State of Fear

" . . . the affluent society has become a society of permanent mobilization against the risk of annihilation (and terrorism) and . . . the sale of its goods has been accompanied by moronization, the perpetuation of toil, and the promotion of frustration."

Marcuse continues, "Today, in the prosperous warfare and welfare state, the human qualities of a pacified existence seem asocial and unpatriotic - qualities such as a refusal of toughness; . . . disobedience to the tyranny of the majority- . . . a sensitive intelligence sickened by that which is being perpetrated . . . In the totalitarian society, the human attitudes tend to become escapist attitudes, to follow Samuel Beckett's advice: 'Don't wait to be hunted to hide...'"

Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man, page 242.