German-Jewish philosopher, political theorist and sociologist, and a member of the Frankfurt School. Celebrated as the "Father of the New Left", his best known works are Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man and The Aesthetic Dimension. Marcuse was a major intellectual influence on the New Left and student movements of the 1960s.
A very perceptive writer once said you can鈥檛 sidestep Samsara. In the same way, nowadays we can鈥檛 effectively sidestep Socialism, either.
And even if we could, the concept of sin and salvation would still remain freeze-dried in our hearts by its aftereffects.
It鈥檚 in the frozen and caustic meme- and slogan-filled air we breathe, of indifference and amorality.
But we can鈥檛 perch on an ivory tower. We can only learn through the pain and aggravation of being stung. So it is with kids.
We鈥檇 like to warn our kids, but whatever we say they鈥檙e going to live their life as a long and winding road, or as James Joyce put it, as 鈥漚 commodious vicus of recirculation leading PAST EVE AND ADAM鈥橲.鈥� Get it?
We each have our Fall, though we鈥檝e paved THAT over too, alongside the last iota of compassion in our barely-beating hearts.
There are so many Garden Paths in kid鈥檚 lives, leading those kids into carefully concealed personal Hidden Agendas - especially these days - that it all really comes down to the brass tack of choosing your poison wisely.
it鈥檚 an Absurd World, and all the prudence and probity in the world can鈥檛 help us if we fall! Even in my teenaged years it was tough.
Maybe not quite as tough as it is now, because so many families were successful in inculcating strong, abiding values in their kids, without any advanced form of media persuasion taking the lead.
But it was still tough to learn.
Marcuse is right on many counts about WHY it鈥檚 like that, but only vis-脿-vis how it all functions together to MAKE it bad. Because he鈥檚 coming at us from the same freethinking direction - get it?
Like... it鈥檚 a broken, Absurd World, but there鈥檚 an APP for that! Oh, yeah? The iron boot of Marxism, I think it鈥檚 called...
We should trash his hopeless political agenda, all based on a fictional Golden Age. There鈥檚 no perfect world on this planet. Hard knocks will always abound, though Bernie Sanders may have told us otherwise.
Garden Paths every one.
And Marcuse leads us into two REALLY big traps: hard-line Marxism, and extreme Pessimism.
But, the problem for me is this book INFLUENCED my teenaged then-evergreen mind in affective, moody and rebellious ways.
That鈥檚 bad enough, but so many of my young peers of the sixties succumbed to a more serious, deadly cynicism because of this kinda book.
And, you know, it all started - for me - with what was a perfectly great idea: the Bookmobiles.
Remember them?
The Smithsonian Magazine says there were at least 2,000 of these so-very-welcome moving libraries in America in the sixties, and many more here in Canada and around the world. You still see 鈥榚m here and there!
And what a treat-on-the-outside they were to an intellectually famished teenager like me, and so many of my friends!
Wonderful fad indeed, and so useful in an 鈥榟omebody鈥� age when cars weren鈥檛 so necessary and thus not so prevalent.
My librarian Mom started using bookmobiles in the sixties, and what a godsend they were to her rural clients. I can still remember the dinner-table gripes that started out with 鈥淭hat bookmobile broke down again today!鈥�
(A head librarian鈥檚 job is NEVER easy. Especially when they鈥檙e only a phone call away from city hall, with its anxious politicos standing up for their disgruntled constituents. My Mom always kept a vial of 222鈥檚 in her purse for such major migraine moments!)
Anyway, the bookmobiles are where I started learning my lessons about diversionary Garden Paths when it came to books. Like this one. And started falling into traps, and finding Mistakes were my best Teachers.
Those moodily affective books鈥檇 snare a young kid every minute, back in the liberated sixties.
And they AWAYS did for me.
Once bitten and twice shy. Very shy! But of course, I鈥檓 way old enough now to know the difference.
But not back then - I fell between the cracks without a safety net. Yikes.
Yes, the traps of life are unavoidable. But you know what helps?
Humility.
For with THAT virtue, we鈥檙e not always sticking our necks out, and getting them caught in freethinkers鈥� guillotines!
And, 鈥渉umility is endless.鈥� Socialism just inflates our egos.
For, with humility, we can forever say with Dante, 鈥渉ic incipit Vita Nuova....鈥�
This was a very interesting read, I'm particularly interested in this line of critique on modern society and technology, how our technology ends up imprisoning us within closed loop thinking making it difficult to avoid subjugation to the system, both in the mental and physical realms. We are reduced to instruments, all life and nature is reduced to mere tool and in the process our thinking is flattened (one-dimensional man). We become prisoners within this paradigm, and there is no real way to dissent, heck it is impossible to imagine beyond this paradigm because we labor under the illusion of freedom and choice, subsumed within the invisible threads of a modern industrial apparatus that precludes true freedom by dominating the mental landscape, crowding out any competing visions by force of historical, cultural, economic, social momentum and indoctrination (sheesh this is all sounding so Matrix-y). Working jobs we hate to buy things we don't want to impress people we don't care about. That kind of thing. And so long as the system delivers "the goods," if the material wealth delivery system functions to some degree (for some subset of people) then the status quo will grind on, buttressed by some measure of popular support. Marcuse hits upon the fact that much of the production of the system is based upon destruction, so you know that kind of view forces you to ask the question: is such a system sustainable? or will it implode based upon its contradictions? it seems more and more people are asking this question nowadays, because the potential catastrophic looming crises are sharpening into focus and becoming harder to ignore (imo).
I had trouble following some of the parts where the critique got more technical, I found the language overly complicated and for me it became a thicket of obfuscatory language that was hard to chop through. Still I enjoyed the read in spite of those sections, I'm guessing those sections were more difficult for me because I don't have a lot of background in the technical language and fundamentals of philosophy. Less of a strike against the author, more indicative of my own shortcomings as a reader.
Anyways, the critique is interesting. It is quite pessimistic, damning, I wish I could disagree with more of it but I find a lot of it rather on point although I'm torn on certain aspects, or at least still trying to figure out what I think on certain things. The critique is relevant to our times I think, one doesn't have to agree with it, but it is great material to think about and forces one to reflect upon modern systems, and maybe the collective delusions we accept (whether consciously or subconsciously) that allow the system to keep functioning.
Here's an interesting thought: Every technologically advanced society operates on a de facto ideology stemming from the technology itself, regardless of its particular political system. When television or the Internet replace newspapers, for instance, as the means by which an individual interacts with society, the concomitant replacement of words by images takes on an unforeseen brainwashing quality. This is the odd progression looked at in One-Dimensional Man, and Herbert Marcuse鈥檚 investigation leaves the reader with an altered perspective, enlightened and disturbed at the same time.
