Herbert Marcuse
(1898-1979)
Rather,
the ideas and justification of the system have become part of the
productive apparatus itself. The needs associated with production
become the needs of
the members of society, and the two are bound together in a way that is
one-dimensional
and "militates against qualitative change"
Critical Theory:
- designed to be
a
catalyst for directed action towards social change. It is purposely
designed
to create informed action, praxis.
-combines
Marxism
with Freudianism
-assumes that
collective,
large-scale solutions can be found.
central concern: Why don't those most disadvantaged by the existing
system rise up to change it? What is the most effective form of
resistance?
Marcuse:
A. biography:
1.) born in
Berlin,
1898, German Jew
2.) served in
German
army, WWI
3.) trained as
philosopher
with Heidegger
4.) joined
Frankfurt
School- 'Institute of Social Research'
5.) forced to
leave
university in 1930's because of anti-semitism
6.) emigrates
out
of Germany, 1939, goes to US
7.) serves in
OSS,
military intelligence during WWII
8.) works for
State
department till 1951 (anti-Nazi propaganda)
9.) taught
philosophy
at Columbia, till death, 1979
10.) chief
philosopher
of "new left". supported students movement on 1960's
B.Marxist
influences:
1.) inequality
in
society is caused by unequal distribution of resources
a.) less opportunity for workers vs owners
b.) those who own 'means of production' control society for own purposes
2.) "ruling
ideas"
(ideology, dominant institutions, etc.) help to justify unequal
distribution of resources, make them seem "natural", inevitable
a.)
keep workers (masses) from challenging status quo
b.)
give high cultural status to owners, lower status to workers
c.)
hides true nature of exploitation to masses
1. 'false consciousness"
2. distraction, (ex.) religion "opiate of masses"
3.) alienation
of
masses from 'true' interests/self
a.) separated from true, authentic self by roles
required
to play
b.) workers fall into prescribed roles, unthinkingly
c.) reinforces the status quo
4.) dialectic is solution to overturn inequality
a.) things contain their own contradiction within
them
b.) conflict cannot be avoided
c.) as alienation increases, the contradiction
must be resolved- new synthesis created
Marcuse's explanation for why it hasn't happened yet
a.) system to maintain status quo is more complex,
pervasive than Marx assumed
b.) impact of culture/social structure inhibits ppl from
following "authentic" desires
c.) conflict is not intensified, but diffused- no clear
enemies, nowhere to direct anger
Domination is
transfigured into administration. The capitalist bosses and owners are losing
their identity as responsible agents; they are assuming the function of
bureaucrats in a corporate machine. Within the vast hierarchy of
executive and managerial boards extending far beyond the individual
establishment into the scientific laboratory and research institute,
the national government and national purpose, the tangible source of
exploitation disappears behind the facade of objective rationality.
Hatred and frustration are deprived of their specific target, and the
technological veil conceals the reproduction of inequality and
enslavement. With technical progress as its instrument,
unfreedom – in the sense of man's subjection to his productive
apparatus – is perpetuated and intensified in the form of many
liberties and comforts. The novel feature is the overwhelming
rationality in this irrational enterprise, and the depth of the
preconditioning which shapes the instinctual drives and aspirations of
the individuals and obscures the difference between false and true
consciousness.
C.
Freudian influences:
1.) basic
structure
of human psyche
a. super-ego, ego, id
b. id is repressed by external pressures of 'super-ego'
1. parents
2. societal institutions & messages- law, morality, custom,
etc.
c.
healthy
ego balances drives of id with order of super-ego
1. sublimates many drives through unconscious (sex, aggression)
2. finds way to let each person control drives
& still live in collective
society
3. too much id dangerous to others, too little
id too constraining for individual
a. marriage represents
balance between fulfillment of id & social order
b. violent video games
help sublimate aggression drive fj gta
1. phallic images wm
lm
fm
cml
D. critical
theory (premises)- based on informed & directed political action
1.
society
structure mirrors human psyche
2.
super-ego
messages equivalent to "ruling ideas"- dominant ideology
3.
