Gonzales, Timothy Joseph C.

4PHL1

Marcuse on Technology Rationality: The Brand New Form of Social Control and
Oppression

Abstract:

The continuous growth of modern technology in the current era today is slowly
bringing us closer to the eradication of the human’s ability to think rationally and
independently, however, this pathology that is leeched upon beneath the arms of
technology gives us not only problems within the rational thinking of a man but also poses
a threat to humanity’s important virtues like freedom, justice and equality. What worries
more Marcuse is that the technology presents itself to the people as a way to a life filled
with convenience and comfort, thus making itself not anymore an alternative instrument
but rather the people behind technology sees the opportunity to force it to the system of
life of the people as the top priority among all other things that they should have, making it
as necessity and the necessary apparatus on how to achieve more a meaningful life. This
bring us to the kind of oppression not any more visible to our senses, but rather it acts
already as an psychological bombardment ,which is comprised of false beliefs and
misleading promises of satisfaction ,to people’s consciousness and thoughts. This brings us
now to the questions that the researcher hopes to shed light by the end of this research:
(1) For Marcuse, is the nature of technology really inclined to become oppressive? Or if not,
what are the factors that are needed to be considered into why the reputation of
technology have lead Marcuse to perceive technology as one of the greatest threat to
human rationality, (2) How does the system of technology affects the human capacity to
think for itself? Specifically, what is the difference of how does it oppress people’s reason
from other kinds of oppression that humanity had experienced from past, lastly, what are
the possible solutions that were suggested by Marcuse into this new method of oppression.
My disposition into this matter is two-fold, as I cannot see that technology is bad in its true
nature but rather it is when personal desires, motive and interests are what we seek, thus
making technology as a means to achieve one’s objective. In another perspective,
technology can really perpetuate the human’s lack of will and determination to think for
themselves, especially when modern equipment and gadgets would be doing everything
that humans are accustomed to by doing themselves, starting from the very basics like
studying, cooking or even in health care as people start inventing robots capable of doing
what real people can do, However, it is my goal to only achieve one perspective on this
matter so that is the very reason why and basis for conducting this research.
Final Paper:

In the continuous growth of the advancing and modernizing society that we have
today, the progress of the maturity of man towards the full potentiality of himself and the
full realization of his individuality is slowly declining because of the prevailing social
apparatus that aims to control, dominate and manipulate all kinds of factors that has the
tendency to suppress and contradict the conditions of man in the present society, and For
Marcuse, one of the great factors that the modern society especially the capitalist society
aims to liquidate and dissolute is the ability of the man to think critically and to use our
rationality in a rational way.

The Problem of Enlightenment

Marcuse traced the problem the wrong use of reason back to the Enlightenment,
since during the period of Enlightenment where the availability and freedom of using our
reason have led to the rise of different philosophies and sciences that we have now today.
The role of reason back then was to demystify the knowledge of the world, to debunk the
dogmatic teachings of the Church and other religions and to criticize principles and social
norms that undermine and restricts human freedom, happiness and solidarity among the
society, in other words, Kant’s vision of the function of reason was to give the people its
power for other truths and the ability to not become dependent and dogmatic to
philosophies and sciences but to be able to create a truth for one’s self. In the early years of
enlightenment, humanity was still on this path but as the power of reason continues to
grow, along with its power of freedom to think also poses a threat and danger to the
humanity itself by the advancement of the society which began in Europe in which we call
the Industrial Revolution, where it marks the beginning of the rise of an advance and
modern technological society. Marcuse have seen the modern technological society we
have today is a product produced by our rational behaviour and thought, although there is
one problem, Modern technology maybe produced from our rational minds but its outcome
turns out always to be irrational. An example of this is during the period of Cold War,
wherein America and Soviet Union are having an arms race since both sides poses a threat
to one another each party decided to create and develop different kinds of weapon, missiles
and even nuclear weapons to intimidate one another, we can see here that the actions of
the two countries are to be considered as rational since one poses a threat, one has to
systematically develop some kind of defence system that would protect itself from the
threat of the other, but then, if we are going to dug deeper into this situation, the possible
outcome of this situation might be irrational since it can led to several deaths on both sides,
the destruction of homes and cities and can even result to the complete annihilation of a
country.