The book tackles in two parts the Orwellian quality of advanced technology, one part looking at the kind of society technology brings forth, and the other explaining the kind of thinking this society engenders. As a philosophy work, it requires a rudimentary knowledge of that subject. From there, I came across enough original thinking to keep my highlighter busy throughout the read.
The nature of one-dimensional society I vaguely suspected, and Marcuse filled in the details. Modern society has gutted Enlightenment ideas, such as the right to dissent, and hollowed out concepts such as 鈥渄emocracy,鈥� leaving the terms intact while eviscerating the meanings. The book shows how it is then possible to manufacture an everyday reality for ordinary people.
One example is that the pre-industrial "battle for existence" humans once faced has long been obviated by technology, so the misery and distress found in modern societies is in fact artificially contrived. Why? Because modern economics needs the threat of destitution and insecurity to function. But paradoxically, one-dimensional society is far more passive in its contrived reality than previous societies. With the institutions of modern society now geared toward dissipating serious dissent, no real social change will ever be possible using the means available within that society. Wow.
The section on 鈥渙ne-dimensional thinking鈥� contained even greater surprises. With the media entrapping society in a permanent present, people cannot achieve the historical perspective necessary to make judgments critical of the status quo. The author goes into some depth about 鈥渦niversal鈥� concepts, concepts of quality which, in one-dimensional society, are stripped of their actual importance. How is this stripping done? Using linguistic analysis and even logical positivism, that鈥檚 how. What a cogent, provocative argument Marcuse presses on this point, and what a persuasive one. Never had I thought of linguistic analysis as actually impeding the ability to think, especially since its goal has been to improve the use of language.
The author takes up many philosophical questions connected to one-dimensional thinking: dialectical versus formal logic; quality versus quantity; Plato versus Aristotle; the immediate versus the ends. Because the author takes care with his conclusions, the book is filled with more ideas than just these. But the examples, I expect, will give potential readers an idea of the original work to be found here.
First published in the sixties, this book鈥檚 theme has proven more durable with each passing year, and its relevance is far more obvious now than when it first came out. I recommend it to anyone who likes reading philosophy or is interested in the social sciences, people who like to consider novel and challenging ideas.
Se gi脿 Freud aveva ipotizzato che la societ脿 civile richiedesse all'uomo il sacrificio di parte della propria liberta istintuale per consentire il vivere in comune, Marcuse sostiene che la societ脿 industriale e capitalista ne pretende un quid in piu. Secondo Marcuse, la societ脿 moderna 猫 caratterizzata dalla manipolazione dei bisogni umani attraverso la tecnologia e l'industria, che limitano l'esperienza umana sino a ridurla a un'esperienza monodimensionale. L'uomo a una dimensione 猫 l'individuo che si identifica completamente con la societ脿 industriale avanzata e con lo stile di vita che essa propone come unico corretto a livello etico e morale. Questo individuo non ha la capacit脿 di concepire altre forme di esistenza o di desiderare altro oltre ci貌 che il sistema gli offre. In altre parole, l'uomo a una dimensione vive in un mondo limitato dalle norme e dalle convenzioni imposte dal sistema, senza la possibilit脿 di immaginare alternative o di dissentire. Secondo Marcuse, questo processo di manipolazione dei bisogni umani viene perpetrato attraverso l'uso della tecnologia e della pubblicit脿, che servono a convincere le persone a desiderare sempre pi霉 beni e servizi che, in realt脿, non soddisfano i loro bisogni autentici. In questo modo, la societ脿 capitalista riesce a mantenere il controllo sugli individui, impedendo loro di sviluppare una coscienza critica e di ribellarsi al sistema. Il dissenso 猫 consentito solo nella misura in cui non mette in discussione lo status quo e la presunta libert脿 d'espressione e opinione di cui la societ脿 si fregia sottost脿 alle medesime regole. Inoltre, Marcuse sostiene che la razionalit脿 tecnica, che 猫 il fondamento della societ脿 dell'industria avanzata, non 猫 autentica ma serve esclusivamente gli interessi del sistema, impedisce la creativit脿 e l'autodeterminazione dell'individuo, e lo riduce a un semplice strumento. Profetico e quanto mai attuale.
This marks my thousand and one book that I鈥檝e read since I鈥檝e been keeping score on 欧宝娱乐 starting in 2011.
I try to write a review about each book I鈥檝e read and I try to write my feelings about the book and what it means to me. I don鈥檛 write reviews to tell others about the book, I write them for myself thus helping me understand what it means to me.
I鈥檒l often read an older review that I wrote after somebody has liked it and I sometimes I think, 鈥榳ow, that reviewer really knows what he鈥檚 talking about and writes densely and has great insights, I wish I understood what he meant鈥�, then I realize, 鈥榦h, yeah, I wrote that and I can鈥檛 believe at one time I understood those kind of connections.鈥�
I don鈥檛 like to write reviews on fictional books unless they are great, like 鈥楪ravity鈥檚 Rainbow鈥�, 鈥楩innegans Wake鈥�, 鈥楳agic Mountain鈥�, 鈥淪wans Way鈥�, or 鈥楧ante鈥檚 Divine Comedy鈥�, and then I will make the time to ramble on what they meant to me. Unfortunately, for me, my 1000th book, was Dean Koontz鈥檚 鈥楾he Big Dark Sky鈥�, and that was such a dog of a book, I didn鈥檛 want to associate my extended note on my 1000th read book with that book, so, I waited for my 1001 finished book.
I know book reading and review writing have changed who I am. I can remember naively thinking, 鈥榳ow, that Stephen Pinker really is a great thinker鈥�, and unwisely thinking the same about 鈥楴icholas Wade鈥�, or ignoring the implicit nonsense and hate espoused by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris (torture is wrong despite what he advocates, and tell me again why Dawkins and Harris hate Muslims so much, while not applying the same standards to Christians). Now, I know they are a scourge to rational thinking with their irrationality inherent within their world view. By the way, that is actually a theme that resides in this Marcuse book. So, I at least connected some of my stray thoughts to this book!
Rufus Fears is another person who lit a fire in my belly to learn, with his Great Course lectures on 鈥楾he Great Books鈥�, but by the end I realized that he was a pompous right-wing fanatic and couldn鈥檛 get out of his self-imposed hermetically sealed cocoon. At first on my reading journey, I needed to be pointed in the right direction by those who are smarter than me, even if it meant learning how not to think by first realizing there were other ways of thinking.
