Herbert Marcuse: What Do You Think About His Critique?

Reflection Two The 1950s are a counterpoint to the years following it. It was a time of prosperity, peace, and conformity after the end of the Korean War. Most international and domestic policy issues emerged during this time and while most Americans enjoyed an affluent society’s fruits, poverty was in some parts of the country. For the middle-class Americans, the ‘50s were a time of prosperity. An affluent society is one in which material benefits of wealth are widely available. Herbert Marcuse is an author who criticizes the affluent society in his book ‘One Dimensional Man’ asserts people’s socialization into easily managed and sated one-dimensional lives and the irrationality of it all.Marcuse finds the affluent society to be irrational and its productivity destructive for the human needs and faculties’ free development (Marcuse, 1964). He also cites that the society differentiates itself by overcoming the centrifugal social forces with technology rather than terror. Homogenous societies have similar shared meanings and little dissimilarity in beliefs. It has one dominant way of acting and thinking. An advanced industrial society over-homogenizes people. The liberties and rights, which were vital factors in the industrial society’s introduction and initial phases, yield to a superior phase