One-dimensionality works by assimilating the subject into objective structures

Evidence

In Marcuse’s usage the adjective “one-dimensional” describes practices that conform to pre-existing structures, norms, and behavior, in contrast to multidimensional discourse, which focuses on possibilities that transcend the established state of affairs. This epistemological distinction presupposes antagonism between subject and object so that the subject is free to perceive possibilities in the world that do not yet exist but which can be realized. In the one-dimensional society, the subject is assimilated into the object and follows the dictates of external, objective norms and structures, thus losing the ability to discover more liberating possibilities and to engage in transformative practice to realize them. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 38

Categorization

• DEFINE: The load-bearing mechanism: conformity to existing structures versus a subject-object antagonism that permits transcending possibilities.
• XREF: The assimilation of subject into object parallels how algorithmic feeds collapse user agency into predetermined behavioral patterns. — connects to: Defining people by one identity aspect fragments and weakens them — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 512; Historical memory is the chief counterforce to functionalized one-dimensional thought — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 409; Individuality emerges from the layering and clash of overlapping social types — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition: A Guide…, 284 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Restricted experience produces the one-dimensional, manipulated individual #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 672
• Individuality emerges from the layering and clash of overlapping social types #contradicts (0.82) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 284
• Knowing assimilates its object without destroying its in-itself structure #contradicts (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1353
• Analyzing one dimension of reality yields a more critical total view. #contradicts (0.80) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 301
• Defining people by one identity aspect fragments and weakens them #expands (0.78) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 512
• Historical memory is the chief counterforce to functionalized one-dimensional thought #complicates (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 409