Episode #114 - The Frankfurt School Pt. 7 - The Great Refusal
The Frankfurt School Pt. 7 - The Great Refusal
This episode explores Herbert Marcuse’s concept of the Great Refusal—not as a set of actionable political tactics, but as a deeply personal, transformative process of resisting the dominant culture of aggression, domination, and control. Marcuse challenges the assumption that political revolution can succeed without first reexamining and reshaping one’s own subjectivity, which is often shaped by consumerism, media narratives, and social conditioning. He warns that even well-meaning movements risk reproducing the very systems they aim to dismantle if they fail to confront how monopoly capitalism has conditioned their instincts, perceptions, and values. Drawing from Marx and psychoanalysis, Marcuse emphasizes the need to “emancipate the senses” and cultivate a “new sensibility”—a more humane way of seeing and being that rejects the commodified, aggressive impulses normalized by society. The episode closes by framing this ethical and psychological transformation as essential for genuine liberation, setting the stage for a broader discussion on subjectivity and postmodern critiques.
Further Reading:
The Great Refusal: Herbert Marcuse and Contemporary Social Movements – Edited by Andrew T. Lamas, Todd Wolfson, and Peter N. Funke (2017)
One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society – Herbert Marcuse (1964)
Counterrevolution and Revolt – Herbert Marcuse (1972)
See the full transcript here.
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