【正文】 hich freedom from want, the concrete substance of all freedom, is being a real possibility, the liberties which pertain to a state of lower productivity are losing their former content. Independence of thought, autonomy, and the right to political opposition are being deprived of their basic critical function in a society which seems increasingly capable of satisfying the needs of the Individuals through the way in which it is organized. Such a society may justly demand acceptance of its principles and institutions, and reduce the opposition to the discussion and promotion of alternative policies within the status quo. In this respect, it seems to make little difference whether the increasing satisfaction of needs is acplished by an authoritarian or a nonauthoritarian system. Under the conditions of a rising standard of living, nonconformity with the system itself appears to be socially useless, and the more so when it entails tangible economic and political disadvantages and threatens the smooth operation of the whole. Indeed, at least in so far as the necessities of life are involved, there seems to be no reason why the production and distribution of goods and services should proceed through the petitive concurrence of individual liberties. Freedom of enterprise was from the beginning not altogether a blessing. As the liberty to work or to starve, it spelled toil, insecurity, and fear for the vast majority of the population. If the individual were no longer pelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic subject, the disappearance of this kind of freedom would be one of the greatest achievements of civilization. The technological processes of mechanization and standardization might release individual energy into a yet uncharted realm of freedom beyond necessity. The very structure of human existence would be altered。s The Organization Man, Fred J. Cooks The Warfare State belong in this category. To be sure, the lack of theoretical analysis in these works leaves the roots of the described conditions covered and protected, but left to speak for themselves, the conditions speak loudly enough. Perhaps the most telling evidence can be obtained by simply looking at television or listening to the AM radio for one consecutive hour for a couple of days, not shutting off the mercials, and now and then switching the station. My analysis is focused on tendencies in the most highly developed contemporary societies. There are large areas within and without these societies where the described tendencies do not prevail I would say: not yet prevail. I am projecting these tendencies and I offer some hypotheses, nothing more. Notes1. The terms “transcend” and “transcendence” are used throughout in the empirical, critical sense: they designate tendencies in theory and practice which, in a given society, overshoot” the established universe of discourse and action toward its historical alternatives (real possibilities).2. The term “project” emphasizes the element of freedom and respon sibility in historical determination: it links autonomy and contingency. In this sense, the term is used in the work of JeanPaul Satre. For a further discussion see chapter VIII below. the technological society is a system of domination which operates already in the concept and construction of techniques. The way in which a society organizes the life of its members involves an initial choice between historical alternatives which are determined by the inherited level of the material and intellectual culture. The choice itself results from the play of the dominant interests. It anticipates specific modes of transforming and utilizing man and nature and rejects other modes. It is one “project” of realization among others[2].But once the project has bee operative in the basic institutions and relations, it tends to bee exclusive39。 the surrender of thought, hope, and fear to the decisions of the powers that be。 they must be definable goals of practice. By the same token, the abstraction from the established in situations must be expressive of an actual tendencythat is, their transformation must be the real need of the underlying population. Social theory is concerned with the historical alternatives which haunt the established society as subversive tendencies and forces. The values attached to the alternatives do bee facts when they are translated into reality by historical practice. The theoretical concepts terminate with social change. But here, advanced industrial society confronts the critique with a situation which seems to deprive it of its very basis. Technical progress, extended to a whole system of domination and coordination, creates forms of life (and of power) which appear to reconcile the forces opposing the system and to defeat or refute all protest in the name of the historical prospects of freedom from toil and domination. Contemporary society seems to be capable of containing social change qualitative change which would establish essentially different institutions, a new direction of the productive process, new modes of human existence. This containment of social change is perhaps the most singular achievement of advanced industrial society。 a specific historical practice is measured against its own historical alternatives. From the beginning, any critical theory of society is thus confronted with the problem of historical objectivity, a problem which arises at the two points where the analysis implies value judgments: 1. the judgment that human life is worth living, or rather can be and ought to be made worth living. This judgement underlies all intellectual effort。Herbert Marcuse. 1964OneDimensional Man.Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial SocietyWritten: 1964Source: Markedup and corrected: Andy Blunden.ContentsIntroduction: The Paralysis of Criticism: Society Without OppositionONEDIMENSIONAL SOCIETY1. The New Forms of Control2. The Closing