BOOKS AND THE ARTS

Call for IntellectualSubversion

ONE-DIMENSIONAL AN. M By Herbert Marcuse Beacon Press 260 pp.
capacities In an increasingly lrratlonal

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Andre Gorz

to history? Or dld everythmg go SO wrong that there IS nothlng we may look forward to-nolthlng but an ever-increasing mutllatlon of man, an increasing rigldlty falseness and of thought, a growlng probability that clvlllzatlon w l l be destroyed by thetotally administered societies and totally dehumanized efflclency to whlch man has abdicated hls freedom? Though It IS never expressed in ex1s one of the actly these terms, thls questions that will grlp the readers of Herbert Marcuses One-Dzmensional M a n It is a question that the anthropologist, for one, will recognize as legltlmate History derailed has before,civilnationshavesuccumbed before to the hmiltations-which they were unlable to control-of then technical patterns Some of rhese socleties,highlyefficientup to acertain point,were doomed to reach a dead endBut(thedemisewhlchthreatens industrlnl clvlllzation is of a dlfferent order This civilizatlon can be saved from self-destrucmtlon only If man masters the tremendous power he has acquired over nlature and himself The vltal question whlch Herbert Marcuse ralses is whebher advanced industrial society does not produce men who are essentially unable to asserttheirown cause over ?thetechnological rationallty of mass productlon and consumptlon Marcuses shrrlngaccount of contemporary ,tobahtanamsm, whether American or Russlan, 1s rooted in historical ses well as personal experience. and Czuzltzatzon The author of Eros belongs to a generation of German Marxrsts who discovered all atonce, as adolescenlts, Freud, Marx, surreallsm and revolution the Russian The worlds ferment twenties the in seemed %to justify all hopes They saw ftastheirtask to uniteand to mobilize for Ithe liberation of man doct i n e s between which history, ignorance,dogmatismandprejudicehad erectedimpervious Ch~nesewalls Within ten years, all thelr hopes were shattered and they themselves driven exlle death. into or The gen534

Is iherestdlanymeanlng

and wasteful way The productlon ol waste, as he once wrote, wlll be the condition for the production of era1 crlsls of capltallsm gave birth The rontradlctlon be]rot to a liberating revolutlon but L O necessltles weslth on the one 1;asclst barbmy musses The of ~ G I - tween potential irnpovellshment ropeslndustrlally moslt advanced n ~ - hand. and human and alienation on the other, would be tlon welcomed the most oppresslLe SOselzed upon by the proletariat--lf and ciety of modern times, whereJs thc when I t became conscious of the procllberatmg potentialities o i the Russlan esses at work-as an Intolerable negarevolution were stifled by Stallnlst adtion The need forqualltatlvechange mlmstratlon Dogmatism, ~ndoctrlnawould becomme a maltter of life and tlon and enslavement prevailed over de a th the searchforfreedom Thisexperiencehasbrokenalmost Marxs predlctlon came with true all mtellectuals of Marcuses genera- regard to thegrowlng irratlonahty of tion Heovercamethe shock to carry caplt,allsm whlch, as Galbralth writes. provldes what we need leastat the on his flght, he but knew by then that for an lndeflnlte perlod of tlme, expense of what we need m o s t It truth can be defeated and untruth wastes resources labor and whde at 1s no guaranteewhatprevall There the same tlme perpetuatlng poverty, soever-nelther a transcendenltal one, unemploymentandugliness But the consciousness of the need as religious people believe, norahistorlcal one, as Marxlsts thought-that for a qualitatwe change Marx that man or reason wdl ultlmately prevall anltlclpated did not matenallze Everything may go wrong agaln, or Iln One-Dzmenszonal man, Marcuse even may hmave gone wrong already attempt to find makes a penetrating But why7 out why Tobeginwith, hestates.

One of the cornerstones o E Marxs phlllosophy was that the growing contradlctlons between capltallst Institutions the and posslb~lltles created by the development of productlve forces would make the establlshed system unbearable - unbearably m a tlonal Marx consldered the capltallst system as a raltlonal process of developing productivecapacltlesand of increasing scarce resources But he alsoconsidered It incapable of reconcilmg the laboringclasseswlththeir condltlon and of outgrowlng Its inbuilt llmltatlons These llmltatlons peatained essentlally to the fmalltles of capitalist growthundercapitalism,proflt-makIng accumulation ends and are in themselves They do not promote hberation the and development of humanfacultles,onthecontrary, they 1mpoverwh and degrade man, subordinating human needs and exlgencies to the logic of proflt-maklng-of productionfor the sake of productlon Marxthought thatt maturecapitalism would inevitably productwe use

