Comfortable consumption closes off imagining any alternative society

Evidence

Now it is precisely this new consciousness, this “space within,” the space for the transcending historical practice, which is being barred by a society in which subjects as well as objects constitute instrumentalities in a whole that has its raison d’être in the accomplishments of its overpowering productivity. … Its supreme promise is an ever-more-comfortable life for an ever-growing number of people who, in a strict sense, cannot imagine a qualitatively different universe of discourse and action, for the capacity to contain and manipulate subversive imagination and effort is an integral part of the given society. … For the other, less underprivileged people, society takes care of the need for liberation by satisfying the needs which make servitude palatable and perhaps even unnoticeable, and it accomplishes this fact in the process of production itself. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 166

Categorization

• XREF: This is the core Marcuse thesis the reader bridges to attention/consumption economics — the supply of satisfying needs forecloses the ‘space within.’ — connects to: Society cripples imagination so people cannot enjoy actual freedom — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 262; Appropriating edgy subculture signifiers for mass consumption erases their meaning — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 253; Consuming a civilization’s goods does not align one with its values or politics (+5 more)
• SEED: Angles for an essay: how the modern attention economy forecloses the ‘space within’ exactly as Marcuse describes — satisfaction of immediate needs (dopamine loops) barring transcendence.
• DEEPTHINKING: ‘Society takes care of the need for liberation by satisfying the needs which make servitude palatable’ is the compressed mechanism of the whole book — consent manufactured through comfortable need-satisfaction, not force.

Broader Connections

• Society cripples imagination so people cannot enjoy actual freedom #corroborates (0.88) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 262
• Critical consciousness without a material base cannot change society #qualifies (0.82) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 877
• Appropriating edgy subculture signifiers for mass consumption erases their meaning #exemplifies (0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 253
• Adult consumer reality is itself a fantasy that suppresses the uncanny #corroborates (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 375
• Affirmation culture degrades recognitive politics into feel-seen consumerism. #exemplifies (0.78) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 102
• Consuming a civilization’s goods does not align one with its values or politics #qualifies (0.75)
• Sexual liberalization in consumer society can function repressively, not liberatory #exemplifies (0.75) — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited, 159
• Some tastes and pleasures are irrecoverable once context has shifted #complicates (0.72) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 367