Marcuse and choice

Herbert Marcuse makes a very similar point when he says that, initially, society has a choice between historical alternatives which are determined by the inherited level of the material and intellectual culture. The choice itself results from the play of the dominant interests. It anticipates specific modes of transforming and utilizing man and nature and rejects other mode. …. But once the project has become operative …. It tends to become exclusive and to determine the development of the society as a whole. (Marcuse p.xvi)

Moreover, Marcuse points out that as time goes on, the element of political decision-making inherent in the choice of alternatives is forgotten:

In the medium of technology, culture, politics and the economy merge into an omnipresent system which swallows up or repulses all alternative… Technological rationality has become political rationality. (Marcuse p.xvi)

Let me use two examples to illustrate the point. The first comes from the history of this district, the second from Heidegger’s own work.