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consumer products. If you think
you are badly paid, your employer
might invite you in to talk “about
you.” There is no longer any sense
of being part of a group that is
treated unfairly—all hopes of
Marxist rebellion are lost.
A dimensionless world
According to Marcuse, we are
caught in a bubble from which
there is no escape, because it has
become almost impossible to stand
outside the system. There used to
be “a gap” between culture and
reality that pointed to other
possible ways of living and being,
but that gap has disappeared.
Traditionally, the forms of art
considered to represent “culture”—
such as the opera, theater,
literature, and classical music—
aimed to reflect the difficulties
encountered by the transcendent
human soul forced to live in social
reality. It pointed to a possible
world beyond gritty reality.
Tragedy, says Marcuse, used
to be about defeated possibilities;
about hopes unfulfilled and
promises betrayed. He cites
Madame Bovary, in Gustave
Flaubert’s novel of that name
(1856), as a perfect example of
a soul unable to survive in the
rigid society in which she lived.
However, by the 1960s, society
had become so pluralistic that it
could apparently contain everyone
and all their chosen lifestyles.
Tragedy is no longer even possible
as a cultural motif; its discontent
is seen as a problem to be solved.
Art has lost its ability to inspire
rebellion because it is now part
of a mass media, claims Marcuse.
Books and stories about individuals
who will not conform are no longerHERBERT MARCUSE
Flaubert’s Madame Bovary chose
to die rather than “fit in.” But modern
society has absorbed all forms of
lifestyle; so today, Marcuse suggests,
she would be offered therapy.incendiary calls to revolution but
must-read “modern classics” that
someone might consume on a self-
improvement program. The “avant
garde and the beatniks” now
entertain without troubling people’s
consciences. Culture is not in a
position of dangerous “other,” but
has been stripped of all its power.
Even great works of alienation, heHerbert Marcuse Born in Berlin in 1898, Herbert
Marcuse served with the German
army in World War I before
completing a PhD in literature in
1922 at the University of Freiburg.
After a short spell as a bookseller
in Berlin, he studied philosophy
under Martin Heidegger.
In 1932, he joined the Institute
for Social Research, but he never
worked in Frankfurt. In 1934 he
fled to the US, where he was to
remain. While he was in New York
with Max Horkheimer, the latter
received an offer from Columbia
University to relocate the Institute
there and Marcuse joined him.In 1958 Marcuse became a
professor at Brandeis University,
Massachusetts, but in 1965 he
was forced to resign because
of his outspoken Marxist views.
He moved to the University
of California, and during the
1960s gained world renown as
a social theorist, philosopher,
and political activist. He died
of a stroke, aged 81.Key works1941 Reason and Revolution
1964 One-Dimensional Man
1969 An Essay on LiberationThe classics have left the
mausoleum and come to life
again, but... they come to
life as other than themselves;
they are deprived of their
antagonistic force.
Herbert Marcuse