Frankfurt School - Marcuse - Marx

At the beginning of One-Dimensional Man Marcuse writes, “The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment,”^[5] meaning that under capitalism (in consumer society) humans become extensions of the commodities that they create.

In his 2004 book Understanding Postmodernism, Stephen Hicks^[9] argues that Marcuse's One Dimensional Man can be understood as part of a broader far-left response to the failure of socialism in theory and practice. Hicks notes that from the 1800s, socialists typically argued that wealth was good, but predicted that capitalism would lead to poverty and desperation for the working classes as wages fell and wealth was concentrated in fewer hands. By the 1950s, however, it was clear that capitalism had developed contrary to Marx's predictions: virtually all capitalist nations saw rising wages, higher standards of living and increased liberty and equality for previously marginalized groups (e.g., women and ethnic/racial minorities). In contrast, socialist nations had lower rates of economic growth, lower standards of living, censorship and oppression, and large-scale human rights atrocities. In response to the failure of socialism, Hicks notes that some prominent socialists, such as Marcuse, made an about face, now arguing that wealth was not good:

Following Marx, Marcuse believed that the historical purpose of the proletariat was to be a revolutionary class. Its task was to overthrow capitalism. But that presupposed that capitalism would drive the proletariat into economic misery, which capitalism had failed to do. Instead, capitalism had produced great amounts of wealth and--here is the innovation--capitalism had used that wealth to oppress the proletariat. [...] Capitalism's producing so much wealth, therefore, is bad: It is in direct defiance of the moral imperative of historical progress towards socialism. It would be much better if the proletariat were in economic misery under capitalism, for then they would realize their oppression and then be psychologically primed to perform their historical mission.(p. 154)

This misses corporate creativity and focus groups etc 
Corporate advertising manipulating consumers: denying creativity > fashion: be someone who buys their stuff


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6718420906413643126#docid=-6111922724894802811