Tolerance and the Liberal Society

There’s no universally accepted definition of the liberal society and we might for some purposes we might be able to get by an ostensive definition (one that works by listing or giving examples of something we want to describe)

A liberal society is one which we have in the west, they define themselves as a liberal society.

A liberal society

Argument against Tolerance: Repressive Tolerance

It is an argument against a certain kind of tolerance, or an argument against a certain use of tolerance. I would content that this is not an argument against tolerance but an argument against a certain kind of society in which tolerance is being found in a certain way. This is really an argument against a society that is claiming to have tolerance but doesn’t properly have it.

According to Marcuse 1969, the establishment, the rulers give to the masses freedom to choose from a wide range of life choices. You can be anything, It seems as though this is a tolerance or an individualism that can express itself in virtually unlimited ways. However, all these different lifestyle choices we can make all turn out to involve patronizing the retail market of the capitalist society. Therefore says Marcuse, we don’t in our capitalist society really tolerate those who want a truly simple lifestyle. Regardless to whether people want to or not the society will just reject them anyway. He then says that in this enormous consumist choice that we have is the wrong kind of tolerance because we can make a wide choice from it but at every stage we must choose to be consumers.
It enslaves the ordinary people who work by timing them into consumers whether they want to or not.
In fact says Marcuse, the more effectively the system provides this choice, the more completely it enslaves the mind of the masses. If you have lots of consumer choices, you’ll want to take advantage of it, you become addicted to the choice you’re provided with. Tolerance in the form of consumer choice is becoming an instrument of repression. Indeed it’s worse than that because all the thing the capitalist society provides to its members gives a sort of happiness and satisfaction, and because people are happy, they are stupefied and rendered to their true situation. So, for Marcuse the more successful the toleration is that we have in society, the worse it is because the more it tricks the people into accepting the overall structure of present society. Example: Consider the political system, it seems that we have in our modern democracies tolerance, where anyone can stand for parliament but, anyone can be disguised by an illusion because we feel and convince we have a real political choice. But says Marcuse, this is just distracting us from the reality which is for example, we have no real choice but to take part in the political process as it stands, so I feel perhaps because I have a vote, I can vote for anybody I like, then all opinions are tolerated. But says Marcuse, actually by thinking that way I am accepting the view that democracy and the vote is the true way to change things politically. He says, ‘I find myself trapped in the acceptance of the status quo’. And indeed, Marcuse also comments that the options that we have are implicitly restricted. It’s the establishment that sets what we call the terms of the debate. So, when we vote, even if we think we’re voting for a revolutionary party, we are being tricked into accepting the bougoius capitalist society in which the parties exist.

Repressive desublimation
Repressive desublimation is a term used to describe the situation where individuals are outlets for their vital forces, such as rage, passion and fear.