Affluence and liberty serve as the guise through which domination absorbs all opposition
Evidence
When this point is reached, domination—in the guise of affluence and liberty—extends to all spheres of private and public existence, integrates all authentic opposition, absorbs all alternatives. Technological rationality reveals its political character as it becomes the great vehicle of better domination, creating a truly totalitarian universe in which society and nature, mind and body are kept in a state of permanent mobilization for the defense of this universe. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 148
Categorization
- DEFINE: This is Marcuse’s definition of one-dimensionality/the administered society: totalitarian not by terror but by integrating opposition and absorbing alternatives.
- XREF: Directly bridges to the reader’s stated purpose connecting to attention/consumption economics — the ‘permanent mobilization’ thesis maps onto today’s always-on engagement economy. — connects to: Domination in advanced capitalism is masked as neutral administration and objectivity — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 186; Liberty can be lost through domination even when no one actively interferes. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 167; Neoliberal domination works by making subjects act on themselves and call it freedom — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 69 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- The system’s celebrated freedoms function as instruments of domination
#corroborates(0.90) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 45 - Domination in advanced capitalism is masked as neutral administration and objectivity
#corroborates(0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 186 - Neoliberal domination works by making subjects act on themselves and call it freedom
#corroborates(0.85) — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 69 - Neoliberal freedom can be a vehicle for governance and domination
#corroborates(0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 153 - Liberty can be lost through domination even when no one actively interferes.
#expands(0.75) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 167