Against this prevailing climate, Marcuse promotes the "great refusal" (described at length in the book) as the only adequate opposition to all-encompassing methods of control.

Marcuse contends that in contemporary consumer societies, a select few wield the power to shape our conceptions of freedom by offering us the means to purchase our own happiness.

Additionally, advertising sustains consumerism, which disintegrates societal demeanor, delivered in bulk and informing the masses that happiness can be bought, an idea that is psychologically damaging.

The critical theorist Douglas Kellner asserted that "One-Dimensional Man" stands out as a paramount work of the 1960s and remains one of the most subversive literary contributions of the twentieth century.

Despite its pessimism, represented by the citation of the words of Walter Benjamin at the end of this book that "Nur um der Hoffnungslosen willen ist uns die Hoffnung gegeben"[6] ("It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us"[7]), it influenced many in the New Left as it articulated their growing dissatisfaction with both capitalist societies and Soviet communist societies.