Marcuse, Debord, et Mai 68

Marcuse, Debord, et Mai 68: Conjuncture d'un Esprit Critique (A comparison of Hebert Marcuse and Guy Debord and Their Intellectual Influence on the Revolutionary Spirit Leading to the May 19

Authors: Max E. Pearson; PARIS UNIV (FRANCE)

Abstract: Despite their different origins, Hebert Marcuse and Guy Debord share a theme in their major works. In One-Dimensional Man, published in 1964, Marcuse explains that apparent perfection in modern post-industrial society is undermining man's motivation to critique societal values and progress.

Guy Debord seems to echo this idea in his 1967 work entitled La Societe du Spectacle, in which he claims that all society is simply a collection of superficial images and sounds; which he calls a spectacle. This spectacle succeeds in imposing its own reality through a monopoly of images, and man passively accepts this imposition.

hus both authors suggest that man no longer thinks for himself; but rather accepts these social models without reflection. Rejection of this complacency with society was a major theme underlying the May 1968 riots in France. However, despite the similarities in their hypotheses, disciples of these two thinkers rejected the other's theories. This thesis explains this friction by examining each author's underlying prospects for hope in the reassertion of individualism in human thought.

While Marcuse optimistically uses ideas from the Frankfurt School of critical theory to offer keys to a thoughtful and critical approach to societal analysis, Debord undermines any chance of individual thought in his model by pessimistically challenging these keys offered by Marcuse. Furthermore, he masks the influence of Marcuse on his theory through mystification. Thus his theories are simply a pessimistic commentary on the thinking of Marcuse.

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