Abstract: The discourse of "labor" is hidden in the critique of modernity by Arendt and Marcuse, two political philosophers. Arendt denied labor and criticized labor for intruding into public space, resulting in the disappearance of human publicness and political life; Marcuse combined eros with labor, criticized the alienation of labor caused by technical rationality and operating principles, and proposed that the liberation of labor is the liberation of eros.The two explained respectively the horrible image of western totalitarianism turning people into "naked life" and the gentle side of controlling people with material comforts. In the crisis of political modernity, people need both Arendt's judgment and action as well as Marcuse's eros and emotion.

Key words: critique of modernity')">critique of modernity, labor, the banality of evil, the liberation of eros