"The productive apparatus and the goods and services which it produces 'sell' or
impose the social system as a whole. The means of mass transportation and
communication, the commodities of lodging, food, and clothing, the irresistible output
of the entertainment and information industry carry with them prescribed attitudes
and habits, certain intellectual and emotional reactions which bind the consumers
more or less pleasantly to the producers and, through the latter, to the whole."
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A Note on Marcuse, the Productive Apparatus and Habits of Thought
Nina Baker
In the medium of technology, culture, politics, and the economy merge into an omnipresent system
which swallows up or repulses all alternatives"(4)
.
This penetrative assertion, written by Marcuse in 1964 already demonstrates the extend to which
society was permeated by "the productive apparatus" (9). For this short paper I will concentrate on the
development of the "omnipresent system", and more specifically, on the supportive and propelling role
of media and commodities. By media, I refer not only to media in the customary sense, but to the
much more encompassing meaning of Marshall McLuhan, for whom media are an extension of man,
for whom we are "extended beings in our technologies" (6).
As a logical consequence of this definition, each newly introduced technical extension (medium)
also becomes part of us, shapes us, transforms us as a whole. Not only the content of the Internet has
an effect on society, but workings of the Internet itself, of the medium behind the content, are
formative influences. Immanent within each new medium are the capabilities to further increase
domination, even into the most private sphere of individuals. New means of information collection
transform individuals into vitreous subjects and propel the spiral of technological rationality. What
Marcuse cites as “far-reaching change in all our habits of thought” (9) becomes even more
pronounced in Hardt's and Negri's assertion in Empire:
The behaviors of social integration and exclusion proper to rule are thus increasingly
interiorized within the subjects themselves. Power is now exercised through machines
that directly organize the brains (in communication systems, information networks,
etc.) and bodies (in welfare systems, monitored activities, etc.) toward a state of
autonomous alienation from the sense of life and the desire for creativity. (23)
These interiorized media therefore operate systemic, they affect and permeate the whole individual,
his/her cognitive as well as his/her physical behavior. Moreover, through this process of
“interiorization”, the media reproduce themselves continually within the subjects whom they
“organized”, further exerting and manifesting their power.
However, as Marcuse already indicated, the operational rationality of the media does not rule out
“that the spiritual, metaphysical, and bohemian occupations are petering out”(9), instead, quite the
contrary development can be witnessed in contemporary society, a development that Hardt terms
“affirmative labor” which “is itself and directly the constitution of communities and collective
subjectivities”, a concept which has its close ally in the culture industry, in the production of value of
commodities, in the production of affects. (98)
Material objects are now defined by affective characteristics. Whereas before, in what Michael
Hardt calls a second paradigm "which industry and the manufacture of durable goods occupied the
privileged position " he states that in "the current [third] paradigm [...] providing services and
manipulating information are at the heart of economic production" (90).
Material objects, which used to simply be manufactured objects with a use value, started to
transport more and more of an affective message (for example, wearing these tennis shoes will make
you look fit and healthy) with increasing rationalization of the means of production. In contemporary
production, now the objects themselves have achieved transcendent status, a status that is
completely separate and independent from the manufacturing process and unrelated to their actual
use value; a status that is achieved through the production of affects. Thus, a paradox process took
place, the more separated the individual became from the production of commodities, the more
increased their “transcendence” and their value for the individual. This development became possible
through a process Marcuse states as:
The productive apparatus and the goods and services which it produces "sell" or
impose the social system as a whole. The means of mass transportation and
communication, the commodities of lodging, food, and clothing, the irresistible output
of the entertainment and information industry carry with them prescribed attitudes
and habits, certain intellectual and emotional reactions which bind the consumers
more or less pleasantly to the producers and, through the latter, to the whole. The
products indoctrinate and manipulate; they promote a false consciousness which is
immune against its falsehood. (9)
Commodities today are the producers and the creators of meaning, a meaning which reaches far
beyond the actual material properties. Thus the subject represented within society is defined by the
(false) meaning of the commodities , moreover, society itself is defined by the (false) meaning of
commodities. Accompanied with this transformation is an increasing alienation of the subject with its
own self-identity, with his/her own being and consequentially with his/her integration in society. The
contemporary artificially created identity is result of “private space [that] has been invaded and
whittled down by technological reality”, which becomes manifested in “the false consciousness – of
their rationality becomes the true consciousness” (Marcuse, 9). Moreover, society itself is lacking an
identity, independent of “the prescribed attitudes and habits”, and becomes fragmented into alienated
units of manufactured consciousness, a mere product of the productive apparatus. This “imposed on”
consciousness thus ensures the continuation of domination at a level which leaves little room for
reflection and guarantees the stability of the system.
Marcuse's assertion, at least in the first chapter, does not integrate possibilities for effective
opposition, and the continuing progress and capabilities of current technologies appear to confirm his
assessment. I think we currently live in a significant time, which is constitutive for future progression
and which will determine whether we will develop into a society of complete technological domination
of the subjects created consciousness or if there are “gaps” which can effectively be used to counter
this development.
Hardt, Michael.”Affirmative Labor.” boundary 2, Vol. 26, No. 2. (Summer, 1999): 89-100.
Hardt, Michael, Antonio Negri. Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Marcuse, Herbert. “One Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
(1964).” Herbert Marcuse Archive. February 1 2008
cartoon.iguw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/marcuse/odm.html
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994.
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