One-dimensional Man by Marcuse

Context

Husserl

The philosophical influences on Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) began with his interest in Husserl on whom he based his argument that the social configuration of science and technology had become the total form of reality. In One Dimensional Man, he developed this idea using Husserl's Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. Husserl understood that the crisis of reason was also a:

“crisis of European humanity itself in respect to the total meaning of its cultural life, its total existence."

He maintained that this crisis had its origin in the “mathematisation of nature" which began with Galilei, who, in order to understand Nature, replaced formal reason with immediate experience. Husserl believed that Europe had a deep cultural link to reason and investigated the rational spirit of Europe, not the features that affected the crisis of reason.

In contrast, Marcuse rejected the idea that philosophy could fix what he thought was a social, economic, and political crisis. This turn towards contemporary life characterised the difference between the two authors' work.

Heidegger

In Husserl's disciple Heidegger, Marcuse saw a more concrete approach to philosophy:

"We saw in Heidegger what we had first seen in Husserl, a new beginning, the first radical attempt to put philosophy on really concrete foundations – philosophy concerned with human existence, the human condition, and not with merely abstract ideas and principles.”

However, Marcuse separated from Heidegger on a personal level because the latter joined the Nazi party. He details his personal and philosophical rejection of his former teacher in the 1934 essay The Struggle against Liberalism in the Totalitarian State. There he argues that Heidegger and other Nazi sympathisers had abandoned the basic norms and concepts of philosophy. He criticises what he terms "the existentialists" attempts to make concrete philosophical concepts, but ended up creating more empty abstractions that cancelled traditional ethics and so surrendered thought to power.

Marx

The central Marxist concept adopted by Marcuse was alienation. Marx considered that human living acquired its meaning through work where individuals can create and generate value to enrich their lives. However, under capitalism work is reduced to labour for wages paid for uncreative tasks. What they produce is taken by their employers. This leads to an estrangement both from the product of their work, from themselves since their time is spent producing for their bosses, and from others as relationships are reduced to relationships among things. Marcus quotes this alienation and the social unease it provokes as a criticism of capitalism.

Freud

Marcuse also employed several of Freud's theories, in particular repression and the death drive. He sets up a scale of repression: burying unpleasant psychic material from the social to the individual levels. His argument is that the establishment repressed ideas that threaten capitalism.

Regarding the death drive, Marcuse recognises the tension between individual freedom and social conforming. He considers that this engenders aggressive and suicidal tendencies in the psyche. His proposal is that a society not based on domination would lessen the death drive.

Commentary

Marcuse's One-dimensional man (1964) is critical of the modern industrial, consumer society that he defines as social control. He argues that the West claims to live in a democratic system, which in fact is totalitarian. He calls this 'technological rationality' and considers that it has imposed itself on all aspects of life. It has become the dominant ideology of modern industrial society and is held as reality.

“By virtue of the way it has organised its technological base, contemporary industrial society tends to be totalitarian."

Industrialisation has created increased comfort for its citizens, which has veiled the true exploitative nature of the capitalist system and thus expanded its dominance. This therefore limits political revolution against the modern affluent society.

“One-dimensional thought is systematically promoted by the makers of politics and their purveyors of mass information. Their universe of discourse is populated by self-validating hypotheses which, incessantly and monopolistically repeated, become hypnotic definitions...”

Marcuse argues that it is only a select few who hold the narrative power to form our notions of freedom and offer us the means to buy happiness. In this state of "unfreedom" consumers toil irrationally against their own interests through unnecessary overwork to fulfil basic needs, by paying no heed to its negative psychological effects, by ignoring the resulting environmental devastation and by seeking social relationships through material means.

“People recognise themselves in their wares; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi record player, two-story house, kitchen equipment. The very mechanism that binds the individual to his society has changed, and social control is rooted in the new needs it has produced.”