Andre Gorz zs aFrenchwrzter-philosopher workzng with Jean-Paul Sartrey m o n t h l y Les Temps Modernes He 2 s theauthor of TheTraitor (Szmo7z G Schuster, 1959)

The unzon o f growzng productivzty and growingdestructlon,the brznhmanshlp of annzhzlatzon, thesurrender of thought. h o p e a n d fen? to the pozuers thai be, the presetrrntzon of mzsery ln the face o f ~ n precedented zuenlth constltute the most zmpal-tlal zndzctment of till\ soclety Its productivity zs destructzve o f the free development of human needs and f a c d t z e s , zts pence 1s malntazned b y the constant threat of war, zts growth dependent on the repression of the real posszbzlltles for paczfyzng the struggle for xxtence e , T h e fact that the vast maTorzty accepts,and zs made to accept, thzs soclety. does not render It less zrrat~onal and less I eprehenslble It IS wonth while to stop at thls last statementIn the name of what does Marcuse reJect whlch that seems to be generally accepted? In the name of true needs as opposed to false ones Who 1s he,then, to know wha,t peoIf they dontt know ple truly need themselves? The answer 1s qulte clear: he 1s a phllosopher. i e , a person who has acqulred the power to express that whlch the manipulated, mystified and oppressed individualcan only sense In the last analysls, the question of whmalt aretlueandfalseneedsmust be answered by the lndlvlduals (themselves, but only in thelastanalysis

T h e NATION

that is, if andwhen they are free to g ~ v e their answer own As long as they are . indoctrlnalted and manipulated (down to their very insltlncts), them answer will not be thcir own \Vhat formidable forcehjas repressed truehumanneeds to theextentthat the alienatedlndlvldual is no longer C O I ~ S C ~ O U of his S alienation, his that awareness of prevailing contradictions I S obscured andhisfalse consciousnessImmuneagainstitsfalsehood? It 1s, replies Marcuse. advanced industrial ltechnollogy whose logic of dominationpervades all manifestations of humanand relations, lifehuman stifling consciousness which IS the fundamentalprerequisite of progress towards laberation, reduclng to man an instrument of his,technicalapparatus. This theme, which runs through One-Dlmenszolzal M a n , deserves disc usslon flom various angles

ever-growing efficiency to manipulate and to dominate, to represstheneed for llberatlon liberation when becomes posslble Technologysslaves havebeenpersuaded that they are free and happy. Unfresdom IS Perpetuated in the form of manyllbertles A subtleanddiscreet terror, the flattening of thought, Language, behavlor and work into posltlvc and unambiguous patterns, have deprived lndlvlduals of their faculty to revolt and to promote quahtatlve chsange. They are compelled by the circumstances to ident?fy their mindwiththementalprocess,their self with the roles functions and which ,they are to perform i society n Speclfrc modes of domlnatmn, organization sand manipulation moldpeople mto one-d~menslonal patterns and induce them to sanctifyallthatis, as i t is. Although Marcuses descriptions are of strikingandoften ferocious truth, he IS not qullte convincing when attributes he to technological rationahtythesubordination of man to the producbive apparatus in bomth Socialist highly and developed capltalist countries substantial The dif-

Marcuse 1s absolutely right when he emphaslzes that technology has developed on the basis of oppression, and therefore that liberation canneverbe the resullt of technical progressper me It involves a political s reversal. mdustrlahzatlon Indeed, was, sand still is, aparticularway of subordinatingman to the necessities of llfe and of organizing his soclal function It had to be oppressive, smce I t was undertaken face in the of scnlcltyasamoreorlessorganized effolt to produce abundance by Investing huge amounts of human labor. The consequence fnst of accumulation thus had to be increased poverty and unfreedom for the laborer The productwe apparatus-whether consideredsuch as (under Socralist planning), or ms fixed capital demanda m g profits (under capltal1sm)was an end in itself for all practical purposes Man-whether caplitallst, manager or laborer-was itsservantThe accumulation of productwe capacity could proceed only If supported by an ethlc of austenty, puritanism and willfor-power It required hard men (whether capitalist or Stalinist) to whommanwasanInstrument,life expendable, wealth not be to consumed Bult the enslavement and repression whichaccompanied mdustr18allzatlons birth been have perpetuated despite materlalabundanceThis IS, Marcuse 9 3 ~ s because the Instruments of pro. ductivity and progress, organized into a totahtanan system, determlne not only the actualbut also the possible utlllzatlons they have been used with M w ~25, 1984

ference between the two, in my opinion, 1s that thls subordination remams necessarySoclahst in countries because of still unconquered scarclty In highly developed capitalist countries, on the other hand, subjectlm of the lndlvldual to the productive apparatus IS deliberately perpetuated though ilt 1s no longer necessary The distinguishing feature of advanced capitalism 1s that It sublects the m d l vidual to the imperative of accumulation-of profit-and denies the him possibility to subJect production to his true needs, even though productwe overcapacltles exist already Social controls exact the overwhelming need for the productlon consurnptlbn and of waste, the need of stupefying work where I t 1s no longer needed, the need formodes of relaxation whlch soothe and prolong thls stupefactlon, the needformalntalnlngsuchdeceptive llbertlesflee as competltlon at admlnlsteredprlces,afreepresswhich censors free Itself, choice among a wide variety of goods and services that sustain soclal controls over a life of toll and fear Sincethe only technological clvillzatlons w h x h systematically penpetuateunfreedomwhen It is no longer

