Counterrevolution and Revolt by Herbert Marcuse (PDF)

Description

In this book Herbert Marcuse makes clear that capitalism is now reorganizing itself to meet the threat of a revolution that, if realized, would be the most radical of revolutions: the first truly world-historical revolution. Capitalism’s counterrevolution, however, is largely preventive, and in the Western world altogether preventive. Yet capitalism is producing its own grave-diggers, and Marcuse suggests that their faces may be very different from those of the wretched of the earth. The future revolution will be characterized by its enlarged scope, for not only the economic and political structure, not only class relatoins, but also humanity’s relation to nature (both human and external nature) tend toward radical transformation. For the author, the “liberation of nature” is the connecting thread between the economic-political and the cultural revolution, between “changing the world” and personal emancipation.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Not soon after it begins, “Counterrevolution And Revolt” demonstrates how the New Left, particularly in the US, was already beginning a sort of rear-guard action, in part due to the movement’s fragmentation into sometimes-warring camps, and to the incapacity of what Marcuse defines as “the radical refusal” to do much of anything other than to avoid the consumer culture against which it was supposedly poised. I remember this period, and while the New Left’s initial attempts to establish a true revolutionary counterculture seem even today to have been admirable, the lack of follow-through in terms of engaging commercial culture on commercial culture’s home ground dissipated the attempt–and nothing really happened to address the problem until the mid- to late-Seventies.In a way, it’s unfortunate Marcuse never lived to see the beginnings of punk and New Wave cultures, the British expressions thereof being highly-charged counters to commercialism, especially in terms of a very real “culture war” that continues to today. While the eminent Critical Theory philosopher does mention Surrealism, he seems to have completely missed Pop Art’s engagement with consumer culture and how Pop Art broadened its own front to encompass nearly all popular culture for at least two decades.I found Marcuse’s attempts to develop art into revolutionary propaganda disappointing, mainly because, while he complains about capitalist instrumentalization of culture, he doesn’t seem to see that he was urging his revolutionary culture to instrumentalize art in almost the same way. I also kept seeing the term “monopoly capitalism” with no reference to “monopoly socialism” as if the latter simply doesn’t exist.Then there’s Marcuse’s complete obliviousness as to the meaning of the counterculture of 1971. He wanted, it seems, to paint all of it as a frustrated cry of anguish, but it wasn’t that at all. But that’s OK if Marcuse did an unconscious expression of Generation Gap Poster Child. He carries some strong ideas in this book nevertheless.

⭐Without getting into the substance of why Marcuse is interesting, or significant, or revolutionary, I’ll address the book: It’s a stimulating, but short read and I would recommend a trip to the library or a used copy for the cost. I would have preferred this as part of a compilation of Marcuse’s essays. Five stars for substance, four stars for length.

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