About 10 years ago I accidentally discovered a science book that told me the universe was expanding, not collapsing. I had to understand the science as presented in that book. That led me to having to understand the foundation of that science and the meaning of the physical as metaphysical. Once again, that鈥檚 a theme that is very important in this Marcuse book.
Next, I made a mistake and read Heidegger鈥檚 鈥楤eing and Time鈥� before having read any other classical philosophical books, but got just enough out of it to realize that I wanted to understand what he was getting at, and ended up reading Hegel which led to a whole slew of other foundational philosophical books.
If you want to learn something new read an old book. 90% of everything that is new is crap. Sometimes, one might have to read a book twice and wait a year or longer as I did with Spinoza鈥檚 鈥楢 Theologico-Political Treatise鈥�. I rejected as stupid upon first reading, but years later I realize why it was one of the all-time great books.
Read Thucydides before you die. There鈥檚 a hidden truth that you鈥檒l discover within that book, Herodotus too. My favorite book ever: 鈥極n the Nature of Things鈥�, but as with all great books let them find you, and they will.
There are some books that I鈥檝e wrote raving reviews on and today I feel like a fool for falling for their crap. I leave the review and rating to remind me how fallible I am. I also have rated books as a dud, but now realize they were great.
I think the two best books warning against Donald Trump and MAGA hat morons would be 1) Adolph Hitler鈥檚 autobiography, 鈥楳ein Kampf鈥�, and 2) Oswald Spengler鈥檚 鈥楧ecline of the West鈥�, and another just as apt warning would be Thomas Mann鈥檚 (yes, that Thomas Mann the same one who wrote one of my favorite books, 鈥楳agic Mountain鈥�) 鈥楶olitical Man鈥�. 鈥楶olitical Man鈥� is a hoot with his insane Make Germany Great Again thesis running throughout it. Each of these books give a peek into the insane world of the false reality that the MAGA hat morons are creating and daily re-creating. (Once again, that kind of theme does run within this book by Marcuse, but he fears that kind of thought, not embraces it).
Tim Miller鈥檚 book 鈥淲hy we did it鈥�, gets that MAGA hat morons mean what they say in the comment section of Brietbart News. That is who they are. They do not share a reality with us. They are willfully stupid on purpose. It鈥檚 not a game, Democracy will not survive when willful idiots deny reality and embrace alternative facts for no other reason than their fascist leader tells them it鈥檚 true. Tolerance is not a suicide pact when dealing with fascists who care more about using pronouns than they do about 10-year-old rape victims who they want to force to carry an embryo to term. But they distract by their what aboutism and say what about the pronouns, wokeism, black lives matter, and other nonsense.
I like history, science and philosophy books. They all relate and point me towards understanding about the universe. There is no greater meaning or purpose than to discover what is true, how should we behave, or what should we do with our live. That鈥檚 why I write reviews on 欧宝娱乐 and read books. Also, often I had no idea what a book really meant until I force myself to write what it means to me.
A nice addition to Marcuse's , presents Marcuse's devastating characterization of advanced capitalist society as totalitarian. As in his previous work, Marcuse here follows in the footsteps of Marx (tied together with Freud, actually) in criticizing the furtherance of repression in societies with highly advanced technologies--he calls for a re-appraisal of this mode of existence (which he calls domination) and a restructuring of 'work' into 'play' (following his sketches of the concept in ), claiming that the level of technology enjoyed by advanced industrial countries makes possible an existence (more or less never before experienced, at least in a non-discriminatory, universal way) in which all can labor much less than the interests of domination (corporations, the State) have compelled them--through both coercion and indoctrination--to do. He criticizes the disappearance of 'multidimensionality' in such societies, claiming that the economic 'goods' afforded by advanced capitalism (as in, eg, the economic boom of the 1950s and 60s, or the present day) has led the ordinary person to valorize the current mode of society, thus leading to the collapse of oppositional social elements and the resulting 'one-dimensional' man and society.
Marcuse takes issue with a great deal of linguistical reality in advanced industrial society--he warns that prevailing conceptions of x and y in this society are shaped largely by dominant interests, and the result, he finds, is a betrayal of aspirations for human liberation. He uses the examples of 'freedom' and 'democracy' centrally here (positing that the presence or absence of democracy is not to be determined by competitive elections, etc., alone, and that the market, instead of promoting 'freedom,' really enslaves).
Marcuse's account here, as an uncompromising defense of individuality and human liberation, is a crucially needed one. Its implications tend toward anarchism, though I wonder if his endorsement of liberation as possible only in the most highly advanced capitalist societies (as with Marx) reflects a lack of concern with ecological matters. I think he answers this to a certain degree in , where he claims that the artistic mode of existence made possible through revolutionary processes of human liberation would result in a rather new relationship between humanity and nature--one characterized not by domination or exploitation but beauty and respect. In any case, though, more people should read Marcuse.
Marcuse was a very prominent figure when I was in high school and on into the seventies. While familiar to pretty much everyone with a penchant for politics, few actually went beyond the various articles by and about him or the occasional interview in the progressive press. My intellectual mentor in high school, Ed Erickson, however, had read One-Dimensional Man and passed on a copy of it with a very strong recommendation.
Not having read much Marx in high school and having read no Heidegger, I found the book hard-going at the time. Still, the fact that he criticized both the Soviet and the American systems impressed me and his analysis and rejection of American consumerism struck me powerfully. His arguments about the revolutionary potentials of fringe groups, such as we students, but also what Marx called the lumpen proletariat, while attractive, seemed also to be wishful thinking--wishful thinking I shared, mind you.
During high school and college, Marcuse was often discussed, often along with others from the Frankfurt school, but, as I said, few really knew his thinking well in my circles. The mainline media certainly distorted it, making him out to be some sort of depraved monster and nihilist which was hardly the case. Interestingly, he was offered a high platform to address America on one occasion. Playboy Magazine offered him a pretty penny to do one of their interviews. He agreed, with one condition: he, in his seventies at the time, would have to appear as that issue's centerfold. The interview never occurred, but it was stuff like this, his humor and perceived solidarity with us young people, that endeared him to us.
Una confortevole, levigata, ragionevole, democratica non libert脿 prevale nella civilt脿 industriale avanzata, segno di progresso tecnico..
