear rather than easing it. The metaphor quietly demotes opinion from the grand currency of public life to a maintenance tool.
Benjamin wrote in Weimar Germany as mass media amplified commentary and the machinery of modern life grew more intricate. In the aphoristic mode of One-Way Street, he often treated talk, taste, and rumor as forces that either sharpen or dull social perception. Apparatus, for him, can also mean bureaucracy, parties, and the press. Read this way, the image sharpens into a critique: those who know the hidden joints can steer feeling and consent, not by flooding the public with assertions but by targeted, almost invisible doses. Opinion becomes an instrument of management as much as of truth.
The counsel is double-edged: cultivate economy and precision in speaking, and learn the structures your words will touch. Aim to lubricate what matters, not to bathe the turbine in your convictions.
That emphasis on knowing where the spindles are turns opinion from self-expression into a kind of practical knowledge. It implies familiarity with how the apparatus is built, who has leverage, which words soothe, which demands stall. Overabundance becomes counterproductive, like oil pooling and attracting grit, increasing wear rather than easing it. The metaphor quietly demotes opinion from the grand currency of public life to a maintenance tool.
Benjamin wrote in Weimar Germany as mass media amplified commentary and the machinery of modern life grew more intricate. In the aphoristic mode of One-Way Street, he often treated talk, taste, and rumor as forces that either sharpen or dull social perception. Apparatus, for him, can also mean bureaucracy, parties, and the press. Read this way, the image sharpens into a critique: those who know the hidden joints can steer feeling and consent, not by flooding the public with assertions but by targeted, almost invisible doses. Opinion becomes an instrument of management as much as of truth.
The counsel is double-edged: cultivate economy and precision in speaking, and learn the structures your words will touch. Aim to lubricate what matters, not to bathe the turbine in your convictions.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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