garciatati

Revolutionary. Marcuse's argument here sounds a lot like that of Marx in the 1844 Manuscripts and Capital, but it is certainly more specific and, aided by his psychological approach that criticizes Freud and neo-Freudianism, substantially deeper. He rails against 'a social order which is in some ways grossly inadequate for the development of healthy and happy human beings,' positing that the repressive institutions of Western civilization have sought to prevent the realization of human emancipation--that is, processes of self-realization. Like Marx, he sees emancipation as most possible within highly-developed societies; he claims that only here can humanity establish an order that allows people to freely participate in aesthetic creation and what he calls 'play'--in opposition to alienated labor and socially regimented leisure time activity. I really enjoyed this book, but I suppose it would have been that much more radical without having read Marx previously. Not that I don't think Marcuse makes some points beyond those posited by Marx, and not that I don't think these general ideas shouldn't be expressed time and again, in light of the alienation and repression that bring about 'everyday unhappiness.' One of the major problems I have with this analysis, though (one that is common to Marxist analysis generally), is the degree to which it results in a patronization of 'less-developed' countries and peoples--the assumption is that the reality principle (ie, repression, capitalism, etc.) is dialectical in that only through its application (if I get the argument right) can it be transcended--ie, only through the brutal advancement of capitalism can capitalism be overcome. I like the idea that capitalism can (and should) be transcended, but I don't know if I can endorse a theory that requires less 'capitalist' societies to have to go through the vicissitudes of such development. Some quotes with which to close: "Non-repressive order is possible only if the sex instincts can, by virtue of their own dyanmic and under changed existential and societal conditions, generate lasting erotic relations among mature individuals." Within the aesthetic imagination... "Whatever the object may be (thing or flower, animal or man), it is represented and judged not in terms of its usefulness, not according to any purpose it may possibly serve.... In the aesthetic imagination, the object is rather represented as free form all such relations and properties, as freely being itself.... The pure manifestation of its 'being-there', its existenence. This is the manifestation of beauty."

2022-11-14 16:59