Now we can see the dark side of the project of the Enlightenment, that the reason now
becomes an instrument not for the sake of clearing out the problems of the knowledge of
the unknown such as the Apocalypse in the Bible, and questions like What are the possible
causes that can cause the destruction of the humankind?, these events and questions which
are before unknown and inaccessible to the human mind have become possible in this age
of the modern society, we are now creating our ways of making the Apocalypse and the
destruction of the humankind towards of becoming a reality. The flipside then of the event
of the Enlightenment is its love for reason has become also the ultimate source of problem
in the later years, Kant and other the philosophers during the Enlightenment have failed to
see and predict of what will be the outcome in the event when too much emphasis and
empowerment is given into human reason, that the result will be is greater problems that
will surpass even more the problem that we had before in the past, and these problems
include an individual integrated into an society wherein there are lots of activities,
knowledge and theories needed to be learned in which we also considered to be rational
but still finds our own ourselves confronted by a large question in our mind: Which of them
really are both in form and nature a legitimate rational and not irrational? We can only
infer one thing here, that the problem of Enlightenment which is to solve the unknown and
to demystify the problems we have about the world using our reason was not killed but the
problem of mysticism that the project of Enlightenment is trying to solve opened up more
bigger problems that has even bigger complications such as individuals now are even
forced to become more dogmatic in sciences, and as their curiosity grows in the sciences,
the power of reason then has made the existence of the modern technology, in which now
is continuously growing and even more becoming powerful.

Instrumental Reason

As the power of reason continues to prevail and grow, reason now has become a powerful
and instrument to manipulate, control and dominate the people in an advance and
capitalist society, or which Marcuse calls Instrumental Reason, and this instrumental
reason is a product of an one-dimensional society, this happens when an individual is
integrated into an established society and then finds himself alone in this society resulting
him to developed a need for answers to the questions he has in mind like “What are these
computers for?” and so the prevailing social apparatus then feeds him with the information
that he needs and as the information keeps being put into his mind, the individual then
unconsciously develops a kind of consciousness wherein he will be completely dependent
unto the information that is being provided by these prevailing social apparatus, and so
what will happen then? The individual then will buy the computer in which of course he
will consider it to be rational because the information provided by the social apparatus
regarding to why he should buy the computer is what he considers to be rational and
legitimate. So how does then the prevailing social apparatus create a one-dimensional
society? The same process will be done to other people, and if that happens, the society
now will be moulded into one thought, one behaviour and only one mode of consciousness
and to maintain the status quo which is in fact refers to the individuals believing their
actions to be rational only to know the truth that their actions are indeed rational, but the
outcome of their actions would turn out to be irrational since you end up spending a lot of
money in that computer.

One Dimensional Thought

By this one-dimensional society, capitalists now can create false needs to the individuals
which in turn would make them believe that these false needs are actually necessary and
absolute needs for survival like cell phones, computers and other gadgets, and by the
continuous generation of false consciousness by the social apparatus, man’s autonomous
reason will now be completely gone, and this is what Marcuse refers to the “technological
rationality”1. An example of this is when we drink alcohol, smoke cigarette, or even take
drugs, occasionally because we think that these products can take away our problems and
give use the moment of relaxation, however in reality, it does not it even creates more
bigger problems to you, such as when you are already hooked into these products you end
up buying and buying more of these until you have no more money left to satisfy your vices
or even to feed yourself. As we can see here, Marcuse saw the existing society as
pathological and therefore it needs to be diagnosed and remedied 2 and that the capitalists
have sought a way in which how they can breach our inner dimension problems as
individuals such as fear, hatred, and even our happiness through the different products
they produced in which we can feel that the problem of fear and being hated will be gone
and the presence of happiness while consuming these products will be present. Now as the
individual continues to consume these products, his own purpose in life, his vision of his
own individuality and his ability to think critically of his present condition would also cease
to exist. It implies that that the modern society is a pathological society whose rules, most
often but not necessarily, imply control and domination. 3 Now as this system of domination
and repression increases, the imposition of the society’s idea of it as being rationally
organized upon to every individual integrated into that system becomes also administered
in such a way that the individuals will now in turn just look at the system of their own as
always rational and will be completely dependent upon to the information that it feeds to
them through mass media, the delivery of goods and services through Capitalism and the
rational beliefs and dogmatic teachings in forms of social norms and even laws can be
perceived as something to be rationally correct but rather turns out to be always irrational.

