Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2002 23:04:56 -0400
From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.org>
Subject: Re: A Marcuse Renaissance????


I should mention that I am unable to access the web page Christian Fuchs 
referenced,
http://cartoon.iguw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/marcuse_eng.html

Is anyone else having this problem?

Also, not restricting ourselves to instrumental politics, we should examine 
how vastly different the cultural order is today from what it was in the 
'50s and '60s, and thus gain a fresh perspective on Marcuse.

At 03:46 PM 9/5/02 -0400, MSalter1-AT-aol.com wrote:
>One period of Marcuse's political interventions that is rarely discussed 
>is his period working with or rather 'under' Franz Neumann in the US 
>office of strategic services (OSS) where marcuse was a german specialist 
>and involved in the preparation of denazfication measures for future 
>Allied occucpation authorities. Katz' book Foreign intelligence is a good 
>starting point although gthere has been a lot of materials declassified 
>since then and now stored in the US national archives 2 at college park 
>Washington. Neumann and HM wrote two drafts of an article o a theories of 
>social change, which appear in Kellner's collection, which are less open 
>to the objections that Ralph makes. theoretically M's interpretation of 
>Hegel must have openned up Hegel to a generation that had almost
>
>In a message dated 05/09/2002 07:15:34 GMT Daylight Time, rdumain-AT-igc.org 
>writes:
>
>
>>Subj:Re: A Marcuse Renaissance????
>>Date:05/09/2002 07:15:34 GMT Daylight Time
>>From:<mailto:rdumain-AT-igc.org>rdumain-AT-igc.org
>>Reply-to:<mailto:frankfurt-school-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>frankfurt-school-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>>To:<mailto:frankfurt-school-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>frankfurt-school-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>>Sent from the Internet
>>
>>
>>
>>Well, it seems that Marcuse is somewhat dated, and not just because postwar
>>prosperity and social democracy and American liberalism are dead.  What do
>>you think survives of his philosophy?  The Freud-Marx synthesis?  The
>>esthetic dimension?  Repressive desublimation?  The reading of Hegel?  The
>>concept of negation?  Politically, I think he was questionable even in the
>>1960s, and I can't imagine him being of much use in a changed world.  But I
>>will have to read your essay.
>>
>>BTW, I think the most brilliant of the F.S. was Adorno, though he is was
>>not associated with any revolutionary movements in the '60s.  SO what do
>>you think that Marcuse has to offer that Adorno hasn't got?
>>
>>At 12:57 AM 9/5/02 +0200, Christian Fuchs wrote:
>> >marcuse's philosophy was a practical philosophy, he was always looking for
>> >social subjects of the negation of the negation of capitalism. on the
>> >other hand the rebelling social levels were looking for theoretical
>> >criticism of the situation of capitalism they live in and that they oppose.
>> >today, we're in a quite similar situation: again we have a new social
>> >movement that is looking for radical social change and that to a certain
>> >extent opposes capitalism. marcuse said in essay on liberation that the
>> >students of 68 revoked the idea of revolution from the continuum of
>> >suppression and connected it with its true dimension - the one of
>> >liberation. to a certain extent, the same could be said about the new
>> >movement. for it, maybe not-yet revolution, but at least revolt is a
>> >topical material reality.
>> >what they are still missing is a more concrete analytical perspective of
>> >the situation they live in and of the concrete utopian possibilities. but
>> >they are certainly looking for it as for e.g. the success of negri and
>> >hardt's "empire" shows. a topical interpretation of marxist praxis
>> >philosophies like the ones of marcuse, bloch and others is surely needed
>> >now and i think there could indeed be renewed interest for these ideas and
>> >for a re-reading of marcuse at the beginning of the third millennium.
>> >i think that hence it is very important that critical scientist show today
>> >that marcuse's ideas are still relevant and topical in
>> >information-societal capitalism and that he is not a 'dead dog' (like as
>> >Hegel said Spinoza was considered in the times of Lessing).
>> >my own attempt of a re-interpretation of marcuse in postfordist capitalism
>> >can be found at
>> ><http://cartoon.iguw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/marcuse_eng.html>http://cart 
>> oon.iguw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/marcuse_eng.html
>> >
>> >christian
>> >
>> >-----Ursprngliche Nachricht-----
>> >Von: <mailto:capitalismgotohell-AT-excite.com>Michael Handelman
>> >An:
>> ><mailto:frankfurt-school-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>frankfurt-school-AT-lis 
>> ts.village.virginia.edu
>> >
>> >Gesendet: Mittwoch, 04. September 2002 02:42
>> >Betreff: A Marcuse Renaissance????
>> >
>> >Marcuse in the 60s, was so popular that he could almost be seen as almost
>> >a guru of the student revolutionaries.....However, it is quite amazing how
>> >quickly he has drifted in obscurity.
>> >
>> >Do you think there's a possibility of a "Marcuse Renaissance" soon? While
>> >there are of course serious problems with Marcuse (he seems to accept the
>> >dominant ideology that Keynesianism had solved the problem of economic
>> >crisis, something that from hindsight was a mistaken notion), he does seem
>> >to have some extremely important ideas for the revolutionary project.
>> >
>> >
>> >----------
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>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>The C.L.R. James Institute:
>>       http://www.clrjamesinstitute.org
>>Ralph Dumain's "The Autodidact Project":
>>       http://www.autodidactproject.org
>>
>>
>>"Nature has no outline but imagination has."
>>                            -- William Blake
>


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The C.L.R. James Institute:
      http://www.clrjamesinstitute.org
Ralph Dumain's "The Autodidact Project":
      http://www.autodidactproject.org

"Nature has no outline but imagination has."
                           -- William Blake