Marcuse excused student rebellion as an unbearable physiological necessity.

Evidence

Briefly: I believe that, if I accept the Institute’s invitation without speaking to the students as well, I will be identifying myself with a position (or will be identified with one) that I do not share politically … We cannot ignore the fact that these students have been influenced by us (and not least by you) … We know (and they know) that the situation is not a revolutionary one, not even a pre-revolutionary one. But this situation is so horrible, so suffocating and humiliating, that rebellion against it forces you into a biological, physiological reaction: you can no longer bear it, you’re suffocating and you have to get air. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 667

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier Marcuse passages on justifiable rebellion and one-dimensional society that suffocates dissent.
• DEFINE: Defines Marcuse’s shift from revolutionary to biological justification of revolt.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that rebellion arises when conditions become literally unbearable reframes resistance as physiological rather than ideological necessity.