One Dimensional Man (2)

With de Tocqueville, we examined the roots of modern society from a skeptical aristocrat's perspective in the 1830s. Next we consider it from the perspective of a skeptical leftist philosopher, Herbert Marcuse, writing 130 years later.

Marcuse is one of the most well-known 1960s "critical theorists" and a member of the very influential Frankfurt School of philosophers. Heavily influenced by Marx and Freud, his "One Dimensional Man" (1964) was one of his most successful works and is credited as a core text driving the '60s "counterculture" in the West.

Surprisingly like Tocqueville, Marcuse suggests the liberal system, instead of abolishing repression, just creates its own more subtle forms of it, largely by promoting "false needs". He also criticizes the observed development of communist states as anything but liberating, and ponders the role of technology in supporting repression in both types of government.

Time to critique his critique! This time, let's try to finish the second half of Ch. 2, "The Closing of the Political Universe", and get through all or most of Ch. 3 on "Repressive Desublimation" as well. (This is a lot of reading but there are not many good stopping points in Ch.3; also, due to the holidays we will meeting in 3 weeks instead of 2.)

A pdf of the text is available here. Try to use this edition so we are all the same page (literally). See you soon...