Happiness, Freedom and Liberation

Marcuse’s vision for humanity is for it to attain absolute happiness and freedom, and so for
the people to acquire it is that we must learn how to negate the reality that is in front of us
that we should never be contended to the truths and information that the society has to
offer us, in other words, we must learn how to transcend into the social norms and create
our own truths as individuals, only in this way we can demolish the oppressive capitalist
society. We must not be easily fooled or tricked by the words of the social apparatus, we
must learn to be radical and engage ourselves in the pursuit of higher truths and not only
dwell on the false truths that the world has to offer.

Radical Change can only take in effect when individuals will learn to develop a kind of
thinking that is different from uncritical thinking or by in which individuals derives its
beliefs, norms, and values from existing thought and social practices 4 , the kind of
alternative to this uncritical thinking is what Marcuse calls “negative thinking”, 5 in which in
this kind of thinking where individuals will learn on how to transcend beyond upon what
the social apparatus dictates or supplements to them and only in this way can individuals
will learn on how to criticize and perceive higher possibilities other than what the society
1
Marcuse, Herbert. One-Dimensional Man. New York: Beacon Press, 1991: XIX .
2
Ocay, Jeffry. "Technology, Technological Domination,and the Great Refusal:Marcuse’s Critique of the Advanced
Industrial Society." Kritike, 2010: 54-78 : 1.
3
Ocay, Jeffry. "Heidegger, Hegel, Marx:Marcuse and the Theory of Historicity." Kritike, 2008: 46-64 : 1.
4
Marcuse, Herbert. One-Dimensional Man, XV.
5
Ibid.
has to offer. Marcuse would like to tell us that to achieve authentic liberation, legitimate
freedom and happiness is what we must learn not to accept all of these in defeat, but rather
we must fight for it, and in this fight for freedom and liberty, the first step for us is that we
must learn how to perceive that the necessary and waste goods should be separated from
each other, in this way we could detach ourselves from the chains and bonds of mental
slavery that the society wanted us to be remained of, we should never aspire or dream of
luxury goods such as Iphone, BMW’s or even having a dream of a mansion or big house,
those goods are not necessary to exist, the more we attach ourselves to this kind of pursuit
in life, the more we will be remove from the reality that virtues of justice, freedom, and
equality are in jeopardy and if we are not going to this now, I am afraid that One day, that
majority of the people working in offices, factories, and even companies will be replaced by
robots who are the future class of the society.
Bibliography:

Primary Source:

Marcuse, Herbert. One-Dimensional Man. New York: Beacon Press, 1991.

Secondary Sources:

Ocay, Jeffry. "Eroticizing Marx, Revolutionizing Freud: Marcuse’s Psychoanalytic Turn."

Kritike, 2009: 10-23.
Ocay, Jeffry. "Heidegger, Hegel, Marx:Marcuse and the Theory of Historicity." Kritike, 2008:
46-64.
Ocay, Jeffry. "Technology, Technological Domination,and the Great Refusal:Marcuse’s
Critique of the Advanced Industrial Society." Kritike, 2010: 54-78.