E鈥� l鈥檈nnesimo libro che si intreccia fittamente alla mia seconda vita e non pu貌 essere altrimenti: la prima cominci貌 ad agonizzare tra il 鈥�63 e la primavera del 鈥�68. La seconda germogli貌 a ruota del maggio francese ed ebbe per padrini Sartre e Marcuse ( naturalmente Marx, Mao , H峄� Ch铆 Minh e il Che erano l鈥檋umus imprescindibile). Forse uno di questi giorni rilegger貌 quello che ho in casa di Jean Paul ma Herbert - non so per quale pulsione 鈥� l鈥檋o dovuto leggere subito. Lo comprai nell鈥檃utunno di quell鈥檃nno, quando anche i terroncelli decisero che fosse giunto il momento di unirsi all鈥檌nternazionalismo studentesco. Lo lessi. Mi imposi di leggerlo. Volevo sposarne le tesi ma non riuscivo a farne il vangelo con cui interpretare il mio 鈥渞eale presente" preindustrializzato. M. si riferiva al mondo dei ricchi, dove anche le tute blu non si distinguevano pi霉 dai colletti bianchi negli atteggiamenti ,nei bisogni, nei desideri e nel pensiero (a)critico. Nel mio mondo non solo non c鈥檈rano tute blu (per alcuni una fortuna: la mancata industrializzazione ci aveva preservati dalla distruzione del territorio, come se la mancanza di reti fognarie non avesse trasformato le magnifiche coste in infinite praterie per i colibacilli) ma i colletti bianchi ci tenevano a esibire i loro simboli di casta. In casa avevamo una 850 e loro la Lancia. Io portavo i vestiti cuciti da mia madre 鈥� aveva con gli scolli giromanica una incompatibilit脿 irrimediabile: praticamente affondava le forbici fin quasi al giro vita. La povera manica, quando alzavi il braccio per appenderti al poggia mano degli autobus, non poteva che tirare su il vestitino gi脿 cortino. E se proprio non volevi mostrare la giarrettiera, dovevi rassegnarti a cascare alla prima frenata 鈥� e loro, i rampolli dei colletti bianchi, quelli dell鈥檜nico negozio esclusivo. Io andavo a scuola in autobus e loro con l鈥檃utista di papi.
Per貌, senza voler emulare i pi霉 luridi fascisti di oggi, erano proprio loro a recitare Marcuse a menadito. Io non avevo mai varcato il Rubicone, l鈥橧talia visitata era tutta al di sotto della linea gotica. Forse l脿 il libro aveva un senso, pensavo. Dalle mie parti, nel paese del sole, della fame e della mafia, valevano ancora le vecchie teorie marxiste della lotta di classe.
Riletto a distanza di cinquant鈥檃nni, L鈥檜omo a una dimensione, mi sembra il pi霉 riuscito dei libri distopici mai scritti. Altro che 1984. 鈥� Una confortevole, levigata, ragionevole, democratica non libert脿 prevale nella civilt脿 industriale avanzata, segno di progresso tecnico". Siamo diventati tutti turisti, tutti griffati, tutti con uno smartfone in mano. Non esiste pi霉 n茅 destra n茅 sinistra, tutti apolitici (al massimo ci permettiamo i grillini), tutti amici di Maria, tutti a tuffarci nella casa del Grande Fratello ( abbiamo per貌 il telecomando, liberi di muoverci dentro il recinto approntato per noi). Siamo diventati il gregge del s矛, non pi霉 in grado di ragionare con la nostra testa per dire No manco alle minchiate. Vogliamo essere come tutti. Siamo come tutti. E nel frattempo, senza accorgercene, da paese di emigranti ci siamo trasformati in terra di migranti: il nemico n掳 1, specie se arrivano a frotte e non pi霉 regolati dall鈥檕rribile legge Bossi-Fini. Come gli zombi fuoriescono dal mare dove li facciamo annegare e invadono (?) le nostre strade e i nostri catoi. Loro sono fuori da tutto. L鈥檈ssere senza identit脿 li rende senza diritti. Saranno loro a dire di NO. Forse per questo ne abbiamo tanta paura. Non perch茅 ci rubino il lavoro, o spaccino e turbino il decoro delle nostre citt脿. Veniamo indotti, perch茅 hanno anestetizzato il nostro cervello, a ignorarli come se fossero trasparenti , nel migliore dei casi. Nel peggiore facciamo s矛 che si insidi un governo che i benpensanti dicono di temere ma in cui, in realt脿, fidano per fare il lavoro sporco che tutti ormai ci auspichiamo. Che lo confessiamo a noi stessi o meno.
Marcuse in un passo chiave del suo libro descrive come: "il sostrato dei reietti e degli stranieri, degli sfruttati e dei perseguitati di altre razze e di altri colori, dei disoccupati e degli inabili. Essi permangono al di fuori del processo democratico, la loro presenza prova quanto sia immediato e reale il bisogno di porre fine a condizioni e istituzioni intollerabili. Perci貌 la loro opposizione 猫 rivoluzionaria anche se non lo 猫 la loro coscienza. Perci貌 la loro opposizione colpisce il sistema dal di fuori e quindi non 猫 sviata dal sistema; 猫 una forza elementare che viola la regola del gioco e cos矛 facendo mostra che 猫 un gioco truccato".
Il sociologo Luciano Gallino afferma che "M. anticipa i termini delle questioni odierne e ci貌 lo fa apparire moderno鈥� 猫 un libro che obbliga a riflettere su ci貌 che dobbiamo decidere e fare, qui e ora al fine di trasformare noi stessi e la societ脿 in cui viviamo, in direzione di un'esistenza che non sia come l'attuale, il regno di un'abile e previggente applicazione di mezzi efficienti per scopi presi alla cieca, ma un'esistenza in cui la ragione oggettiva, con la sua capacit脿 di individuare l'essenza della realt脿 suggerisca i nostri scopi e le correlative azioni, stabilendo e interiorizzando nuovi rapporti con societ脿 fino ad ora sottoprivilegiate che non sono pi霉 disposte ad accettare l'attuale disuguaglianza dei privilegi, prima che sia la storia, se non domani, ma forse domani l'altro, a trasformare brutalmente noi in strumenti dei suoi scopi pi霉 ciechi鈥�.
Herbert Marcuse is a well-read intellectual who set out to write a theoretical philosophical volume, about the nature of understanding and thought and society, but with a very specific aim, to justify the overthrow of Western society.
One-Dimensional Man suffers in that it's most radical propositions are laid out as givens and first premises, Which are not analyzed or questioned anywhere in the work. Marcuse starts out with the presumption that certain aims and ideals represent the 鈥渢rue needs and desires鈥� of people, of which those people are themselves ignorant and refuse to admit are their "true鈥� needs and desires 鈥� but that he happens to know precisely what those true ends and desires are.