There is a further irrationality: when new products are created this gives impetus to the economy and individuals must work more to buy more. The ordinary person loses their humanity and becomes a consumer cog in the machine. Advertising maintains consumerism, which delivers the message that happiness can be purchased, an idea that is psychologically harmful.

Alternatives exist to counter this consumer culture: a lifestyle that rejects unnecessary consumption, work and waste. However, this is stymied by the intense impact of advertising which turns everything into a commodity, even real human needs.

One-dimensional man is someone who is a victim of this new industrial totalitarianism which takes the form of commodification and technological capitalism. This process of rationalisation, according to Marcuse, promotes conformity and prevents resistance. It is quietly oppressive and blocks the way to change. 

Traditionally 19th. century Marxism predicted historical change arising from discontent and conflict. However, 20th. century capitalism has engendered "blissful slaves" by keeping us contented and distracted through entertainment. The one-dimensional man in modern capitalism has lost all traces of multi-dimensionality, thus making him incapable of change. Capitalism enslaves softly, not by repression, but through comfortable temptation.

Themes

Dialectical Philosophy

Marcuse has an ambivalent attitude towards Western philosophy since he both refers to it and criticises it. He thinks of it as inspirational, but obstructive to radical thinking.

He constantly refers to Plato's dialogues as his model for dialectical thinking. These dialogues adopt the format of an exchange between Socrates and an interlocutor. They start off with an assumed truth which is rooted in experience which is then questioned through a contradiction. This is the socratic method for reaching the truth.

The socratic dialogues follow the original format of Western philosophy that is based on dialectical logic. This style of reasoning assumes that thinking happens within a mechanism of proposal and challenge resulting in a new idea, which then is subjected to the same process. For Marcuse philosophy is inquiry through dialectics.

Feminism

Marcuse sought a radical subjectivity that would serve as a catalyst for social reform. He had given up on the possibility of the working class starting a revolution, so he looked to social outsiders as the impetus for social change. One of the groups Marcuse turned to was the feminist movement. In his 1974 paper, Marxism and Feminism, he stated:

"I believe the women’s liberation movement today is, perhaps the most important and potentially the most radical political movement that we have."

The author thought that the women's liberation movement was extensible to all those who were socially oppressed. His hope was that feminine qualities would replace brutish masculinity and this led to him advocating a sort of androgyny.

Some have criticised Marcuse's feminism, saying that he simply reinforced gender stereotypes in an essentialism. Others argue that feminine categories are social constructs and can be made universals so that all humans develop a new sensibility.

One-Dimensional Thinking and Democracy

"A comfortable, smooth, reasonable, democratic unfreedom prevails in advanced industrial civilisation, a token of technical progress."

Two-dimensionality includes negative thinking because it perceives social contradictions and is conscious of the forces of domination. This critical thinking demands social change. One-dimensional thinking does not perceive how victimised the individual is by the forces of social domination and so does not demand change.

The notion of democratic unfreedom is a reference to the willing acceptance of oppression. This idea has a long social history that dates back to La Boétie, who in the 16th. century criticised the peasants' "servitude volontaire" under a feudal royalty. In One-Dimensional Man and in Eros and Civilisation, Marcuse uses Freud to go beyond Marx by helping us understand the psychology of repression. He then goes beyond Freud's idea of the superego which internalises the superior values of authority. Marcuse rejects the need for a figure of authority since the superego has become depersonalised and no longer accepts those in authority, such as the father, ministers, teachers, the principle and others. He writes:

"But these personal father-images have gradually disappeared behind the institutions. With the rationalisation of the productive apparatus, with the multiplication of functions, all domination assumes the form of administration."

The point is that in order to dominate there is no need for a figure of authority. It is the function of one-dimensional thinking to produce a one-dimensional society by reducing the awareness of two-dimensionality. This is achieved in several ways: citizens must think that they are freer than they really are; enough goods must be provided to pacify the populace; citizens have to identify with their oppressors; political discourse has to be eradicated.