The One Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse

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The One Dimensional Manby Herbert Marcuse

• The New Forms of Control

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Biography

• Born in 1898 in Berlin
• Served in World War I with the German army
• He went to the University of Freiburg to pursue
  his studies
• Marcuse became a member of the Social Democratic
  Party while he still was a student

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Biography

• Marcuse received his Ph.D. in Literature in 1922
• He conducted philosophical research in the
  University from 1922-1932
• Marcuse founded the Institute for Social Research
  in 1923 (Frankfurt Institut fur Sozialforschung)
  Frankfurt School
• Marcuse came to the U.S. in 1934 why?
• Taught at Columbia University and became a
  citizen in 1940

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Biography

• He was an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army
  during WWII
• Returned to teaching in 1951
• Columbia and Harvard (1951-1954)
• Brandeis University (1954-1965)
• UCSD (1965-1976)
• Marcuse died on July 29, 1979, Starnberg , West
  Germany

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Major Writings

• Eros and Civilization (1955)
• One-Dimensional Man (1964)
• Counterrevolution and Revolt (1972)
• Studies in Critical Philosophy (1972)

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Marcuse Speech at Berlin University
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Frankfurt School

• Included a number of talented theorists such as
  T.W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, Walter Benjamin, and
  Jurgen Habermas
• Neo-Marxist Theory based on Marxism and Hegelian
  philosophy
• Questioned Why class consciousness didnt develop
  as predicted by Marx
• Utilized also the insights of psychoanalysis,
  sociology, existential philosophy, and other
  disciplines.

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Critical Theory

• Approach of the Frankfurt School
• Critical of what?
• Capitalism
• Not solely as a source of economic exploitation
• But as a source of cultural domination
• Is society doing the best it can?
• On what basis can you criticize?

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One Dimensional Man

• Written in the 1950s and 1960s
• Published in 1964
• Powerful critique of new modes of domination and
  control
• Is it still relevant today?
• Perhaps even more so

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Technological Rationality

• Classical liberalism fostered the ideal of
  individual rationality over superstition and
  irrationality
• Human thought must now be rational, means-ends,
  technical, operationalized, etc.
• The political and economic system relies on and
  fosters this type of technological rationality

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Totalitarian

• Individuals are profoundly integrated into
  consumer capitalist thought and behavior
  mechanics of conformity
• Necessary for the smooth functioning of this
  one-dimensional society
• Critical thought is undermined by the advances
  engendered by the development of modern industry
  and technological rationality

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Totalitarian

• Man has freedom in his inner consciousness but
• Man is integrated into society and thus has the
  same standards as society
• Man sees society outside himself and evaluates it
  based on its own standards
• Man becomes alienated from his individuality
• The greater the mass culture, the less
  individuality available

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Totalitarian

• We dont have the freedom to be critical of this
  system because we are so immersed in it
• Values, aspiration, ideals that dont fit are
  repressed
• Robs humans of their individuality in order to
  make production more efficient
• Decreases the amount of freedom available for
  individuals

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Freedom

• Economic, Social, and Political freedoms are
  highly touted but are actually subtle instruments
  of domination How so?
• We think we are free, but only within the
  parameters imposed by technological rationality
  for instance
• We have economic choice in the marketplace
• but we cant not engage in economic competition

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Freedom

• We have political choice in elections
• but only between preordained options
• We have freedom of thought
• but only within the parameters of the mass
  culture in which we are indoctrinated
• We have sexual freedom
• but limited to the range of advice offered in
  Cosmopolitan

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One-Dimensional

• One dimensional man thinks only in what one
  dimension?
• The satisfaction of needs through technological
  rationality
• Individual critical thought must now be repressed
  so it wont interfere with incredible capitalist
  successes

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False Needs

• For Marcuse, commodities and consumption play a
  far greater role in contemporary capitalist
  society than that envisaged by Marx
• Perpetuate toil, aggression, misery, injustice by
  ensuring we are all concerned with relaxing,
  having fun, behaving, and, above all, consuming
  in accordance with mass ideals
• Examples?

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Created Needs

• Needs are created for us
• Not the needs of earlier generations (food,
  shelter, etc.)
• While we are not starving, we are not necessarily
  free
• When you have more, you simply have more (false)
  needs
• examples?

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Very Rational

• Cant distinguish between true and false needs
• The more rational, productive, and technical.
• The more repressive
• And thus the more unimaginable the ability to
  break this repression

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Role of the Media

• What is the role of the media?
• Primary means by which people are strategically
  motivated
• Marcuse recognized the key role of television
  even in 1964
• Consumerism, advertising, mass culture integrate
  individuals into and stabilize the capitalist
  system mass cool
• Also creates hostility to oppositional thought or
  action examples?

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Political Freedom

• Democracy based on manipulation
• Rather than address big issues like wealth
  generation and distribution
• Construct political needs in incremental amounts
  which politicians are in a position to satisfy
  examples?
• Attacks on feminism/welfare, WTO, etc.
• Keeps the public servile but remote from the
  political process

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Justice

• Concerns for justice in modern society have been
  eclipsed by our immersion in a cycle of need
  creation and satisfaction
• Exchange freedom for increases in living
  conditions
• Progress is often fueled by exploitation,
  repression, and destruction
• People dont want fairness,
• They want TVs

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Progress

• Progress is not just in itself
• To be just, progress must move towards just ends
• The just ends of progress means moving towards
  satisfying the vital needs of everyone

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Commodification of life

• The emphasis on technological rationality
  encourages us to think about everything in these
  terms, even ourselves
• This commodification of life becomes very
  Self-Repressive
• Controlled by our need to satisfy false needs
• How do we commodify ourselves and our lives?

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Self-Repressive

• Why are you in school?
• What drives your dating habits?
• If you now think of these things solely in
  instrumental terms, this will set the tone for
  the rest of your life
• Cycle of rationalization and domination
• If you driven by social status and money, both
  your freedom and your critical potential is
  diminished

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Redemption?

• How can we escape this cycle?
• What areas of life are not so easily colonized by
  this totalitarian technological rationality?
• Marcuse argues we must go back to a pre-rational
  realm
• Emphasize intrinsic desires (sexuality) and
  aesthetics (nature, art)
• Me the only justifiable foundation for ones
  life is neither politics nor religion but
  aesthetics

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Questions

• Is the mind of men is becoming increasingly
  dominated by one dimensional thought?
• To what degree are we aware of this process?
• Are we better off not knowing is ignorance bliss
  (the Matrix)?