Marcuse wrote a number of essay dealing with the "obsolescence" of Freud, Marx and socialism. His sense of obsolescence was that it did not invalidate those thinkers or theories but rather demonstrated the regression of social possibilities since they were proposed. My sense here is different. I am referring to Marcuse's usage of obsolescence. This creates a bit of an ambiguity. Marcuse meant one thing by obsolescence but I mean another. Let's fix that by complicating it. Marcuse meant two things by obsolescence, one of those meanings borrowed from Vance Packard's The Waste Makers and the other his transformation of it. But wait. There is a fourth meaning and that goes all the way back to Thorstein Veblen who viewed the prevailing social system as obsolescent. Veblen thought that was a bad thing. But several economic thinkers in the 1920 saw it as something to be promoted, along with "conspicuous consumption." So we have four meanings with one of them have both a positive and a negative charge. Very confusing.
A few years ago, I became aware of Marcuse's obsolescences and dove into them. Marcuse theorized the obsolescence of Freud et al. but he adopted planned obsolescence uncritically and untheoretically from Packard's discussion. Left unstated by both Marcuse and Packard was the fact that the latter's criticism of planned obsolescence was essentially Veblenian. Unknown to both Parkard and Marcuse, the promotion of planned obsolescence itself owed a debt to Veblen So it's Veblen all the way down! So in 2022, I presented a critique of Marcuse based on his implicit Veblenianism along with a critique of Veblen based on Theodor Adorno ( https://econospeak.blogspot.com/2022/03/selling-mrs-conspicuous-consumption.html ) , Georg Simmel ( https://econospeak.blogspot.com/2022/03/on-that-deep-feeling-that-something-is.html ) , and Harold Rosenberg ( https://econospeak.blogspot.com/2022/03/or-should-that-be-one-dimensional-org.html ). More recently I recycled some of that material in THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL IS VERY LIMITED.. ( https://econospeak.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-accumulation-of-capital-is-very.html ). the third in a three part series that sums up where I am at these days. In an 1843 letter to Arnold Ruge, Marx famously said, " ruthless criticism of all that exists..." What I have learned from Marx is that to criticize something, you have to get inside it. Anyone can snipe at cosmetic flaws or presumed flaws but to criticize ruthlessly one must see things from the perspective of the object of criticism to get to the heart of what's wrong with it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39145): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39145 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116161664/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
