Society’s growth-propelling rationality is itself irrational despite apparent efficiency

Evidence

In the face of apparently contradictory facts, the critical analysis continues to insist that the need for qualitative change is as pressing as ever before. Needed by whom? The answer continues to be the same: by the society as a whole, for every one of its members. The union of growing productivity and growing destruction; the brinkmanship of annihilation; the surrender of thought, hope, and fear to the decisions of the powers that be; the preservation of misery in the face of unprecedented wealth constitute the most impartial indictment—even if they are not the raison d’être of this society but only its by-product: its sweeping rationality, which propels efficiency and growth, is itself irrational. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 92

Categorization

• DEFINE: The paradox that rationality becomes irrational is defining for the book’s one-dimensionality thesis.
• APHORISMS: Nearly aphoristic: the union of growing productivity and growing destruction as the impartial indictment.
• XREF: connects to: Technological rationality has grown stronger while society grows more irrational — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 47; Society’s rationality turns irrational once it could actually deliver peace — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 145; Technical rationality makes irrational social control appear reasonable and rational — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 124 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Technological rationality has grown stronger while society grows more irrational #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 47
• Rationality becomes irrational once its success opens new possibilities #expands (0.82)
• Technical rationality makes irrational social control appear reasonable and rational #qualifies (0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 124
• Instrumental rationality’s dominance results from system-lifeworld uncoupling, not from reason’s inherent dialectic. #complicates (0.80) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 395
• The irrationality of society did not justify abandoning dialectical theory #responds-to (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2396
• Society’s rationality turns irrational once it could actually deliver peace #contradicts (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 145
• Monopoly concentration, imperialism, and interventionism destroyed the premise that society forms a rational system #complicates (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2390
• The rationality of art grows as society’s irrationality grows #exemplifies (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 832
• Late capitalism’s irrationality thwarts the rational systematic theory Marx could achieve #complicates (0.72) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 903
• Modern society links growth with acceleration so tightly that they function as one #responds-to (0.72) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 238
• Irrationality arises from pushing rational self-interest to extremes. #complicates (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 33
• Modern rationality is procedural rather than substantive across all value spheres #expands (0.70) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 392