On Disobedience_ Why Freedom Means Saying _No_ to Power - Erich Fromm [27]
We appeal to every citizen to feel his responsibility for his life, that of his children and that of the whole human family. Man is on the verge of the most crucial choice he has ever made: whether to use his skill and brain to create a world which can be, if not a paradise, at least a place for the fullest realization of man’s potentialities, a world of joy and creativity—or a world which will destroy itself either with atomic bombs or through boredom and emptiness.
Indeed, socialism differs from other party programs in that it has a vision, an ideal for a better, more human society than the present one. Socialism does not want only to improve this or that defect of capitalism, it wants to accomplish something which does not yet exist; it aims at a goal which transcends the given empirical social reality, yet which is based on a real potentiality. Socialists have a vision and say: this is what we want; this is what we strive for; it is not the absolute and the final form of life, but it is a much better, more human form of life. It is the realization of the ideals of humanism which have inspired the greatest achievements of Western and Eastern culture.
Many will say that people do not want ideals, that they do not want to go beyond the frame of reference in which they live. We socialists say that this is not true. On the contrary, people have a deep longing for something they can work for and have faith in. Man’s whole vitality depends on the fact that he transcends the routine part of his existence, that he strives for the fulfillment of a vision which is not impossible to realize—even though it has not yet been achieved. If he has no chance to strive for a rational, humanistic vision, he will eventually, worn out and depressed by the boredom of his life, fall prey to the irrational satanic visions of dictators and demagogues. It is exactly the weakness of contemporary society that it offers no ideals, that it demands no faith, that it has no vision—except that of more of the same. We socialists are not ashamed to confess that we have a deep faith in man and in a vision of a new, human form of society. We appeal to the faith, hope and imagination of our fellow citizens to join us in this vision and in the attempt to realize it. Socialism is not only a socioeconomic and political program; it is a human program: the realization of the ideals of humanism under the conditions of an industrial society.
Socialism must be radical. To be radical is to go to the roots; and the root is Man.
About the Author
ERICH FROMM (1900–1980) emigrated from Germany in 1934 to the United States, where he held a private practice and taught at Columbia, Yale, and New York University. His many books include The Art of Loving, Escape from Freedom, Man for Himself, and The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness.
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ALSO BY ERICH FROMM
The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
The Art of Loving
Beyond the Chains of Illusion
The Dogma of Christ
Escape from Freedom
The Forgotten Language
Man for Himself
Marx’s Concept of Man
May Man Prevail?
Psychoanalysis and Religion
The Sane Society
Sigmund Freud’s Mission
Socialist Humanism
You Shall Be as Gods
Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis
Copyright
“Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” originally appeared in Clara Urquhart, A Matter of Life (London: Jonathan Cape, 1963). Copyright © 1963 by Erich Fromm.
“Prophets and Priests,” originally appeared in Ralph Schoenman, Bertrand Russell, Philosopher of the Century: Essays in His Honour (London: Allen & Unwin, 1967). Copyright © 1967 by Erich Fromm.
“Let Man Prevail” and “Humanist Socialism,” originally appeared in Let Man Prevail: A Socialist Manifesto and Program (New York, 1960). Copyright © 1960 by Erich Fromm.
ON DISOBEDIENCE. Copyright © 1981,