On Marcuse’ S One-dimensional Culture Of Advanced Industrial Society

In the advanced industrial society,people live in a lifestyle of "to have",not "to be ".The development of Technological Rationality has brought about sufficient material wealth,but it has also led to the lack of spiritual culture.The contrast between high material civilization and extreme spiritual degeneration constitutes the two poles of the advanced industrial society.Herbert Marcuse thinks science and technology are not only Productivity,but also Ideology.People seem to be in a good life of “reasonable and free”,but people are totally subject to the suppression of the rulers and the control of the political system,satisfied with the prosperous economic order,and gradually lost the consciousness of criticizing and negating the existing political and economic system.The culture under the advanced industrial civilization has been integrated by the one-dimensional society and transformed into the“one-dimensional culture” of losing the Negativity,Criticism,and Transcendence,which leads to the extreme poverty of human thought."One-dimension" is the fundamental spiritual characteristic of industrial society and individual which lacks the dimension of Negativity,Criticism and Transcendence.Under the control of Technological Nationality and Mass Media,people are addicted to "Entertainment without thought".The happy entertainment dispelled their resistance and dissatisfaction to the society,and maintained the bourgeois rule in self paralysis.Under the background of“one-dimensional culture”,people seem to possess freedom,but this is only a false freedom under the control of the ruling class ideology.In fact,the degree of human exploitation and repression is getting deeper and deeper."People who are in the most illness often do not feel pain".People are in great depression and pain but do not feel its existence,which just proves that the depression and pain in the advanced industrial society has developed to an irresistible degree.Real art contains thought.Herbert Marcuse hopes that the solution of therepressive advanced industrial society can be found in three non-repressive fields:Fantasy,Utopia and Aesthetic.Aesthetic(Art)is a field of collecting Negativity.Culture and Art provide the possibility of "liberation" while developing the ruling power."One-dimension" integrates all aspects of the real society and reflects the imperfections of the real world.The existence of the Aesthetic Utopia which is"Art World following aesthetic principles" makes the world a perfect world.Herbert Marcuse’ s "Aesthetic Utopia" is not the Utopia of and illusion and fantasy,but the Ideal place" of developing the Art world in the Real world.It is a perfect world with artistry and reality,truth and revolution.It is the establishment of Aesthetic Utopia that makes the realization of "breaking the One-dimension and building a Free Society" possible.No matter how the Technological rationality develops,it is impossible to realize the freedom and liberation of human beings.Only in the perfect combination of Technological rationality and Artistic sensibility,can the freedom and liberation of human beings be possible.Herbert Marcuse hopes that in the Aesthetic world of art,he can transcend reality to pursue ideal,transcend limitation to seek infinity,and One-dimensional man can develop into the Free and Comprehensive person to build a real Free Society.