Operational redefinitions transform historical falsehood into truth
Evidence
The suppresssion of this dimension in the societal universe of operational rationality is a suppression of history, and this is not an academic but a political affair. It is suppression of the society’s own past—and of its future, inasmuch as this future invokes the qualitative change, the negation of the present. A universe of discourse in which the categories of freedom have become interchangeable and even identical with their opposites is not only practicing Orwellian or Aesopian language but is repulsing and forgetting the historical reality—the horror of fascism; the idea of socialism; the preconditions of democracy; the content of freedom. If a bureaucratic dictatorship rules and defines communist society, if fascist regimes are functioning as partners of the Free World, if the welfare program of enlightened capitalism is successfully defeated by labeling it “socialism,” if the foundations of democracy are harmoniously abrogated in democracy, then the old historical concepts are invalidated by up-to-date operational redefinitions. The redefinitions are falsifications which, imposed by the powers that be and the powers of fact, serve to transform falsehood into truth. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 406
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The claim that suppressing the historical dimension of language is a political act—making categories like freedom interchangeable with their opposites—is dense enough to sit with for days.
- XREF: Echoes Orwell’s Newspeak and the later analysis in Postman’s amuse-ouirse-to-death; also maps onto contemporary discourse where ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ are repurposed by authoritarian regimes. — connects to: The operational concept becomes false by atomizing facts within the repressive whole — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 430; Founding myths substitute fabricated narrative for genuine history to serve ruling classes; Facts are made things, so counter-history foregrounds the act of fact-making — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 229
Broader Connections
- The operational concept becomes false by atomizing facts within the repressive whole
#expands(0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 430 - Founding myths substitute fabricated narrative for genuine history to serve ruling classes
#exemplifies(0.72)