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fully, thinks clearly, and has the courage to live as he wrltes and thinks.-Sydney Justan Harrzs, Syndicated Columnlst and C r ~ t i c

ILTON MAYR

. a collection of Milton Mayers most challenglng comments on t h e dllemma of modern man. Writing on the great themes-lost youth, peace and war,race,government, educatlon, rehgionMayer 1 8 often humorous, sometimes caust~c. . and invarlably a . man of passionate conviction. $5 00
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..

WHAT CAN A M A N DO?

necessaryarecapitalist, why thenattribute totalitariandomination to the technolog~cal rat~onal~ty per se, rather than to technology as used under monopoly orstatecapitalism? In short, I wonder whether Marcuse does not exaggerate the effects of technology on ideology, c~vlllzatlon and pulltics Is ~t legltlmate to consldcr technology as an independent variable? Wont socletles that are dcoply marked by pre-technological ideologlcs (by peasantry, a large a strong Cathollc Church, a powerful Marxistmovement)resist the all-pervadlng influence of technology its cult of effmencyandproductionfor the sake of effmency and production, as scen in )the German and Amer~can societies? Wont they pursue more effectively the fight for technologys subordination to humanends? I should be lncllned to thinkthat countries like Italy, France or even Russla, countrles with an old tradltlon af c h s s consciousness, classstruggle and prophet~~chumanlsm,m~ght develop an Industrial society dlfferent from the American German (or or Swedish) one It seems to me that this poss~blllty exists despite ceptaln obJectlons which could be raised, among rhem, the that special cultural patterns of those countries wlll not block theAmerlcamzatlon of Europe,but will instead be swept away by the Common Market in the drive to attam American lndustrlal efflc~ency, organlzatlon magnitude and And I also wonder whether certain features of American caplltalism, whlchMarcuseattrtbukes to the technological c~vlllzat~on,arenotactually rooted to a large extent in American history In the colomal fron,t~er or tradlblon, in the subllmot~onof class C O ~ S C ~ O U S ~ andS ~ S structure, In the absence of a peasantry,intherelative ncwness and moblli~tyof a populatlon that has not developed local or rcg~onalcu1,tures ( w ~ t h t h e exception of the South, where class conflicts are obscured by race confllcts), the In quest natlonal for identity. Some of thesefcatures, i t may be noted,are common to the U S and to Germany, where class structure also has been blurred by chauv~nlsm where and a concern for tcchn~cal pcrformance has bcen promoted as a substitute for natlonalculture Furthermore, It seems possible thdt Marcuse exaggcratcs the effectiveness and depth of repressi,on In technological socleltlcs To what extent 1s the fdlse consciousness really *immune nga~nst its falsehood? To what ex535

tent has the need for liberatlon really been suffocated by an affluence that makes servitude palatable? I could cite many Italian and French labor offensives that are aimed precisely agamst sub~ect~on to the productlve apparatus, lrrespechve of ~ t s dehvermg the goods T,hey are European examples, of course But in the United States too, i t maynot be completely utopian to assent that the happy robot 1s a superimposed behind faqade which the unhappylndlvldual gropes more or lcss helplessly for a way out. I would, therefore, not be so sure of what Marcuse the calls crltical theorys lnablllty to demonstratethe llberatlng forces wztltzn the established society Theconsumerslack of recept~veness the critical theory to mtay be due,not only to mdoctnnation, but also to the lnablllty of most critics to reflect the needforhberatlon as It exlsbs, however obscured, ~nthe factoriesand offices Marcuses purpose, however, 1s not to take people ~ntheirdallylife and work and help them become conSCIOUS of their repressed needs, of the contradlctlons between what they are and what they are m1ad.e to belleve they areMarcuse seeks to demystify, to demonstratethe m u t ~ l a t ~ owhlch n technological rationahty mflicts on mens apprehens~on of relahty and of themselves It is i n these chapters, dealing with the degeneratlon of philosophy and of art as a commod~ty, Marcuse that shows hlmself to be one of the most rad~calandforcefulthinkers of this t ~ m e His shortcutsthroughthe history of philosophy and art are achievements of permanent value He renews, a In more concrete draand rnatlc way, the lnsp~ratlon Edmund of Husserl, who pondered In the 1930s o n the meaning and fate of phllosophy asthreatened by sc~ence Hesuggests that If history wrong went up to now, if man has not gamed suff~clent consaousness to use science to hberatehlmself, to abollshvlolence and exploltatlon, to subvert exlstmg the order with a view to qualitatively d ~ f fcrcnt ends, if man has been unable to rcconclle sc~enccandthearts thc fault may IIC with science ltself and not wlth 11s soc~alapplzcatlons Science, by uartue of Its own methods andconcepts,haspro~ectedand promoted universe a i n whlch the domlnatlon of nature remalned has lmked to thc domination of n3an-a link w h ~ c htends to be fatal to this universe as a whole. , . . The scientlfic

