The Realm of Freedom and the Realm of Necessity: A Reconsideration. In Vpered, 2024-05-16.

A translation of a talk by Herbert Marcuse devoted to the student protests in France in 1968. It is emphasized that students should be regarded neither as a new revolutionary force that will replace the proletariat nor as a vanguard that will lead society. Instead, the author sees in the student movement an activist minority that is sensitive to the needs of the exploited masses. He makes a number of remarks on the new challenges that advanced industrial society poses for the left: to obtain even partial freedom, one must buy ever more goods, and rejecting the professional division of labor has become impossible. At the same time, the technologization of work opens up more room for inventiveness and imagination. In Marcuse’s view, the students’ key achievement was to realize, formulate, and put into practice the idea that revolution must take place not only in politics but also in cultural values and even in one’s attitude toward one’s own body.

Translated from English from: Herbert Marcuse, “The Realm of Freedom and the Realm of Necessity: A Reconsideration”, in Praxis International, Vol. 5, No. 1-2, 1969, pp. 20-25.