Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. The "Dialectics" of Repression

For all the right and most justified reasons, intellectuals have loudly complained about forms of "repression" executed by different forms of the State since the age of Enlightenment [and perhaps even since the Middle Ages]. The sentence of "the Arts that must remain silent in Times of War" seems to confirm this reaction. At the same time, however, a historical perspective makes it evident that conditions of repression have often provoked the most breathtaking and decisive intellectual innovations — whereas times of peace and social harmony lack of creative cultural energy. What consequences should intellectuals and artists draw from this experience?