The Dwarf Inside the Machine

“The puppet called ‘historical materialism’ is to win all the time. It can easily be a match for anyone if it enlists the services of theology, which today, as we know, is wizened and has to keep out of sight.”

Benjamin used the Mechanical Turk as his opening allegory. The puppet = historical materialism. The dwarf = theology. The mirrors = ideology of pure objectivity.

His point: historical materialism requires the hidden theological dimension to win. The dwarf isn’t a contaminant — it’s the source of the puppet’s victories. The apparent mechanism depends on something it refuses to acknowledge.

Every system that appears to move on its own has something hidden inside it.