Reply To: Main Goal/Purpose

#22703
paleo1453
Participant

Marcuse’s goal is overthrow of the capitalist system. However, the catalyst for this revolution will not be the working class but in his opinion the oppressed groups of present capitalist society: minority groups, such as Blacks, American Indians, women and gays. In his opinion, the working class has been corrupted by the consumer appeal of capitalism, which is guilty of repressive tolerance. Like Freud, Marcuse believed that civilization forces man to repress his libido. However, he attributes this repression to capitalism, which forces man to subdue his pleasure in order to earn a living. Marcuse is also a Marxist because he believes that his utopian society, which will be heralded by violent revolution, will liberate man from the necessity of earning a living a living. Instead, man will be a able to experience uninhibited pleasure. He is also a Stalinist to the extent that he justifies the use of physical force to silence opponents of his vision through liberating intolerance. Hence, his defense of the 60s and 70s riots, of takeover of university classrooms and of censorship of “right wing reactionaries”. His prize student was Stalinist Angela Davis.