Free-market labor is unfreedom whose abolition could liberate human autonomy
Evidence
If the individual were no longer compelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic subject, the disappearance of this kind of freedom would be one of the greatest achievements of civilization. The technological processes of mechanization and standardization might release individual energy into a yet uncharted realm of freedom beyond necessity. The very structure of human existence would be altered; the individual would be liberated from the work world’s imposing upon him alien needs and alien possibilities. The individual would be free to exert autonomy over a life that would be his own. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 108
Categorization
- QUESTION: Marcuse treats mechanization/standardization as potentially liberating, inverting the usual critical theory pessimism about technology; worth tracking how this optimism is revoked later in the chapter.
- XREF: connects to: Complete automation of necessity labor would free time for genuine self-constitution — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 200; Capitalism preserving unfree labor is a deviant historical case; Political freedom is impossible when economic dependence forces people to sell their labor — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 533 (+9 more)
Broader Connections
- Capitalism can preserve ‘irrational’ features like unfree labor rather than abolish them
#complicates(0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 590 - Freedom becomes possible only once necessary labour is minimized
#expands(0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1349 - Capitalism preserving unfree labor is a deviant historical case
#complicates(0.80) - Political freedom is impossible when economic dependence forces people to sell their labor
#qualifies(0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 533 - Political freedom is impossible without economic freedom
#qualifies(0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 407 - Exploiting voluntary freedom yields higher returns than coercing labor
#contradicts(0.80) — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 16 - Depoliticized labor markets discipline workers through the threat of unemployment and lower wages
#expands(0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 796 - Full automation is incompatible with capitalist private exploitation of labor
#complicates(0.78) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 197 - Capitalism must preserve labor as profit source despite its potential abolition
#complicates(0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 240