Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.
Herbert MarcuseRead
The existing liberties and the existing gratifications are tied to the requirements of repression: they themselves become instruments of repression.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the freedoms and joys we possess are often linked to forms of suppression, thus becoming tools of that suppression.
Herbert Marcuse's quote delves into the paradox of how the liberties and pleasures we enjoy in society can be intertwined with repressive structures. While we may perceive these liberties as positive, they can also serve to maintain and reinforce systems of control, limiting true freedom and enlightenment. This reflects a critical perspective on societal norms and the implications of our gratifications, urging us to reflect on how what we enjoy can sustain the status quo.
Themes
LibertyRepressionControlFreedomSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the balance between freedom and societal norms during a philosophy class.
More from Herbert Marcuse
All quotes βContemporary industrial society is now characterised more than ever by "the need for stupefying work where it is no longer a real necessity."
Herbert MarcuseRead
Art cannot change the world, but it can contribute to changing the consciousness and drives of the men and women who could change the world.
Herbert MarcuseRead
By virtue of the way it has organized its technological base, contemporary industrial society tends to be totalitarian. For "totalitarian" is not only a terroristic political coordination of society, but also a non-terroristic economic-technical coordination which operates through the manipulation of needs by vested interests.
Herbert MarcuseRead
However, if "free choice" means more than a small selection between pre-established necessities, and if the inclinations and impulses used in work are other than those preshaped by a repressive reality principle, then satisfaction in daily work is only a rare privilege.
Herbert MarcuseRead
The sickness of the individual is ultimately caused by and sustained by the sickness of his civilization
Herbert MarcuseRead
Similar quotes
Ultimately, there is no entity called 'government'; there are only people forming themselves into groups called 'governments' and acting in a 'governmental' manner.
Murray RothbardRead
One war, such as that of our Revolution, is enough for one life.
Thomas JeffersonRead
In the search for reality, energy creates its own discipline. But mere discipline, without full comprehension of all this, has no meaning, it is a most destructive thing.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
Slavery, if it can be legalized at all, can be legalized only by positive legislation. Natural law gives it no aid. Custom imparts to it no legal sanction.
Lysander SpoonerRead
One will seldom go wrong if one attributes extreme actions to vanity, average ones to habit, and pretty ones to fear.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
for Mercutio's soul Is but a little way above our heads, Staying for thine to keep him company: Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.
William ShakespeareRead