He presents this as self-evident truth 鈥� ignoring the distinct possibility that he does *not* know better than people what the actual aims and ends of those people are. He refuses to present any reason to believe that he knows what the true interests of these hapless victims of commercial society better than they know themselves.
Despite the intellectual weakness of the arguments, I found the book interesting. Not in and of itself, but as an historical piece.
Marcuse is the original thinker behind neo-Marxist thought 鈥� the modern effort to divorce Communist ideology from the failures of Communism as practiced in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, East Germany, Laos, North Korea, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, etcetera, etcetera. Marcuse's book is an effort to answer the question 鈥渨hy would the Communism you envision be different?鈥� His answer is, apparently, that *he* would be a fine philosopher king, because he *truly* knows what people *truly* want.
Reading the book, which forms the backbone of post-modern Maxist thought, does help one to understand the sorts and styles of thought which have informed those in the post-Modern movement.
This was the trendy book to quote among the young radicals of the "New Left", from the late 1960s all the way to the 1970s. Still to this day, it's clear how it has been one of the worst influences on the Western political discourse - a reaction to the accumulated evidence of all the flaws of the Marxist model that parted ways with its interest in having solid analytical and empirical foundations, obliterated its positive stance on technological and scientific progress, severed its connection with Economics, and pushed the Left towards pseudo-psychoanalytical oracular nonsense, conspiracy theories, and radical identity politics. Most likely the least interesting, least precise and most confused thinker among the ones associated with the Frankfurt School (he can't hold a candle to the clear thinking and prose of, say, Benjamin), in this book Marcuse shows poor analytical skills, poor exposition skills, and tries too hard to give an aura of philosophical and theoretical grandeur to what is just a badly written political pamphlet.
In an earlier stage of history, humankind was poor but authentic. With modern industrial society, needs are routinely met but we鈥檝e lost ourselves in the process. 鈥淭oday,鈥� Marcuse writes, 鈥減rivate space has been invaded and whittled down by technological reality. Mass production and mass distribution claim the entire individual, and industrial psychology has long since ceased to be confined to the factory鈥�.There is only one dimension, and it is everywhere and in all forms.鈥� Later, Marcuse discusses the Happy Consciousness 鈥渢he belief that the real is rational and that the system delivers the goods鈥� which then 鈥渞eflects the new conformism which is a facet of technological rationality translated into social behavior.鈥�
Production, for Marcuse, is no longer a means to serve real needs. It becomes an end-in-itself. Or, rather, production creates artificial needs 鈥� the products of boredom, really 鈥� to feed the wealth of the few. Through its education-media propaganda machinery, production creates a culture of fake needs. Common folk are mesmerized. Flag and production go hand-in-hand. Patriotism is support for economic order. The status quo is reassuring stability, security and joy. 鈥淢ost of the prevailing needs to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to [the] category of false needs,鈥� Marcuse writes, adding that 鈥淭he people find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment.鈥� This is the 鈥渙ne-dimensional man.鈥�
To be sure, not all are happy campers. They make waves. They vote, strike and protest. But this is all tame stuff, allowed by the economic order as venting mechanisms for those who experience inequality and sense the unfairness. Give protesters their day in court. Calm will return. The status quo will become normal again. For the most part though, these are not a rebellious people. They are unable to see outside the paradigm that imprisons them. They are unable to consider an alternative reality, a world of eternal verity as conveyed by Plato, a world of pureness and harmony, of the good of the whole, and of a fully-blossomed humanity. This is the world of Reason, Rationality and Pacification (no war, exploitation, domination).
It is a world that would have been articulated by philosophers of old but philosophers have been co-opted by the production paradigm that has turned the rational into the irrational. Reason has been reified, not as a Marcusian Truth, but as the applied tool of technology that serves production. Pacification now means the taming of the masses to immunize the production machinery against anger. Positivist philosophy, 鈥淥ne-Dimensional Philosophy,鈥� is the handmaiden of this reason-based scientific paradigm. Linguistic analysis is about the meaning of banality. Looking to any source of truth other than those based on a material-scientific foundation is dismissed as metaphysics and nonsense.
Marcuse鈥檚 obtuse writing style is difficult to follow in its particulars, but his central argument seems clear enough. His critique of the modern-day world, though dated with Marxist-Freudian terminology and concepts, are relevant still and a good dusting off is due. Marcuse鈥檚 goal 鈥� a revitalization of humanity in a way that benefits all 鈥� is laudable, but it is not out there in a Platonic sense as Marcuse conveys, which is so easily dismissed as metaphysical nonsense by many. It is within. To be free, to even have equality as the condition for such freedom, is built into our being. The need to be free to seek what we need to live, and to defend against threats is essential to life. Freedom is the philosophical equivalent to survival.
That freedom, though, is met in two fundamentally, divergent ways. Domination that ensures the freedom of some at the expense of others is one way. Accommodating and respecting the interests of others is the other. Both work as survival strategies and these twin prongs of evolutionarily-derived behavior, and everything in between, have been present throughout history. But Marcuse sees only a single, well-intentioned humanity. Rid itself of technology and industrial domination and exploitation, the rational becomes real again and the authentic man re-emerges.
It is a good man, one who abjures the exercise of power, in whatever form. In this alternative reality, power relations are unnecessary. This is where Marcuse strays. There has been, there is, and there will always be, a strong impulse for a good part of humanity to take advantage, to dominate, to deceive. Pacification in Marcuse鈥檚 sense plays right into their hands. Sociopathic behavior is not only fueled by culture. It鈥檚 in the genes and it is perpetual. There is no single human nature. Some are good, some are not. Most are in between, with behavioral expression dependent on situation and circumstance. The ideal of Tao in a human-constructed world is to create the perfect balance between the freedom of one versus the freedom of the other, but that order requires the application of a countervailing power. Despite its dark, worrisome overtones, peace through strength is the right mantra to achieve Marcuse鈥檚 goal of peace and harmony for all.
