Marcuse argued that the middle class was too obsessed with consumerism for them to fight capitalism. This leads to a weak unity among the working class. Instead, the marginalized, victims of fascism basically, should be united.
I read an article critical of him on the marxists website, and it was kinda dumb. At the start of the article the writer labeled him as “anti-working class”, he immediately accused him of being a CIA puppet as well. Then he said he was an anarchist lol. Afterwards, he claims that the working class is not pacified, citing they had " lack of trust" in government as evidence.
Finally, here is a gem of a statement emphasizing the author’s idiocy.
“Marcuse was also often accused of being an advocate of the so-called “sexual revolution,” including the supposedly “liberating” effects of promiscuity, pornography and the sexual content of mass culture. Actually, he was strongly opposed to these trends; which he criticized with his theory of “repressive desublimation.” By turning people’s natural sexuality into a commodity, he argued, capitalism actually repressed their capacity for loving relationships and replaced it with perversions that became increasingly brutal. He associated this perversity with the rise of fascist trends and viewed its encouragement by the ruling class as a form of social control.”
It seems the writer thinks porn is liberating? It’s what I got from this.
What do you guys think of Marcuse?
I don’t really think you need to know Freudian concepts all too well to work with Marcuse, especially One Dimensional Man, which as the comrade pointed out, is a very approachable text. In any case knowing Freudian concepts might be a bit of a hinder since, as Fromm points out, Marcuse is so idiosyncratic in his use as to pretty much ignore their original meaning. Best to read him as is, I feel, and then later, if you brush up on your psychoanalytic knowledge, you can compare and contrast his use as differing from others.