Forum Post: Herbert Marcuse and other HEALTHY food for thought.

Hi i am a Swedish guy. I wish i could go to the US and join the movement physically but it is not possible for me at this time. I wanna contribute with some ideas/philosophies that i believe can be extremely useful for our movement.

Herbert Marcuse was called "the new father of the left" in the 60s. An exeptional intellectual who, much like Noam Chomsky, took word action against The Establishment. Sadly,his profound critical ideas of the modern industrialized society (under both capitalism and communism) has disappeared from most discourse.

Many of Marcuse´s texts are available for free online! His most important one is perhaps One-Dimensional Man from 1964:

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/marcuse/works/one-dimensional-man/index.htm

But the one i would say is even more in tune with our movement, and also more accessible, is "An Essay on Liberation" from 1969. Read it now!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/8342210/Herbert-Marcuse-An-Essay-on-Liberation-1969

From the Preface:

"THE GROWING OPPOSITION to the global dominion of corporate capitalism is confronted by the sustained power of this dominion: its economic and military hold in the four continents, its neocolonial empire, and, most important, its unshaken capacity to subject the majority of the underlying population to its overwhelming productivity and force. This global power keeps the socialist orbit on the defensive, all too costly not only in terms of military expenditures but also in the perpetuation of a repressive bureaucracy. The development of socialism thus continues to be deflected from its original goals, and the competitive coexistence with the West generates values and aspirations for which the American standard of living serves as a model."

From last chapter:

"The social expression of the liberated work instinct is cooperation, which, grounded in solidarity, directs the organization of the realm of necessity and the development of the realm of freedom. And there is an answer to the question which troubles the minds of so many men of good will: what are the people in a free society going to do? The answer which, I believe, strikes at the heart of the matter was given by a young black girl. She said: for the first time in our life, we shall be free to think about what we are going to do."

There you have a first goal as good as any i believe...For the first time we shall be free to think about what we are going to do!

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Joel Bakan has written one of the most important books of the new millennium "The Corporation - The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power". If you have missed that one you have indeed missed an important text and it relates directly to what´s going on in the US and other countries under unregulated capitalism.

http://www.thecorporation.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pin8fbdGV9Y

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For pure fun and inspiration The Yes Men is a must see!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ3WOtHS-D8

https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5298222/The.Yes.Men.Fix.The.World.LIMITED.DVDSCR.XviD-ZOOM

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Last but not least i recommend Judith Levine´s brave text "Harmful to Minors - The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex" from 2002. May seem unrelated but it´s not. The way we think about sex/sexuality is one of the most important oppressive tools in any society.

http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/harmful-to-minors

https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5053933

Thank You!