*Does a 鈥渇alse consciousness鈥� long precede the industrial-production economy? In his book, 鈥淭he World of Thought in Ancient China,鈥� Benjamin Schwartz, writes that the masses, exposed 鈥渢o both the seductions of civilization and the oppressions inflicted by civilization,鈥articipate in it fully and long to share in the goals of their masters. They can hardly transcend their environment.鈥� While Lao Tsu sees the correction coming from Taoist sage-rulers, "in the Chuang Tsu strain the pathology of human consciousness is congenital to the entire species and...it is deeply rooted in the human heart/mind itself.鈥� In this Taoist context, 鈥渇alse consciousness鈥� means 鈥渓ittle understanding鈥� vis-脿-vis the Tao. This may not mean the sort of thing that Marcuse presumes as the essence of human nature (Marcuse seems drawn to Platonic perfection), though superficially at least, the concepts seem aligned in which case, the phenomenon that Marcuse observes has been there all along but, now, is magnified.
this critique feels very much grounded in the time it was written, the late 50s-early 60s, at the height of Keynesianism, when the working class in the First World had reached a material comfort never-before-seen, and the Marxist philosophers went scrambling to figure out why their theory of social revolution was suddenly worthless, the "immiseration" predicted by Marx suddenly refuted by the New Deal.
what Marcuse misses, among other things, is that the growing prosperity of the First World workers came at the expense of the Third World, through the expanding primitive accumulation and displacement happening on the periphery.
this invisibility was tied of course to the limitations of Marcuse's politics. of course the book is useful because it asks us how do we, as First World revolutionaries, make revolution in the midst of material abundance, and the overwhelming "satisfaction" of the majority of our peers, who can sit on the couch and watch TV, or go to the mall, thinking this is the basis of freedom. Marcuse's distinction between "real" and "false" needs is a good one, but not fully fleshed out. regardless, the ultimate limitation of the book in my view is that politically it holds up Marx's positive view of capitalism in terms of industrialization and the "material basis for freedom," which, looking back with the hindsight of the last 50 years of ecological devastation, is hard to justify.
John Holloway's "Change the World Without Taking Power" gains all the insights of One Dimensional Man, without any of the limitations. read that one instead, if you can. this one is interesting mostly for historical curiosity.
鈥淎ll liberation depends on the consciousness of servitude and the emergence of this consciousness is always hampered by the predominance of needs and satisfactions which, to a great extent, have become the individual's own.鈥�.
I鈥檝e read this book more than once, though it is a short one but it needs time in order to be fully grasped. It is, definitely, not an easy read.
In this book, Marcuse clarifies the meaning of the one-dimensional society (which is a repressive society) and how it affects the people turning them into one-dimensional men.
When you read this book, you will think that Marcuse is talking about the people you meet every day! Our world is currently infected with one-dimensional men 鈥� men who can鈥檛 think rationally and can鈥檛 allow other people to have different opinions. In a one-dimensional society the only genuine individual is the rebel (the one who refuses the pressure of the society and rejects to become a one-dimensional man).
Marcuse thinks that in order to preserve your genuine character in such a repressive society, you will have to practice a strategy he calls 鈥楾he Great Refusal鈥�. You must refuse everything the society produces. DON鈥橳 BE A BLIND CONSUMER. SAY NO!
I recommend it to all of my friends. I鈥檓 sure you鈥檙e going to enjoy reading it.
Consider the following paragraph a motivation for reading "one dimensional man":
{There are books that one wishes to had read a long time ago! Books which you wish they never end; Books that excite you to such extent at 2:00 A.M. that you are urged to call someone up and read a passage or two and talk for an hour; Books that mesmerize you and leave you ponder upon long time after; Books which you slow down your reading pace, just so its taste linger with you...}
One dimensional man is a must read! More than ever for the present apparent polarized political world, where one encounters "choices", equally bad! The book has a very vivid message but Marcuse doesn't reveal himself too early. He rather present a handful of examples, which some surprisingly hold true to this day. Little by little he shows, how the new system of domination numbs people and transforms them into conformist zombies (with a semblance of Freedom), deprived from "true thinking".
The book argues how in a an advanced industrial society, which has already reached a level of common welfare and productivity, one can truly not think of alternatives, or how any alternative seems to be looked down upon. I couldn't help but notice the illustration of "Brave New World" while reading the book. The first half of the book is extremely meticulously written. Arguments unfold elaborately, but in a fashionably long passages, tied with examples. It might seem not quite to the point here and there but for a German thinker, I suppose that is quite natural.
Chapter 7 strongly criticizes analytical philosophy. Many examples of Wittgenstein and other philosophers are dismantled with scrutiny. I think analytical philosophy has already diminished in comparison to the continental.
This is pretty damned radical for its time (1964). People mock the Frankfurt school these days for reasons I do not understand. One Dimensional Man is Marcuse's best known work, though probably not his best. The question he tries to answer is rather straight forward: What has late industrial society done to us and how has it shaped our state of mind? The problem with Marcuse (as with other Marxists, I suppose) is that while criticizing industrialization, he still holds out much hope in technology as a potential tool of liberation (as opposed to a means of oppression and alienation underneath the capitalist regime). Though I should say that One Dimensional Man is much more pessimistic than some of his other works. It is hard to argue with Marcuse when he tells us that if freed from the chains of capitalism we could stop producing so much needless crap and only work a few hours a week, but when he actually thinks this is gonna actually happen, I have to take issue with that. I think we've come very far since Marcuse and are much more likely to view industrialization as a system in and of itself that should be looked upon with suspicion--even when not tied to the Capitalist regime. Still, this book is hugely important and sets the groundwork for much future radical thought.
A brilliant thought provoking and challenging book. Covers lots of different topics but the key one which i found relevant was the one on technology and how this has been imbibed into our minds and modus operandi. Ask yourself, if you were to start a new business for example, what would be your first thought when it came to operationalising it? Which website to launch it off i guess right? Which app to use? Technology has become such a leading driver and medium for our thoughts that its hard for us to think independently of it. Mark Hughes wrote the book in the 50s (i think) and some of the points are massively relevant to the twitter and Facebook generation of today. Very interesting read though in places i found it quite complicated.
yadayadayadayadayadayadayada--- As well read the endless debates of the Scholastic Philosophers for all the good Marxist and neo-Marxist theorizing does anyone. Once buy into the notion of Historical Inevitability, whether it be the Inevitable Class Struggle or the Second Coming of Jesus, and human experience is open to endless criticism concerning its conformity--or the lack of it--or the antithesis of it-- to the way things are spozed to go. Instead, gimme Rachel Ray, the Tuscan Sun and bottle of Vin Ordinaire, ne Marx, ne Jesus. Amen.
This book has been in the discourse lately. There was a piece about 鈥淥ne-Dimensional Man鈥� in Catalyst a few months back; then Matt Taibbi wrote about it (disparagingly) on his Substack (or maybe the latter came first). I鈥檓 not sure if it was from reading one of those pieces, but it stuck in my mind that the thesis of the book sounded illuminating.
