-Fromm's Escape from Freedom
When I first went to college, I left home for the first time to live in another strange city.
After military training, Mid-Autumn Festival became the first holiday when I wasn't at home. When I got back to my dormitory, I suddenly felt sad: When I went out late with my classmates at home, my parents always asked, when will I be back? Now it is "drunk and nobody cares."
Living independently outside really gives you freedom of choice, without parental restraint and care.
I wonder how many children who dislike their parents at home will miss their parents' nagging after leaving home.
at that time, for the first time, I was so strange to the world where I could be my own master, and I desperately hoped that someone could "manage" me.
This is the price of freedom that Fromm said in Escape from Freedom: loneliness and powerlessness.
1
Escape from Freedom was written during the Second World War. The two world wars brought too much thought to thinkers, and the executioner who only wanted to carry out orders and didn't realize that he was wrong prompted Hannah Allen to write "Against the Evil of Mediocrity", revealing that "every snowflake was an accomplice in an avalanche".
Fromm is thinking about why Germany, which has a long history of democracy, elected a totalitarian regime like Nazi.
It is very thought-provoking to know that the Nazis did not seize power by military means such as a coup, but were democratically elected by the people.
Fromm takes psychology as the starting point to discuss the issue of human freedom, but today, this book has gone far beyond the meaning of political science.
Freedom is a unique concept in modern society, and its disadvantages also have unique modern attributes.
individuals in feudal society had no freedom, and people's rank in society was fixed.
"Life and death are rich in the sky", whether it is the process or the end point of life, it is stipulated, and it is difficult for people to achieve leapfrog, so there is no idea of changing their destiny. Anyway, they have their own arrangements.
Therefore, the roles of people and society in feudal society are consistent. Farmers are not only occupations, but also identities. Scholars, agriculture, industry and commerce all have their own positions. Even if they have money like Shen Wansan, they are just tools for scholars.
at this level, people have no free choice, but their economic status is determined by birth, which gives them a sense of security and belonging.
Just like a child whose parents are responsible for everything, the transcendental power of "Heaven"/"God" determines everything. People just have to follow their fate, and they deserve the good and the bad.
2
The Renaissance and the religious reform freed people from the fettered spiritual authority, and reason became a new god.
In the rational awakening, people gain freedom and anxiety.
The freedom of capitalist society and individual people promotes each other. On the one hand, people in modern society are more and more independent, and they can support themselves by relying on labor, and they don't have to rely on others to sell their labor freely. On the other hand, people are more and more isolated, lonely and fearful.
In the capitalist society, interpersonal relationships are alienated, and the warm things between people are alienated into tools. Employees and bosses are just "tools" to achieve their goals, while people sell their skills and knowledge, and the market determines their value, even the whole value.
if a person's value can't be recognized by the market, just like a slow-moving commodity with use value is worthless, this person is useless.
In this environment, people know their own value not through themselves, but through their success in the market: when they find a job, they become confident, while when they are unemployed, they will be depressed and deny all their values.
Therefore, whether it is useful to the society and whether it is in tune with the society becomes a measure of value.
However, being in tune with society and mental health are two different things, and the price of better adapting to society may be to give up self in order to become what others expect.
In modern society, freedom is human destiny.
In Heidegger's words, man was "thrown" into the world, not that man chose freedom, but that freedom dominated him.
Because of the loosening of the relationship with God, the relationship between man and the world has also become loose. It is no longer a fate created by some transcendental force and running in a certain position in the world, but a life of free choice.
when understanding the world and grasping people's position in the world, rationality will produce frustration, doubt and powerlessness to individuals.
The relationship between the world and people has become a Camus-style "absurdity".
It's like young people always feel that they have infinite possibilities, but when they reach middle age, they find that they can't do anything.
Fromm discovered the two sides of freedom: on the one hand, freedom brought about individual awakening and realized the possibility and responsibility of individual action, on the other hand, it also brought danger and pressure to face the world alone.
As a result, some people began to escape from freedom.
3
Escape from freedom occurs when people have no bondage, but there is no possibility of realizing freedom and individuality, or they can't afford the price of freedom.
people need to find external things to bear unbearable anxiety and fear.
authoritarianism, destructive desire and mechanical convergence are the manifestations and consequences of escaping freedom.
authoritarianism is psychologically related to masochism and sadism, which often accompany each other: one hopes to exert influence on others and force them to obey; A person who is eager to listen to others depends on the sense of security that the abuser gives him.
It is common in marriage and love relationships that the husband treats his wife badly and repeatedly tells her that she can get a divorce. However, when the wife really wants a divorce, the husband implores her not to leave and says that he loves her. The wife was left soft-hearted and treated badly, and life went on and on.
In this example, the husband is an abuser in the name of love, and the wife is an abuser who dare not act on her own, forming a closed loop of mutual engagement.
The same example happens to parents and children. Some parents often say "I am good for you", which means "only I know what is good for you, so you should obey me."
As the saying goes, "it takes two to clap hands", there will be some pleasure in being abused, that is, "being abused and wrong": I want to be regarded as a child, surrender to others, and get rid of the loneliness and helplessness of individuals.
Those marriages that grieve for their misfortune are often accompanied by "anger against them", and the abused party has only one reason not to divorce: they dare not live independently. It's not that I can't, it's that I dare not. In many bad marriage relationships, the abused spouse, even the one who earns more money, still refuses to divorce. The reason is not the material inability to live independently, but the spiritual fear.
Fromm summed up the causes of abuse as: getting rid of self and the burden of freedom.
Destructive desire can be understood as "incompetence rage", which is also one of the ways to escape the unbearable sense of powerlessness, as well as mechanical convergence.
Individuals desperately suppress themselves to meet social standards, and use work, purchase, consumption and so on to achieve the same personality and social requirements.
It is worth noting that mechanical convergence is very similar to today's "brainwashing". People think that they are expressing independent opinions, but in fact they are just repeating what they just saw on the Internet.
4
Compared with criticism, Fromm's way out is a bit idealistic: love and individual liberation.
Pursuing the realization of all personality and actively expressing emotions.
Let yourself reconnect with the world, feel the self in the world, and eliminate loneliness while maintaining the individual.
There are different opinions on how practical Fromm's suggestions are, but his insights on the "negative" aspects of freedom are profound.
As Hannah Arendt said, everyone has an obligation to reject the evil of mediocrity and not to think that he is insignificant. If everyone can think independently and refuse to be brainwashed, totalitarianism and those man-made disasters in history will be avoided.
Similarly, in life, every abuser has a masochist's escape and connivance.
Take on the negative side of freedom bravely, and don't run away from freedom.
others can be hell or heaven.
(photo: Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin)