Freedom of choice can itself serve domination when options are controlled.
Evidence
Under the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination. The range of choice open to the individual is not the decisive factor in determining the degree of human freedom, but what can be chosen and what is chosen by the individual. The criterion for free choice can never be an absolute one, but neither is it entirely relative. Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves. Free choice among a wide variety of goods and services does not signify freedom if these goods and services sustain social controls over a life of toil and fear—that is, if they sustain alienation. And the spontaneous reproduction of superimposed needs by the individual does not establish autonomy; it only testifies to the efficacy of the controls. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 121
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The core paradoxical thesis: liberty weaponized under a repressive whole — the single most load-bearing idea of the book. Dense enough to sit with for days.
- XREF: connects to: Freedom is increased by enabling undominated choice, not merely by reducing domination — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 381; Freedom can be defined through domination rather than through respect for others. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 164; Freedom as non-domination prizes secure undominated choice over mere quantity of choice. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 137 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Administered life appears as the good life so domination looks like freedom
#corroborates(0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 882 - Freedom is increased by enabling undominated choice, not merely by reducing domination
#qualifies(0.82) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 381 - The system’s celebrated freedoms function as instruments of domination
#exemplifies(0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 45 - Neoliberal domination works by making subjects act on themselves and call it freedom
#exemplifies(0.80) — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 69 - Neoliberal freedom can be a vehicle for governance and domination
#exemplifies(0.78) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 153 - Institutions constitute citizens’ freedom from domination rather than causally producing it
#expands(0.78) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 518 - Freedom as non-domination prizes secure undominated choice over mere quantity of choice.
#complicates(0.75) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 137 - Freedom can be defined through domination rather than through respect for others.
#corroborates(0.74) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 164 - The Other’s freedom becomes a limit only through one’s own free choice.
#qualifies(0.72) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1240