ODM is almost always referred to when it鈥檚 referred to as a lodestar for the New Left. That shouldn鈥檛 be a compliment even though the blurb-writers universally see it as such. What drew me to the book was its thesis about how capitalism stabilized itself in the West so effectively in the postwar era. WWI dealt a death blow to the Second International and any opportunity for international solidarity around a working-class project (socialism); what was it about the post WWII era (the grand bargain/New Deal consensus) that allowed capitalism to maintain hegemony in the West while incurring no breeches to its citadel other than social-democracy (robust in Europe, paltry with thorough discriminatory mechanisms in the US)?
The strictly political economy answer is that because the US emerged as the unequivocal financial victor of the war, capital was again in the ascendency in the late forties and early fifties after having been put on its heels during the 30s and first half of the 40s. With the passage of Taft-Hartley and business unionism becoming hegemonic in the realm of trade-unionism, social democratic gains domestically were modest and subject to retrenchment the moment world affairs (oil crisis/declining rates 0f profit) allowed capital to go on the offensive. Because European capital emerged from the war in a much more compromised state than American capital, social democracy gains there were more robust and lasting.
Marcuse wrote ODM in 1964. He died in 1979. There are several remarkable features of these dates and how they inform the arguments he makes. 1) the welfare state he decries (and glosses advanced industrial society and/or the totalizing administrative society was, in retrospect, the high point is democratic distribution of public goods in the 20th century. Having died on the eve of neoliberalism (capital鈥檚 retrenchment), he didn鈥檛 live to see how good those post war years look now (at least to those not laboring under the yoke of de jure and de facto discrimination) 2) It鈥檚 interesting Marcuse has so little to say about the Civil Rights Movement as that was a moment of militancy and revolt in the name of negating hegemonic forces committed to discrimination in the name of the status quo. In other words, totalizing administrative mechanisms in the Southern United States (and to greater or lesser extents in Northern states too) were suddenly, relatively speaking, transcended through mass political mobilizations. To be sure, materialist political scientists have made the argument, an argument Marcuse would presumably by sympathetic to, that the contingencies of capital assimilation and flexibility were such that the amerliotariton of discrimination based on ascirptive identity was a drag on economic functioning as opposed to a benefit. Even if one concedes that point, mass political mobilizations in the name of negating the unencumbered trajectory of advanced industrial society is precisely the type of negation Marcuse posits in ODM is no longer possible. 3) Ditto for the mass mobilizations against the war in Vietnam.
A word about inscrutable philosophical language. I haven鈥檛 read 鈥渢heory鈥� in quite some time. Thankfully, I鈥檓 old enough now to level coherent criticism that I lacked the confidence to do as an undergrad or grad student. ODM is not written for the underemployed, the unemployed, the criminal, the misfit, or those on the margins of society. It鈥檚 a safe bet that cohort doesn't have a degree and/or the vocabulary and acumen to parse knotty philosophical concepts and formulations in order to make heads or tails of this book. The book is written for other specialists (philosophers, grad students, educated members of the petty bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie, etc). One can express complex, robust philosophical and political economic ideas in clear, precise language. And Marcuse does so periodically. But like most 鈥渢heory,鈥� post-structuralist writing, postmodern writing, and continental philosophy in general, the reader is confronted with an extremely intelligent, extremely well-read thinker who is most concerned with, to the detriment of elucidating his ideas in the name of a serviceable political project, formulating and elucidating complex ideas bouncing around in his or her head. Books by these writers--Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, Adorno, ad infinitum--read as if the writer is trying to minutely and painstakingly put down the most intricate and nuanced ideas he or she has a about a discrete problematic. What I鈥檝e found in my years of reading this type of text is that often, but not always, the most the non-specialist walks away from the text with is the knowledge he or she (the reader) adequately comprehended the internal coherence of the philosophical and theoretical ideas the writer/philosopher produced. But what's the good in that? What鈥檚 the point of that? So one has ascertained the internal coherence of virtually impenetrable, knotty philosophical concepts that are so impenetrable and knotty that their application to real-world events, incidents, political formations, political objectives is utterly foreclosed. Pardon my French, but what鈥檚 the fucking point?
The point, I guess, is that to paraphrase Gore Vidal, everyone鈥檚 got to make a living. Herbert Marcuse had to make a living: Columbia, Harvard, Brandeis, UCSD. Teach, write, give lectures, get paid; teach, write, give lectures, get paid. In the citadel of capital; in the citadel of training for those who will reproduce the means of production; those who will reproduce the mechanics and content of advanced industrial society and the totalitarian administered society.
There were some pithy nuggets in this book that pointed to the thesis I thought he would explore in greater detail. For instance, on page 9, 鈥� . . . People recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level house, kitchen equipment鈥�; or, 鈥淒omination is transfigured into administration鈥� (32); 鈥淭he loss of the economic and political liberties which were the real achievement of the preceding two centuries may seem slight damage in a state capable of making the administered life secure and comfortable鈥� (50); 鈥淧rior to the advent of this cultural reconciliation, literature and art were essentially alienation, sustaining and protecting the contradiction--the unhappy consciousness of the divided world, the defeated possibilities, the hopes unfulfilled, and the promises betrayed鈥� (61); 鈥淎rtistic alienation is sublimation. It creates the images of conditions which are irreconcilable with the established Reality Principle but which, as cultural images, become tolerable, even edifying and useful. Now this imagery is invalidated. Its incorporation into the kitchen, the office, the shop; its commercial release for business and fun is, in a sense, desublimation--replacing mediated by immediate gratification鈥� (72).
What is best in many of these quotes is their exploration of the age-old problematic of the commodification of art. Marcuse creates compelling formulations about the transcendent role art (in all its manifestations) has played over the last 200 years and laments how art has been increasingly commodified and commercialized so as to be stripped of its negative power (as in negating advanced industrial society鈥檚 administration of our needs and desires). His formulations, verbose and arcane as is his wont, do have considerable explanatory power here. In short, he does a good job of describing why Gen Xers were so fixated on 鈥渟elling out.鈥� One is making a political decision to sell his or her song to the commercial maker. Jim was right about 鈥淟ight My Fire.鈥� However divorced the artist might be from a critique of political economy, no matter how divorced the artistic creation might from ameliorating the conditions of the working class, at least he or she is standing outside (critical distance) of advanced industrial society and manifesting (the song, the album) the alentiaion and atomization that are byproducts of the administered state; or, if you prefer, the artist is at least emitting thoughtful, powerful messages about what it means to be a human experiencing consciousness. Either way, one is not willingly acting as entertainer, court jester, and fool for the capitalist machinery. The Birthday Party. Artists. Lady Gaga. Entertainer. The former has the potential to transcend/critique the alienation and atomization created by advanced industrial society; the latter is a cog in the industrial-entertainment complex. To be sure, the above is quaint AF to most people, let alone those not part of Gen X for whom notions of authenticity were important and cherished ideals. Sell your songs everywhere; get your money. No one begrudges you. But you have cheapened your art for the reasons Marcuse explains.