method which led to the ever more elffectlve domination of nature thus came to providethe pureconcepts as well as the lnstrurpentalltiesforthe ever more effective domination of man #byman through the dommahon of nature The sclentlf~c-technical ratlonallty is fundmamentally vltlated b y the historic condltlons of its birthanddevelopmen t The quantlflcatlon of nature, whlch led to its exphcahon 111 terms of mlathematlcal sttructures, separated reallty from all the inherent endsandconsequentlyseparatedthe true from the good, science from ethics . The world tends to become the stuff of total admlnlstration,whlchabsorbseven the admmlstrators Pretending to elim~nate man as the subJect and the end of its operations, science has eliminated all that negates, transcends quallfles and that whlch 1s In aflattenedumverse, deprived of human ends (of the dlmension of that which is not and should b e ) , ~t hasleftflattenedindiv~duals Sociology, phllouophy, psychology have been reduced to a desmcrlptlve analysis o f facts Itbat blocks the apprehension of faclts andbecomesanelement of the Ideology that sustains facts. the . Nothmg remains of ideology but the recognition o that f which IS Withdevastatingexamples of how human eng~neerlng, linguistic analysls and empmcal soclology defend the established (wlth order ~ts nuclear compe tition, unemployment, wantandwaste),Marcusemakes us feel the debacle of intellectual creat~veness Thought has to be efficient and practlcal, truth its IS measured by bts effectiveness ~n helping to win and to retam power The intellectuals role 1s to advlse government in the art of dommatlon and corporations ~n the art of lncreaslng profits Man has become a means to an end for an antihumanun~versefunctioningthrough hls subJectlon to i t Lets love the bomb. C~vlhzation tends toward barbarism

Agamst this mvoluhon, Marcusc reasserts that the hlstor~cal task of philosophy 1s the intellectual subversion of the given factsfrces It thoughtfromitsenslavement by the esbabhshed universe of discourseand bchavlor Phdosophymustfreethe s c ~ e ~ ~ l t project trans-utlhtarlan l f ~ c for ends and for the art of llvlng beyond thenecess~tlesandluxurles of domination". to make free man for the comprehension of theirrationality of

7 h a NATION

society &at suppresses the new potentialities have that evolved within it . . In totalitarian the our era therapeutic task of philosophywould be a polltlcal .task, not as special pol~tlcal phllosophy but as the Intent to comprehend the unmutllated reality T h u s economzc freedom would m e a n freedom from the economyf f o r n berfrgcoIrtJolkd by economic f o r c e s and relatzonshzps, freedom f ~ o mthe struggle dazly fol exrstence, f r o m earningaliving Polztlcal freedom would mean Itberatton of the andiuaduals from polztzcs ouer w h t c ht h e yh p u en o control Simtlady, zntellectual freedom would m e a n restoratton of zndzvtdual thought now absorbed by mass communzcatzon and zndoctrznatzon, abolztzon o f publzc opznzon together w i t h zts makers. T h e unrealzstzc sorind of these proposztzons I S zndrcatlzw not of t h e u utoplan rhalartel but of the strength of the
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folces w h i c l ~ p l e v m t their Icnllzntlon. Whmat can be donetodefeatthese forces?On his own, the philosopher cant do much,except to arouseconsciousnessEven inthlsendeavor.he cannot succeed until there IS a social forcethat gives ,materialweapons to hls intellectual ones. that feels the p i c e o maintaining Lhe establ~shed f order has become too high in terms of human sufferance, momnlzation, frustration,thatcomprehends Ithe given necessity as unsufferable pain, and as unnecessary

Is theresuchaforce? At the beg ~ n n ~ nof the g fascist era, Wsalter Ben~amlnwrote It 1s only for the sake of those without hope that hope i s given ,to us
These the are last Drmcnszonnl M a n . l ~ n c sof Oi7e-

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