Get a Hold of Yourself!

Everyone knows there is a problem. It lurks inside each one of us, eating at our hearts and stealing moments of our precious lives. We are a world of sick men. And yes, we actually choose to live chaos! Why? Either because we do not know how to change it, or we do not want to. As far as Norman O. Brown and Herbert Marcuse were concerned, this world is ours for the taking. However, both have a very different viewpoint on how this coup d'etat of "society" can happen. "In the 1960's, American Socialism took a distinctively different and un-European, even anarchistic form, emphasizing as it did, participatory democracy rather than centralized planning and a command economy. Given the belief that the era of scarcity was over for good, and that the existing system needed, not so much to be abolished as taken over by, and run in the interests of, ordinary citizens, the debate cut through Cold War rhetoric and attempted to focus on questions of function, purpose and goals as well as institutional reform" (unknown). Brown and Marcuse stepped into these debates, each offering their own plan. …