The so-called consumer society and the politics of corporate capitalism have created a second nature of man which ties him libidinally and aggressively to the commodity form. The need for possessing, consuming, handling and constantly renewing the gadgets, devices, instruments, engines, offered to and imposed upon the people, for using these wares even at the danger of oneโs own destruction, has become a โbiologicalโ need.
Herbert MarcuseThe sickness of the individual is ultimately caused by and sustained by the sickness of his civilization
Herbert MarcuseUnder the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination.
Herbert MarcuseThe web of domination has become the web of Reason itself, and this society is fatally entangled in it.
Herbert MarcuseThe organism is thus being preconditioned for the spontaneous acceptance of what is offered. Inasmuch as the greater liberty involves a contraction rather than extension and development of instinctual needs, it works for rather than against the status quo of general repression - one might speak of "institutionalized desublimation". The latter appears to be a vital factor in the making of the authoritarian personality of our time.
Herbert MarcuseIf mass communications blend together harmoniously, and often unnoticeably, art, politics, religion, and philosophy with commercials, they bring these realms of culture to their common denominator -- the commodity form. The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value, counts.
Herbert Marcuse