鈥淥n the contrary, there is a great deal of 鈥榃orship together this week,鈥� 鈥榃hy not try God,鈥� Zen, existentialism, and beat way of life, etc. But such modes of protest and transcendence are no longer contradictory to the status quo and no longer negative. They are rather the ceremonial part of practical behaviorism, its harmless negation, and are quickly digested by the status quo as a part of its healthy diet鈥� (14). Damn. He wrote that in the early 60s before the entire counter-cultural edifice: music, fashion, consumption habits, affects, etc. were packaged and re-sold back to the culture at large. Wikipedia tells me Marcuse 鈥渞ejected the theory of class struggle and the Marxist concern with labor.鈥� And so he鈥檚 left enumerating the ways capital commodifies and commercializes everything it touches. What Marcuse is describing in his discursive formulations is at its essence the Gramscian notion of cultural hegemony. Marcuse, however, by detaching his project from class struggle and an a priori commitment that capitalism needs to be overcome, ends up pontificating about what capitalism has done in the name of legimating itself in the 1950s. The ideological mechanisms of control and capture that drip out of every pore of late industrial society in the name of capitalist legitimation are not qualitatively different from the ideological functions of capital to reproduce the means of ownership and concentrations of wealth in the early 20th or even the 19th century. Rather, the post-war era that is the focus of Marcuse鈥檚 study merely sees capital incorporating new mechanisms and technologies to do what it鈥檚 always done through cultural hegemony: maintain the balance of class forces in its favor.
Which brings me to the final thing I鈥檒l say about ODM and why being the father or grandfather (his choice of moniker) of the New Left isn鈥檛 a compliment. The best of the 60s counter-cultural figures (New Left) who may have been inspired and edified by ODM were killed by the State, imprisoned, or exiled. The vast majority simply joined the totalizing administering state in one capacity or another (academic, NGO flunkie, run-of-the-mill Dem pol) once their days as anti-war firebrands, back-to-the-landers, or bog standard psychedelic fl芒neurs ended. The failure of the New Left, and insofar as ODM presages the political commitments of that cohort, stemmed from the essentially apolitical nature of its project if politics and political contestation is defined as actively engaging a constituency that democratically elects representatives to secure legislative victories at the municipal, state, and federal level that materially improve the lives of those constituents; furthermore, those constituents have predictable and accessible mechanisms by which to hold those representatives accountable (in a timely manner) for failing to accomplish discrete political victories. Did the New Left even stop the war? Probably not. Cool music, fun drugs. Sure. Existential, ontological, spiritual meditations and marinations up the wazoo. Most definitely. But in the final analysis the New Left was a class politics--it was a petty bourgeois, professional managerial class politics (or the politics of those would become the ne0liberal era鈥檚 PMC). It was a pre-political project in consciousness-raising and self-exploration. In most ways it was an individualistic project. Because it wasn鈥檛 organically embedded in any mass-political organization, least of all working-class organizations organized around discrete victories in the realm of political contestation, its decline and obsolescence was built into its ephemeral construction. The New Left got a job at Disney and raised two kids in the suburbs. Or taught Marcuse at Reed.
*Full Disclosure:
I like to write 鈥渂ook reports鈥� on the books I read these days and I hadn鈥檛 written one in awhile and was eager to do so. I wrote the above before I had finished ODM. In fact, I had only read a little over 100 pages when I wrote it. I鈥檓 now about 180 pages in and it鈥檚 just terrible. Just fucking terrible. I could pick any paragraph at random, literally, in the last 80 pages and paste it here as an example of an absolutely vomitous, inscrutable tripe. As I mentioned, I used to read a lot of 鈥渢heory鈥� and continental philosophy. The take away for the non-specialist cannot, CANNOT, be just feeling as though one has conquered the internal coherence of the interminable philosophizing and theorizing of the writer. Talk about an alienating, atomizing, non-communicative, self-enclosed process. And that鈥檚 all one who isn鈥檛 a Phd in philosophy or uniquely intellectually inclined to parse knotty, gnarly, unforgiving curlicued, navel gazing pablum can do with this crap (conquer the internal coherence of the interminable philosophizing and theorizing).
Gentle reader, one (the PhD, the philosopher) can express the ideas bottled up in gnarly, inscrutable philosophy from centuries ago in a way that edifies and inspires the modern reader. Martin Hagglund鈥檚 鈥淭his Life鈥� is a gorgeous example of such a text. And what shines through in his prose is that he cares about his reader. Furthermore, the political project he celebrates--democratic socialism--is manifest in the rhetorical care and patience he displays. There is a politics in how one chooses to write--the diction, sentence structure, clarity, concrete examples, minimal abstraction. The politics in the prose of ODM is quite apt for the hippy-cum-Apple executive: self-important, self-aggrandizing, cocksure, and boring.
I have finally decided, after deliberating about it for a while, to write a review of Marcuse's work here. I believe I once had this work marked at four, perhaps five stars, as at the time I found it to be rather succinct and correct. My understanding of this work (and of the Frankfurt School in general) has shifted vastly in that time, to where I now see Marcuse in a much more negative light. I used to think he was the best of the Frankfurt School, although now I think such a title should go to Benjamin (and it is still not exactly a title of repute).
His obsession in this work with psychoanalysis, like every other philosopher who unfortunately engaged with this absurd trend of attempting to meld Freud to Marx, is disheartening and downright disgusting at points. His linking of labour with the sexual is strange and fetishistic, and something to be highlighted and scoffed at for its ignorance and absurdity. These can be explained as a product of Marcuse's time, of course. The international socialist movement was divided to the point of absurdity, though his universalistic conclusions around the great refusal or whatever one wishes to call it should have been a dead-end point of view recognizable to any proper Marxist. His wide influence on the New Left, reinjecting radical individualism and rejecting consumerism, frankly shows the ultimate weakness in his thesis because it was almost the complete adoption of his ideas to a tee, and was ultimately an enormous failure.
By the end of his life, Marcuse was not a Marxist in any sense of the term, and his end with Marxism truly starts in this work. That modern "critical theorists" like Douglas Kellner are nothing but liberal philosophical mouthpieces shows the dead-end that Marcuse unfortunately led himself into.