A devastating quote from the 1960s

Were the progressive struggles all in vain? Have we only been supporting a system that enslaves us, while paying lip service to human rights?

If the worker and his boss enjoy the same television program and visit the same resort places, if the typist is as attractively made up as the daughter of her employer, if the Negro owns a Cadillac, if they all read the same newspaper, then this assimilation indicates not the disappearance of classes, but the extent to which the needs and satisfactions that serve the preservation of the Establishment are shared by the underlying population.

-- Herbert Marcuse.

The enemy of progress is our own desire, aided by mass communication, unfettered capitalism, and CREDIT.

I am so depressed.

that era are irrelevant nowdays? Anyway, that's what I've learned from some of the posts here.

If you want commercial media, you will be affected with unnatural cravings. Simple solution for me ... avoid exposure.

My only debt is for my education - worth every penny and the agreement is simple, affordable payments 'till I die. I knew my future would be mortgaged w/national debt, so I planned ahead.

There's everything wrong with The Establishment when it serves the needs and satisfactions of the few AT THE EXPENSE of the people.

The first situation is called "freedom", the second is called "slavery".

Solidarity!

while continuing to fight for justice and equality everywhere... Don't worry about trying to change the country's reading habits. It would be nice, but not doable. Those changes come from inside awareness. But everyone understands social injustice and that understanding is a huge unifier.

Is there some hidden reference to human rights violations in the quote?

It's a question of timing really.

How many people notice that the old addictions no longer satisfy and STILL have the curiosity and initiative to explore outside of the cage? Compared to how many people have noticed that the old addictions no longer satisfy, but, because of the physical damages caused by their own addictions and the characteristics of the social environment in which that realization occurs, no longer have the ability to explore outside of the cage.

This is one of the reasons things like the DU are so very important.

Do your *best* in this moment, whatever this moment is. Put one foot in front of the other.

It's not always a very good idea to invest toooo much in your definition of what the outcomes "should" be. Sometimes the most important outcome is just "staying in there", working away at whatever, and just being there when new revolutionaries come along to pick up the burdens. Something is always more than nothing and think what it would be like for the next generation if there were nothing/no one leading the way.

In some circumstances the smaller, or fewer, a particular change element is, the more important and powerful it is.

OK, this is rather spooky. I just posted about this very subject at almost the exact same time you did!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3491314&mesg_id=3493186

Maybe this will counter the depression with a few INSPIRING words from the 1960s that are still mighty relevant today.

I don't remember the exact quotes, but I recognized what he was saying when I read it however long ago, because he seemed to be talking about me even though I'm not Black.

Re that other thread: Sychronicity IS fascinating!

I always caution myself that not all coincidences ARE synchronicities, some are "random" chance. Others are somekind of higher order events, which, I believe, the more we try to personally claim and control, the more we loose them. I think our job is to do our honest best to do the right thing in our own behaviors (not to coerce others into "the right way") and eventually the synchronicities happen with others who are trying to do the same thing too, though perhaps in different ways.

Solidarity!