Marcuse's "One-Dimensional Man" 3 of 4 - One-Dimensional Man & Repressive Desublimation

[@taylorsmith1619]

Thank you for your work. it is helping me SO much as I am reading the book. Much love comrades !

[@RevolutionandIdeology]

Thank you for watching!

[@ratm7431]

I bought the book. Your analysis really helped. Hello from Greece.

[@RevolutionandIdeology]

Thank you!

[@jagangeorge3734]

This is an excellent introduction to Marcuse. The problem with thinkers like Marcuse is that you cannot find real world examples. Hence i suggest you explain with more and more examples.

[@bahamn15]

Social Media, manufactured impressions through ads and music, memes, economic schools in universities/colleges upholding the status quo, dating apps....which are examples of today but not sure if Marcus anticipated this in the future when publishing this book or probably did but not to this extent.

[@andreasmatthias]

This is all wonderfully explained. Thanks!

[@RevolutionandIdeology]

Thank you for watching!

[@mtxar]

ur efforts are very appreciated keep on doing ur thing

[@RevolutionandIdeology]

Thanks!

[@susanmargolis4438]

If I’m not mistaken, after the great refusal Marcuse advocated violence. What we are seeing now in society is how even individual violence can be co-opted by the prevailing order and made part of the illusion of personal freedom (e.g. gun ownership).

[@philipm3173]

Well mass violence too. Look at France.

[@joegorton4627]

They person in cap might consider lowering his caffeine intake 😊

[@MOPCLinguistica]

If everything we think is stull inside the box, then Marxism and Western Marxism and Marcuse's thought still is inside the box. It makes sense, Marxism was funded by a big capitalist (Engels) and has always been a high profitable pseudo-opposition to "capitalism" (Marxism convinced us we live under capitalism, but we actually live under Statism, and it is Statism that causes most of our problems). That is why Marxism is tolerated by the system but anti -Statism is viciously persecuted.

[@slumdogjournals7077]

Thanks Marcuse now imma just find a hole an live in it till the system changes 😂😂😅

[@RevolutionandIdeology]

You just need to find a hole until you develop true needs and become a different person and then YOU change the system lol.

[@leamaison5262]

Any thought of how the Zapatistas make use of technology (the internet) as a tool to Connect With the global community, civil society and movements of resistance elsewhere? are they according to Marcuse not "true dissent"?

[@RevolutionandIdeology]

Great question. The Zapatistas may be making use of technology to liberate themselves specifically but Marcuse is more focused on the liberation of "man," meaning all humans, from oppression (sort of abstract "man"). The Zapatistas really just want to be left alone, to live their traditional ways of life. Their goal isn't the liberation of all humans (which is fine). So, their struggle doesn't "fit" into Marcuse's analysis. You could also make the argument that the Zapatistas aren't (were never) truly subjects of advanced industrial society so some of Marcuse's theories don't apply. For example, perhaps they've maintained their two-dimensional thought. I'd also suggest watching our video on World Systems Analysis. (kzbin.info/www/bejne/aHbXgKBmg8SBjK8). Rather than attacking the World System in its totality with the goal of revolutionizing it, the Zapatistas are forced to approach it so they can maintain their autonomy.

[@leamaison5262]

@@RevolutionandIdeology hi, thanks for Your reply. yes, it makes sense if we look at them as not members of advanced industrial society… they are using the tool of the oppressor for their own Liberation, like deviating the Language of the colonizer and turn it against him. litterally mocking the oppressor! the Zapatista have this incredibly smart and ironic sense of humour that never stops to amaze me, (although this is obviously a pragmatic Choice, but they always manage to unveil the ironic/absurd and irrational of our world)

[@TheBestGoodbye]

The Zapatistas are suuuuuuper interesting and should honestly be studied more. Although they're right on saying that they were never industrialized to begin with, so it might be impossible for AIC's to copy their behavior; We are already on another page.

[@nothingmatters321]

Why do you say Marcuse thinks we are no longer "mediated" by the system?

[@philipm3173]

His argument is that the logic of the system infiltrated language which is the primary medium for thought so it has been fully internalized. The totality is not from without as invisaged by most conceptions of totalitarianism.

[@ambiguism]

Love your channel and really appreciate the work you do (despite the tone of this comment) it's unclear from these videos what exactly made this second dimension of thought more legitimate before advanced industrial societies. It sounds like Marcuse is just an old-head bemoaning the days when things were more radical and it's not clear what about our world makes things less genuinely radical. Not sure who thinks that memes are the revolution and Im not sure that 19th century french satire was making different statements than our pundits are today. Is there something about the industrialization that defangs the critique? The essential character of the problem is unclear and it kind of feels like a liberal "good old days" argument for the left where individual choices are the problem and we're all silly confused pansies but "real men made real choices" back in the day

[@RevolutionandIdeology]

Thank you for the feedback. Clearly we didn't do a good job explaining it. Marcuse's argument is that because advanced industrial society has achieved levels of production in which its subjects can fulfill all of their inner-most desires, we no longer have to repress them (i.e. sublimate them). As such, we lose that dimension of thought which is conscious of our repression. Marcuse argues that rather than being liberating, this is actually repressive because we become unaware of how society is repressing us (i.e. our thought becomes one-dimensional)--we become fully overcome by the dominate ideology. Previous societies did not have the technological achievements to enable large portions of society to have their needs met, this is the major difference between advanced industrial societies and past societies. Also, keep in mind he's writing this in the early 1960s. His thoughts change in the late 1960s and 1970s in books such as "Counterrevolution and Revolt" and "An Essay on Liberation." he's more nuanced optimistic in those works, assumedly partially due to the growing resistance in the late 60s. Regarding art and literature, etc specifically. See his "The Aesthetic Dimension." We might do an episode on that at some point and go into more detail there.

[@bw2020]

If you don’t understand dialectics then you can’t understand any of Marcuse.

[@TheBestGoodbye]

I always hear people say that and it intimidates me thinking there's something more deep and complex to dialectics that I not understanding. You basically just mean thesis, antithesis and synthesis cycle by dialects correct?

[@bw2020]

@@TheBestGoodbye Yes