The Transformation of Marcuse: From Theory to Mechanism of Power

Herbert Marcuse, one of the fathers of the neo-Marxist movement and a key thinker of the Frankfurt School, presented in An Essay on Liberation a radical vision for liberating individuals from the chains imposed by the oppressive capitalist Western society. For Marcuse, the existing order controls not only through economic mechanisms but also through cultural dominance, which instills in individuals a false consciousness—a system of values and desires that leads them to accept the existing structure without truly questioning it.

Marcuse, Free University of Berlin, May 13, 1968

Marcuse expanded Marxist critique, which had traditionally focused on economic structures, into the realm of culture. He argued that capitalism had neutralized the revolutionary potential of the working class by creating a consumer culture that fosters comfort and suppresses any real possibility of change. Society constructs the individual's desires so that they identify with mechanisms of oppression rather than resisting them.

Influenced by the Frankfurt School's research on social psychology, Marcuse analyzed the concept of the totalitarian personality—those who internalize mechanisms of oppression and propagate them as part of their identity. Ironically, his followers recognized that this mechanism could also serve as a tool for change. They transformed his ideas into an operational system for new mechanisms of power, maneuvering the dynamics he sought to expose and dismantle. Instead of opposing systems of power, they preferred to exploit their internal logic to subvert them from within.

Thus, Marcuse’s doctrine extended beyond academic discourse and was adopted and repeatedly replicated in the elite universities of the U.S., particularly in gender studies, postcolonial studies, and critical studies departments. It became an integral part of progressive discourse, which not only interprets reality through the lens of the struggle between oppressors and the oppressed and the false consciousness but also seeks to implement these principles in reality.

Marcuse’s students turned his theory into a practical tool. They realized that the way to influence society was not through direct opposition to the government but by using institutions themselves to create a new reality. Their sophistication lay in recognizing how to appropriate forces traditionally defined as oppressive and transform them into means of control wielded by new groups. Thus, an ideology born out of the critique of power structures became a power mechanism in itself.

The recent USAID controversy exemplifies how Marcusean principles have transitioned from academic theory to institutionalized political practice. As revealed, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) deliberately promoted a progressive ideology under the guise of humanitarian aid and economic development. Supporting radical left-wing ideas worldwide, and within the U.S. itself, it engaged in dismantling society and the liberal-capitalist ethos using taxpayers’ own money.

To understand the genius of this maneuver, one must turn to Foucault. Unlike the classical Marxist view of power as a resource held by a particular group, Foucault saw power as a decentralized force that exists everywhere. Power is not only repressive—it also creates and shapes identities, social structures, and perceptions of reality.

Marcuse’s followers operate from this understanding: they no longer merely seek to overthrow old structures but to build an entirely new field of power in their place. They aim to control and generate false consciousness through dominance over language, law, education, and resources. In doing so, they construct a new global order designed, precisely as Marcuse proposed, to bring about human liberation by dismantling the social order they associate with the oppressive "white man." In other words, they have skillfully created a new power structure that engages in oppression while utilizing the internal logic of capitalism itself.

The transition from critical theory to an institutionalized program is one of the most significant developments in contemporary politics. While Marcuse saw power structures as a source of oppression to be dismantled, his successors took his ideas and transformed them into tools for governing power.

This is no longer a struggle of the margins against the center but a deliberate creation of new power nodes by an unelected elite, leveraging state resources and authoritarian psychological structures for social engineering.