One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology
of Advanced Industrial Society is a 1964 book
by the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in which
the author offers a wide-ranging critique
of both contemporary capitalism and the Communist
society of the Soviet Union, documenting the
parallel rise of new forms of social repression
in both these societies, as well as the decline
of revolutionary potential in the West. He
argues that "advanced industrial society"
created false needs, which integrated individuals
into the existing system of production and
consumption via mass media, advertising, industrial
management, and contemporary modes of thought.This
results in a "one-dimensional" universe of
thought and behaviour, in which aptitude and
ability for critical thought and oppositional
behaviour wither away. Against this prevailing
climate, Marcuse promotes the "great refusal"
(described at length in the book) as the only
adequate opposition to all-encompassing methods
of control. Much of the book is a defense
of "negative thinking" as a disrupting force
against the prevailing positivism.Marcuse
also analyzes the integration of the industrial
working class into capitalist society and
new forms of capitalist stabilization, thus
questioning the Marxian postulates of the
revolutionary proletariat and the inevitability
of capitalist crisis. In contrast to orthodox
Marxism, Marcuse champions non-integrated
forces of minorities, outsiders, and radical
intelligentsia, attempting to nourish oppositional
thought and behavior through promoting radical
thinking and opposition. He considers the
trends towards bureaucracy in supposedly Marxist
countries to be as oppositional to freedom
as those in the capitalist West.One-Dimensional
Man was the book that made Marcuse famous.
== Summary ==
Marcuse strongly criticizes consumerism, arguing
that it is a form of social control. He suggests
that the system we live in may claim to be
democratic, but it is actually authoritarian
in that a few individuals dictate our perceptions
of freedom by only allowing us choices to
buy for happiness. In this state of "unfreedom",
consumers act irrationally by working more
than they are required to in order to fulfill
actual basic needs, by ignoring the psychologically
destructive effects, by ignoring the waste
and environmental damage it causes, and by
searching for social connection through material
items.It is even more irrational in the sense
that the creation of new products, calling
for the disposal of old products, fuels the
economy and encourages the need to work more
to buy more. An individual loses his humanity
and becomes a tool in the industrial machine
and a cog in the consumer machine. Additionally,
advertising sustains consumerism, which disintegrates
societal demeanor, delivered in bulk and informing
the masses that happiness can be bought, an
idea that is psychologically damaging.
There are alternatives to counter the consumer
lifestyle. Anti-consumerism is a lifestyle
that demotes any unnecessary consumption,
as well as unnecessary work, waste, etc. But
even this alternative is complicated by the
extreme interpenetration of advertising and
commodification because everything is a commodity,
even those things that are actual needs.
In a 1964 letter to The New York Review of
Books, Georg H. Fromm, William Leiss et al.
outlined the major themes of the book as follows:
(1) The concept of "one-dimensional man" asserts
that there are other dimensions of human existence
in addition to the present one and that these
have been eliminated. It maintains that the
spheres of existence formerly considered as
private (e.g. sexuality) have now become part
of the entire system of social domination
of man by man, and it suggests that totalitarianism
can be imposed without terror.(2) Technological
rationality, which impoverishes all aspects
of contemporary life, has developed the material
bases of human freedom, but continues to serve
the interests of suppression. There is a logic
of domination in technological progress under
present conditions: not quantitative accumulation,
but a qualitative "leap" is necessary to transform
this apparatus of destruction into an apparatus
of life.(3) The analysis proceeds on the basis
of "negative" or dialectical thinking, which
sees existing things as “other than they
are” and as denying the possibilities inherent
in themselves. It demands "freedom from the
oppressive and ideological power of given
facts."(4) The book is generally pessimistic
about the possibilities for overcoming the
increasing domination and unfreedom of technological
society; it concentrates on the power of the
present establishment to contain and repulse
all alternatives to the status quo.
== Reception ==
One-Dimensional Man was the book that made
Marcuse famous.Critical theorist Douglas Kellner
writes in Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of
Marxism that One-Dimensional Man was one of
the most important books of the 1960s and
one of the most subversive books of the twentieth
century. Despite its importance, it was—due
to its subversive nature—severely criticized
by both orthodox Marxists and academic theorists
of various political and theoretical commitments.
Despite its pessimism, represented by the
citation of the words of Walter Benjamin at
the end of this book that "Nur um der Hoffnungslosen
willen ist uns die Hoffnung gegeben" ("It
is only for the sake of those without hope
that hope is given to us"), it influenced
many in the New Left as it articulated their
growing dissatisfaction with both capitalist
societies and Soviet communist societies.Philosopher
Stephen Hicks argues that the book's popularity
marked "a strong turn towards irrationality
and violence among younger Leftists."
== See also ==
Repressive desublimation
Totalitarian democracy
Minority rights
J. L. Talmon
Drux Flux, an animated short inspired by One-Dimensional
Man.
Critical theory
Criticism of capitalism
Inverted totalitarianism
Superficiality
== References ==
== External links ==
Bibliographic listing including reviews and
courses using the book
Full text on-line at marcuse.org
