Anti-Job Pro-Freedom Quote Of The Week 145

Essentially the power of the machine is only the stored up and projected power of humanity. To the extent to which the work world is conceived of as a machine, and mechanized accordingly, it becomes the potential basis of a new freedom for humanity.

Contemporary industrial civilization demonstrates that it has reached the stage at which “the free society” can no longer be adequately defined in the traditional terms of economic, political, and intellectual liberties. Not because these liberties have become insignificant, but because they are too significant to be confined within the traditional forms.

New modes of realization are needed, corresponding to the new capabilities of society. Such new modes can be indicated only in negative terms, because they would amount to the negation of the prevailing modes. Thus, “economic freedom” would mean freedom from the economy--from being controlled by economic forces and relationships. Freedom from the daily struggle for existence; from earning a living. “Political freedom” would mean liberation of the individuals from politics over which they have no effective control.
Herbert Marcuse