masses
forced into conformity, through repression
a. (economic, cultural, ideological)
b. reinforces the status quo through 'surplus repression'
4. masses
manipulated
from multiple sources
a. consumer culture creates 'false needs', desires satisfied through
material purchases
b. uses methods of mass persuasion
c. controls gratification of unconscious desires (sublimation)
d. keeps ppl from fulfilling authentic needs,
would require structural change
5. creates
"one-dimensional"
man (totalitarianism)
a. autonomous individual does not exist (repressed, like id)
b. impoverished cultural life
c. monotonous worklife, taught not to question
d. unconscious only shows through daydreams, art, philosophy
e. limited possibilities for true fulfillment available in conscious
world
1. only human freedom viewed as legitimate is economic freedom
2. reinforced through behavior modification- "helping institutions"
a. schools, psychotherapy, prisons
b. 'normalizing' disciplines
1. "fix" you if broken rm
cn es
nr
2. rehabilitation, not punishment (harder to resist)
6.) controlled
through
bureaucratic, impersonal technical rationality
a.
rational
logic controls politics, morality, public policy
b.
rationality becomes irrationality, at extremes, dogmatic insistence on
rules
c.
distortion
of nature
d.
creation
of 'machine'
In
the face of the totalitarian features of this society, the traditional
notion of the “neutrality” of technology can no longer be maintained.
Technology as such cannot be isolated from the use to which it is put;
the technological society is a system of domination which operates
already in the concept and construction of techniques. The way in which
a society organizes the life of its members involves an initial choice
between historical alternatives which are determined by the
inherited level of the material and intellectual culture. The choice
itself results from the play of the dominant interests. It anticipates
specific modes of transforming and utilizing man and nature and
rejects other modes. It is one “project” of realization among others
But once the project has become operative in the basic institutions and
relations, it tends to become exclusive' and to determine the
development of the society as a whole. As a technological universe,
advanced industrial society is a political universe, the
latest stage in the realization of a specific historical project
- namely, the experience, transformation, and organization of nature as
the mere stuff of domination.
As the project unfolds, it shapes the
entire universe of discourse and action, intellectual and material
culture. In the medium of technology, culture, politics, and the
economy merge into an omnipresent system which swallows up or repulses
all alternatives. The productivity and growth potential of this system
stabilize the society and contain technical progress within the
framework of domination. Technological rationality has become political
rationality.
7.) cancels out contradictory force-natural id (no opposition)
" The result is "an
authority bound, easily manipulable modern subject" who is "subject to
decomposition
and fragmentation" emancipation would be "reconciliation between
culture,
nature, and unconscious pleasure … ‘libidinal rationality’" (p. 178).
8. Goal is to
create
wide-scale social change- non-repressed society
a. emancipation means to bring back freedom of choice
b. non-repressed individualism & creativity
c. nature is freer realm than socially-constructed, artificial society
9. How can
emancipation
occur in this system?
a. take
advantage of negating
moments, rejection of prescribed paths pl e
b.
glorification
of nature
c.
non-conformity
d.
satisfying
drives, sex/aggression, ignoring social conventions
e.
spawned "back to nature: countercultural movement of 1960-70's clip
er
1. commune movement
2. hippie movement
"tune out, turn on"
3. exploration of
alternative forms of consciousness, Timothy Leary er
The
real danger
for the established system is not the abolition of labor but the
possibility
of nonalienated labor as the basis of the reproduction of society. Not
that
people are no longer compelled to work, but that they might be
compelled
to work for a very different life and in very different relations, that
they
might be given very different goals and values, that they might have to
live
with a very different morality - this is the "definite negation" of the
established
system, the liberating alternative.
Problems:
a.) Is 'nature' natural or is it also culturally- constructed?
b.)
isn't it possible to find emancipatory meaning out of 'pop' culture? Is
there only "one" meaning associated with pop culture?
c.) Would this really work as collective movement or would it differ by
individual?
(Is he constructing another 'one-dimensional ' person? )
d.) Does negating work? Or does it just mean hiding from
constructive, productive labor?
e.) Doesn't everyone end up being part of the "system"?