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"The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life.  It is more humiliating to discover how larger a number of people living to-day, who cannot but see that this religion is not tenable, nevertheless try to defend it piece by piece in a series of pitiful rearguard actions..." (Freud, 22)

The only reason that we hold onto this make-believe fantasy is because it offers us a sense of happiness.

Marcuse agreeably calculates that an average working person works 10 hours per day (this includes traveling to and from work and preparing for work), and requires 10 hours for the sleep and nourishment of his body. When doing this, he only has 4 remaining hours to do other things. Man thus "exists only part time" (47). He goes on to say that even this part time existence is mostly used for activities which are relaxing. The activities must be relaxing because of the the double effect of being tired from work coupled with the realization that one must rest in order to be prepared for work the following day. He argues that this system, which we call society, is not so much concerned with our own happiness, as it is with the insuring our role as a productive working cog in it. Marcuse stresses the idea of a conflict between the work demanded by society, and the happiness of the individual. In the second paragraph of the introduction, Marcuse states that "Happiness must be subordinated to the discipline of work as a full time occupation"