Marcuse said 'Culture is being assimulated to shopping' - society is dumbed down, on purpose.Agree?

[Stephen]

[Fearlessjail035]

I think there is a general dumbing down that manifests itself in the way you mention but also in news reporting and politics. Everything is geared to 'the consumer.' Of course the more standardised unthinking and compliant the consumer can be made to be the easier for the purveyors.

[Jody]

Yes, more specifically, Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man and his theory that we are being assimilated into artificial consumption-based values, via the rise of suppressive technology and the human distraction it causes. It is a long and complicated rant on the evils of advanced industrial society, both capitalist and communist.

That the human distraction allows for the indoctrinaiton of false needs by owners of industry and creates a social climate of conformity, of owning this an dthat, of looking this way and speaking that way. Much of the conformist culture is spread through media and advertising campaigns. As conformity grows, individuality disappears.

I agree that humans are meant for more, that we've been socialized to want things we do not "need."; that "things" replace the real necessities of life like time with family, creativity, individuality, exercise and rest.

Although modern technology connects us and keeps us in touch with others, it also alienates us from one another and from mass social awareness. We allowed the captains of industry to create a society of solitary existence, even in children, thus demoting our basic human need of being social.

We as a society are to blame as well,for allowing ourselves and our children to become so obsessed with pleasure-seeking activities; we spend hours alone indulging in all the fun that technology affords us. We need to take responsibility for our need to consume and our reliance on technology - even it it was created by society.

For the rest of the Critique on One Dimensional Man, follow the link below. But "Man" it is a long, angry, depessing rant, equivalent to intellectual bullying, with no solutions, no comprehensive theory to expand social thought on the matter.