Herbert Marcuse Quotes
Freed from the sublimated form which was the very token of its irreconcilable dreams - a form which is the style, the language in which the story is told - sexuality turns into a vehicle for the bestsellers of oppression. ... This society turns everything it touches into a potential source of progress and of exploitation, of drudgery and satisfaction, of freedom and of oppression. Sexuality is no exception.
Marcuse, Herbert. One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Beacon Press, 1964, p. 78.
The speech was never actually delivered, but instead the Bishop published it. It received wide distribution including in America where it was published by the Maryland Gazette on September 29, 1774.
In Russia at the time, serfs were little better off than slaves. Not only did they have to obey their landlords in all things, but any who advocated disobedience on their part were beaten and sent to Siberia. Exile to the Siberian Gulags was not an invention of the Communists of the 20th century although they used that punishment in unprecedented numbers. It was used by the Czars and the Empress.
Tension was high between England and America and war was rumored. The question of whether Blacks would fight for America as they had in the Revolution and the War of 1812 arose.
The House Un-American Activities Committee had been harassing Dr. Edward Condon, the Director of the National Bureau of Standards for advocating scientific working relationships with some Russian scientists.
Vladimir Lenin. After the Russian Revolution the Soviet State rejected the use of a copyright and patent system with the notion that all intellectual property belonged to the state. According to some political economic theorists, this would portend great difficulty in obtaining innovative and creative output in the arts, industry, and sciences. However, in the next 50 years, Russia went from a backward nation to one of the most scientifically sophisticated in the world and their creative arts output, quality and quantity was second to none. They did not fare as well in consumer technology although their military technology was very powerful and all the more amazing considering where they were in 1918 when the Russians adopted these policies. The issue of whether artists, scientists, and inventors need exclusive control of their output in order to be motivated to create has been in dispute for years.
Herbert Marcuse was a German-American philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin and then at Freiburg, where he received his PhD. He was a prominent figure in the Frankfurt-based Institute for Social Research – what later became known as the Frankfurt School. He was married to Sophie Wertheim (1924–1951), Inge Neumann (1955–1973), and Erica Sherover (1976–1979). In his written works, he criticized capitalism, modern technology, Soviet Communism and entertainment culture, arguing that they represent new forms of social control.
