In "Repressive Tolerance", Herbert Marcuse critiques the prevailing understanding and practice of tolerance in modern, advanced industrial societies. He argues that what is widely celebrated as tolerance actually serves to reinforce oppressive structures. True, liberating tolerance—rooted in the early modern emancipatory tradition—would require intolerance toward prevailing policies and opinions that sustain domination, and tolerance toward subversive, liberating ideas that are marginalized or suppressed.
The False Neutrality of Modern Tolerance
Marcuse posits that contemporary tolerance is not neutral. By appearing even-handed—allowing all opinions, including those that perpetuate injustice—modern tolerance effectively protects the status quo. In this system, destructive ideologies such as militarism, racism, and consumerist manipulation are tolerated, while critical and transformative discourses are marginalized. This is "repressive tolerance": a system where toleration operates to suppress real change by normalizing systemic injustice.
He further claims that in societies where needs are satisfied and dissent is permitted in theory, the possibility of true opposition is neutered. The marketplace of ideas is not free, but dominated by monopolistic control over information and opinion formation, rendering dissent ineffective.
The Dialectical View: Tolerance and Truth
Drawing on dialectical reasoning, Marcuse asserts that tolerance cannot be an absolute good; it must be judged in relation to its historical and material context. If tolerance enables the spread of falsehoods and suppresses liberation, it is not virtuous. True tolerance must be partisan: favoring the oppressed and promoting truth, not merely permitting all viewpoints without judgment.
He invokes John Stuart Mill’s insight that liberty presupposes a capacity for rational deliberation. When individuals are indoctrinated or manipulated, the ideal conditions for meaningful deliberation are absent, and the concept of tolerance becomes hollow.
Manipulation and the Language of Power
Marcuse describes how language, media, and public discourse have been shaped to preclude true critical thought. Terms like “peace” are twisted to justify war, and advertisements intermix with news to blur the boundaries between truth and propaganda. This Orwellian stabilization of language ensures that oppositional meanings are absorbed or neutralized, thereby sustaining domination under the guise of free debate.
Discriminating Tolerance: A Radical Proposal
Marcuse argues for what he calls “discriminating tolerance”:
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Intolerance toward movements of the Right that promote aggression, discrimination, and inequality.
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Tolerance toward movements of the Left that aim for liberation and social justice.
This reversal would not merely be about preference, but about rationally supporting forces that move history toward greater freedom and humanity. He emphasizes that withdrawing tolerance from regressive ideas—before they gain dangerous traction—is necessary to prevent catastrophe (referencing the rise of Nazism as a warning).
Education, Repression, and Liberation
Marcuse critiques the prevailing educational practices, including the trend of "self-actualization" disconnected from political awareness. He asserts that authentic education must foster critical consciousness, not just personal fulfillment within a repressive society. Education must reveal historical oppression and cultivate the rational faculties needed for real autonomy, rather than reinforcing conformity masked as individual freedom.
Violence and Non-Violence
Marcuse tackles the controversial topic of violence. He argues that systemic violence already prevails, often masked by legal norms. Demanding strict non-violence from the oppressed while tolerating systemic violence by the powerful is itself a form of oppression. He acknowledges that rebellion by the oppressed may involve violence, but distinguishes this from the violence of rulers aimed at preserving domination.
Democracy, Majority, and False Legitimacy
Marcuse criticizes the hollowed-out democracy of his time, where majorities are manufactured through manipulation rather than emerging from independent thought. In such conditions, a simple appeal to democratic legitimacy becomes suspect. The real task is to create conditions where a truly autonomous and critical majority could emerge, breaking the tyranny of the status quo.
The Role of Radical Minorities
Marcuse concludes that change must come from radical minorities who refuse to play by the rules of a system designed to neutralize them. These minorities must be willing to exercise "militant intolerance" against the structures and ideologies that perpetuate repression, in order to reclaim the liberating function of tolerance.
Postscript (1968): The Intensification of the Problem
In the postscript, Marcuse reiterates that under monopolized mass media and controlled public opinion, real dissent is excluded by structural inequalities. Radical minorities must resist not only content but the very forms of manipulated tolerance. A strategy of counter-tolerance—favoring liberation over suppression, humanity over inhumanity—is needed to break through the dominant false consciousness.
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