Rational productivity and social control are welded together in new forms of manipulation
Evidence
Scientific management and scientific division of labor vastly increased the productivity of the economic, political, and cultural enterprise. Result: the higher standard of living. At the same time and on the same ground, this rational enterprise produced a pattern of mind and behavior which justified and absolved even the most destructive and oppressive features of the enterprise. Scientific-technical rationality and manipulation are welded together into new forms of social control. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 551
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘welding of rationality and manipulation’ is the direct ancestor of platform-design-as-control; the feed that optimizes engagement while shaping belief. — connects to: Socializing production without breaking technological domination yields authoritarianism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 493; Technical rationality makes irrational social control appear reasonable and rational — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 124; Scientific rationalism becomes an instrument of social domination — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 141 (+14 more)
- SEED: Essay angle: how algorithmic ‘neutrality’ performs Marcuse’s move — the optimization engine is simultaneously the control apparatus.
Broader Connections
- Operational concepts terminate in improved methods of social control
#expands(0.88) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 431 - Manipulation adapts people to fixed goals; true organization is self-directed.
#qualifies(0.85) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 621 - Control of time enables coordination of activity and social control
#expands(0.82) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 848 - Capitalist rationalization attempts to co-opt worker militancy through co-operative management schemes
#exemplifies(0.80) - A rationality geared to domination shapes how we construe the Other
#expands(0.78) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 464 - Power processes grow social resources and detach action from natural motives
#complicates(0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 634 - Productivity tools created new bureaucratic make-work instead of streamlining work
#complicates(0.75) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 711 - Social control operates through voluntary organizations rather than formal coercion
#complicates(0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 115