Freedom and Democracy by Erich Fromm: Summary

Freedom and Democracy - Summary

The essay “Freedom and Democracy” is taken from Erich Fromm’s famous work The Fear of Freedom. This essay is about the thought process of the modern world. He begins the essay by stating that individuals feel powerless and alone, anxious and insecure due to the modern industrial systems. The developments instead of making humans feel powerful, leave them with many psychological problems. In this essay, he looks at five major aspects and their impact on the degradation of the human psyche. They are

1. freedom of expression,
2. originality discouraged, 
3. Confusing Issues, 
4. loss of self, 
5. sacrifice.

Freedom of Expression

Modern humans think proudly that they have their individuality and thus they are uncontrollable by any external authority. Hence they believe that they have complete freedom to express their thoughts and feelings which again guarantees their individuality. Contradictorily in reality societies, in general, discourage emotions. Emotions are viewed as being unbalanced and humans are suggested to live without emotions. However, avoiding emotions completely is impossible, which may pave the way for cheap sentimental movies and songs. The writer insists upon the importance of emotion by describing a tabooed emotion i.e. the sense of tragedy. Suppression of the sense of tragedy affects the root of personality.

The writer is of the view that awareness of death and tragic aspects of life are the basic characteristics of humans. He gives examples of the practice of coping with the problem of death from various cultures. Both the Greeks and the Christianity religion look at death as a shadow that promises life after death. Only the Jews accepted death realistically. The society instead of allowing humans to be aware of death suppresses it subconsciously. The denial of sad expressions about death leaves humans to live with the fear of death. With this example, Fromm tries to project that the present society lacks freedom of expression.

Originality Discouraged

This subheading is the continuation of the previous one. Like emotions, original thinking is also misrepresented in society. Children are filled with curiosity to know the world both physically and intellectually. But their curiosity/interest is not taken seriously and forces them to have modern education. Fromm believes that education discourages original thinking and on the other hand it insists on filling the mind with ready-made thoughts. Thus modern education maimed the independent thinking of children.

Fromm explains some of the educational methods that discourage original thinking.

- The importance is given to knowledge of facts. Her knowledge of a person is assessed based on more information/facts one knows. This information alone becomes knowledge which in reality is an obstacle to thinking. Hence one should maintain a balance between information and thinking.

- Considering all truth as connected: truth, in reality, is based on the interest and needs of individuals. Some even may try to conceal the truth. Without interest, no one will be finding truth and altogether every human will have a need to find the truth.

Confusing Issues

Another big problem with the present society is to confuse the issues. Even a smaller problem is made as a complicated one which cannot be understood by a common person. It is projected in a way that only a specialist can understand. The continuous flow of information stops humans from giving specific importance to one fact. Thus the ability to think critically is paralysed by the constructed ideas of the world. Radio, TV and Newspapers play a crucial role in the construction of such notions. News about some serious issue is interrupted by advertisements for a fancy or luxurious item. This disturbs one’s genuine emotion towards the issue. It leads to a change in the attitude of humans and they look at everything with indifference. In the name of freedom, humans break the structure of life and/look at it as a piece and not as a whole.

Humans lack originality not only in feeling or thinking but also in the act of being willing. Whatever humans have as their desire is not originally theirs but the societies. From education to luxury houses and cars, they live with the thoughts of others. When they realize that they do not need those assumed ambitions, they reject such thoughts which make them tired or depressed. Later, again they start to work towards aims that they assume as theirs. This proves that even human ambitions are not original.

Loss of Self

The next concept loss of self leaves one to doubt his/her own identity. The negative freedom that the modern human celebrates leaves him/her to be an isolated and weak self. Due to the feeling of isolation and to avoid loneliness, they try to keep themselves engaged with continuous work. Spontaneous realization of the self is the only way through which humans can get out of such lonely feelings. Love is the basic component of such spontaneous realization. Her love does not mean possession of others or dissolution of the self in another but it is a union of individuals with others. Love leads to being in oneness and at the same time it maintains individuality. Another component of spontaneous realization is work. Fromm looks at work as a creation where humans and nature become one in the act of creation. He rejects the other views of work such as relationship to nature, activity to escape from loneliness. Thus work and love maintains the individuality of the self and unites the self with humans and nature. It enables humans to understand the act of living and positive freedom. Positive freedom implies that the individual self is the higher power and each human is the centre of his/her life.

Sacrifice

Many misunderstand freedom as non-submission to any power that excludes sacrifice. Even sacrifice is misunderstood by many today. Fromm talks about two types of sacrifice.

- It is seen as a tragic fact of life where the physical self conflicts with the mental self. But through sacrifice, the physical self will integrate with the spiritual self. 2). It is preached in the modern world by Fascists. Her sacrifice is not a tragic fact but an aim and it is contradictory to the real sacrifice. In the name of sacrifice, suicide is committed. Instead of developing the self, it reduces the self to nothing. The real purpose of sacrifice is to bring integrity whereas the second type proves a lack of morality.

Certain words in languages are used to hide the true meaning of a word. Fromm brings out the difference between Democracy and Fascism. Democracy works for the welfare of the individuals by developing economic, political and cultural conditions. Whereas Fascism forces individuals to subordinate for unnecessary purposes and through this weakens the development of individuality. When humans subordinate an economic machine by mastering society, they can escape from loneliness and the feeling of powerlessness. Today’s humans have better economic conditions but they do not find meaning in life. It leaves them as automata. Fromm recommends being a human again by developing faith in life and truth and realization of self.

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