185
hard, with no guarantee of work
from day to day, and they were
frightened about the future.
Centuries later, the machines of
the Industrial Revolution promised
to lift national economies to such
an extent that it was thought a
person would no longer need to
worry about survival, but might “be
free to exert autonomy over a life
that would be his own.” This was
the American Dream, and the hope
of most Westerners during the 20th
century. If the longed-for freedom
was synonymous with choice,
individuals were free as never
before, because choices in work,
housing, food, fashion, and leisure
activities continued to widen over
the decades.
“False needs”
However, when Marcuse looked
closer, he discovered that “a
comfortable, smooth, reasonable,
democratic un-freedom prevails in
advanced industrial civilization”—
far from being free, people were
being manipulated by “totalitarian”
regimes that called themselves
democracies, he said. Worse
still, people were unaware of the
manipulation, because they had
internalized the regimes’ rules,
values, and ideals.
Marcuse goes on to describe
government as a state apparatus
that imposes its economic and
political requirements on its people
by influencing their working and
leisure time. It does so by creating
in people a set of “false needs” and
then manipulating people through
those needs. Essentially, by
convincing people that they have
certain needs, and then making
it look as though there is a route
to satisfying these needs (even
though there is not), “vested
interests” effectively control the
rest of the population.
False needs are not based on
real ones such as the necessity for
food, drink, clothes, and somewhere
to live, but are instead artificially
generated and impossible to satisfy
in any real sense. Marcuse cites the
need “to relax, to have fun... and
consume in accordance with the
advertisements, to love and hate
what others love and hate”—the
actual content of these needs (such
as the latest “must-have” gadget) is
proposed by external forces; it does
not naturally arise in someone
like the need for water does. Yet
these needs feel internally driven
because we are bombarded by
media messages that promise
happiness if you do that or go there.
In this way we begin to believe
that false needs are real ones.Marcuse suggests that: “People
recognize themselves in their
commodities; they find their soul in
their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level
home, kitchen equipment.”
Everything is personal; the
individual is paramount, and his
or her needs are what matter. This
apparent empowerment of the
individual is in fact its opposite,
according to Marcuse. Social
needs—for job security, a decent
living standard, and so on—are
translated into individual needs, such
as your own need for a job to buy ❯❯See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Antonio Gramsci 178–79 ■ Erving Goffman 190–95 ■
Jean Baudrillard 196–99 ■ Thorstein Veblen 214–19 ■ Daniel Miller 246–47
CULTURE AND IDENTITY
The cultural center is
becoming a fitting part
of the shopping center.
Herbert MarcuseDesire for “must-have” clothing,
gadgets, and inessential goods stems,
says Marcuse, from a false sense
of “need” that is implanted in
us by advertising and the media.