Coffee and Ideology:

The One-Dimensionality of Cultural Capitalism

In chapter four of Herbert Marcuse’s book One-Dimensional Man Marcuse focuses on the ways in which the political, social, and cultural domains of human life develop in a one-dimensional society. This one-dimensional society of course takes the form of our late-capitalist society in the Western world. Marcuse’s concept “one-dimensional” can be thought of in terms of a two dimensional box. This box represents the ideological space that structures society. Here, Marcuse draws on various concepts to support his thesis that the ‘Happy Consciousness’ “sustains a society which has reduced – and in its most advanced areas eliminated – the more primitive irrationality of the preceding stages, which prolongs and improves life more regularly than before.” Here, Marcuse echoes the work of his contemporaries who see the dangers of instrumental rationality. The story of the Frankfurt School has shown the dehumanizing, and deeply degrading, effects of instrumental rationality, whether it is embedded in the propaganda of positivism, actualized in capitalism, or radicalized under fascism. In our late climate of cultural capitalism, it appears that Marcuse’ thesis could not be any more relevant.  

Although it is unclear whether Slavoj Žižek has been influenced by Marcuse, Žižek has given an interesting example that appears to show how the ‘Happy Consciousness’ works:  

“You know, when you enter a Starbucks store, it’s usually always displayed in some posters their message: ‘Yes, our cappuccino is more expensive than others,’ but, then comes the story: ‘We give 1% all our income to some Guatemalan children to keep them healthy, for the water supply for some Saharan farmer, or to save the forest, to enable organic growing for coffee, or whatever or whatever.’”

Although it appears to be all well-and-good to support farmers from the “developing world”, or the environment for that matter, this reflects the problem with ideology. In this instance, the actual relationship between Starbucks and the Guatemalan workers is concealed by a message of good-will, charity, and ecology. And although the act of purchasing a cappuccino at Starbucks might appear to be a harmless morning ritual, it perpetuates the reality of worker relations in Guatemala who are under the corporate control of a company that operates out of self-interest (which is distinguished by the accumulation of capital). It is in this moment that the Happy Consciousness is fulfilled.

Here, the Happy Consciousness is represented by the people who feel happy about drinking a cappuccino (one that has the apparent potential to alleviate social or environment ills). After all, the Happy Consciousness is characterized by rationality, “that the real is rational and that the system delivers the goods”. In this case, the ‘real’ is the cappuccino that paradoxically contributes to a system of domination and exploitation. This system represents the one-dimensional character of a society that leaves little room for authentic creative expression in social, political, or even cultural, spheres of human life.