Lohmann has done it again
Reference here for his latest post Of Zombies, Bloggers, and The Will To Power As Disappearance [Part 2: Zombie Pedagogy]. It is looong, but well worth the read.
a random excerpt follows: "...Erich Fromm, in Escape From Freedom, attributes this phenomenon to be the psyche's defensive reaction to the existential nullity in which modern man finds that his individual freedom has been effectively cancelled by what he calls the "monopolistic phase of capitalism":
Those factors which tend to weaken the individual self have gained, while those strengthening the individual have relatively lost in weight. The individual's feeling of powerlessness and aloneness has increased, his "freedom" from all traditional bonds has become more pronounced, his possibilities for individual economic achievement have narrowed down. He feels threatened by gigantic forces...
...
An enormous though secret power over the whole of society is exercised by a small group, on the decisions of which depends the fate of a large part of society.
...
In short, even if his chances for success are sometimes greater, he has lost a great deal of the security and independence of the old businessman; and he has been turned into a cog, sometimes small, sometimes larger, of a machinery which forces its tempo upon him, which he cannot control, and in comparison with which he is utterly insignifcant.
He then discusses the various theatres in which this sense of insignificance conspire to nullify his sense of freedom, everything from business and the economy — both as producer and consumer — to the political and even to the geographical. All these conspire to produce a feeling of intense isolation and powerlessness. But this sense cannot be admitted to oneself:
...this feeling of individual isolation and powerlessness...is nothing the average normal person is aware of. It is too frightening for that. It is covered over by the daily routine of his activities, by the assurance and approval he finds in his private or social relations, by success in business, by any number of distractions, by "having fun," "making contacts," "going places." But whistling in the dark does not bring light. Aloneness, fear, and bewilderment remain; people cannot stand it forever. They cannot go on bearing the burden of "freedom from"; they must try to escape from freedom altogether unless they can progress from negative to positive freedom. The principal social avenues of escape in our time are the submission to a leader, as has happened in Fascist countries [this was written in 1965], and the compulsive conforming as is prevalent in our own democracy.
The two avenues to escape this burden are, as hinted above, a move towards either a positive or negative freedom. Positive freedom is one that allows one to
relate himself spontaneously to the world in love and work, in the genuine expression of his emotional, sensuous, and intellectual capacities; he can thus become one again with man, nature, and himself, without giving up the independence and integrity of his individual self.
The other option, negative freedom, essentially means that one has embraced their "cogness" [my term]. It is far easier for the vast majority of people to embrace their "cogness" than to continue to fight an unwinnable battle, especially if they lack the cognitive and support structures necessary to find alternate ways of existing. But annihilating the sense of self to overcome unbearable feelings of powerlessness is only part of it. One does not only escape from, one escapes to, specifically one
attempt[s] to become a part of a bigger and more powerful whole outside of oneself, to submerge and participate in it. This power can be a person, an institution, God, the nation, conscience, or a psychic compulsion. By becoming part of a power which is felt as unshakably strong, eternal, and glamorous, one participates in its strength and glory.
And so the individual
ceases to be himself; he adopts entirely the kind of personality offered to him by cultural patterns; and he therefore becomes exactly as all others are and as they expect him to be. The discrepancy between "I" and the world disappears and with it the conscious fear of aloneness and powerlessness...The person who gives up his individual self and become an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of self.
Ultimately,
The more the drive toward life is thwarted, the stronger is the drive toward destruction; the more life is realized, the less is the strength of destructiveness. Destructiveness is the outcome of unlived life. Those individual and social conditions that make for suppression of life produce the passion for destruction that forms, so the speak, the reservoir from which the particular hostile tendencies — either against others or against oneself — are nourished...."
a random excerpt follows: "...Erich Fromm, in Escape From Freedom, attributes this phenomenon to be the psyche's defensive reaction to the existential nullity in which modern man finds that his individual freedom has been effectively cancelled by what he calls the "monopolistic phase of capitalism":
Those factors which tend to weaken the individual self have gained, while those strengthening the individual have relatively lost in weight. The individual's feeling of powerlessness and aloneness has increased, his "freedom" from all traditional bonds has become more pronounced, his possibilities for individual economic achievement have narrowed down. He feels threatened by gigantic forces...
...
An enormous though secret power over the whole of society is exercised by a small group, on the decisions of which depends the fate of a large part of society.
...
In short, even if his chances for success are sometimes greater, he has lost a great deal of the security and independence of the old businessman; and he has been turned into a cog, sometimes small, sometimes larger, of a machinery which forces its tempo upon him, which he cannot control, and in comparison with which he is utterly insignifcant.
He then discusses the various theatres in which this sense of insignificance conspire to nullify his sense of freedom, everything from business and the economy — both as producer and consumer — to the political and even to the geographical. All these conspire to produce a feeling of intense isolation and powerlessness. But this sense cannot be admitted to oneself:
...this feeling of individual isolation and powerlessness...is nothing the average normal person is aware of. It is too frightening for that. It is covered over by the daily routine of his activities, by the assurance and approval he finds in his private or social relations, by success in business, by any number of distractions, by "having fun," "making contacts," "going places." But whistling in the dark does not bring light. Aloneness, fear, and bewilderment remain; people cannot stand it forever. They cannot go on bearing the burden of "freedom from"; they must try to escape from freedom altogether unless they can progress from negative to positive freedom. The principal social avenues of escape in our time are the submission to a leader, as has happened in Fascist countries [this was written in 1965], and the compulsive conforming as is prevalent in our own democracy.
The two avenues to escape this burden are, as hinted above, a move towards either a positive or negative freedom. Positive freedom is one that allows one to
relate himself spontaneously to the world in love and work, in the genuine expression of his emotional, sensuous, and intellectual capacities; he can thus become one again with man, nature, and himself, without giving up the independence and integrity of his individual self.
The other option, negative freedom, essentially means that one has embraced their "cogness" [my term]. It is far easier for the vast majority of people to embrace their "cogness" than to continue to fight an unwinnable battle, especially if they lack the cognitive and support structures necessary to find alternate ways of existing. But annihilating the sense of self to overcome unbearable feelings of powerlessness is only part of it. One does not only escape from, one escapes to, specifically one
attempt[s] to become a part of a bigger and more powerful whole outside of oneself, to submerge and participate in it. This power can be a person, an institution, God, the nation, conscience, or a psychic compulsion. By becoming part of a power which is felt as unshakably strong, eternal, and glamorous, one participates in its strength and glory.
And so the individual
ceases to be himself; he adopts entirely the kind of personality offered to him by cultural patterns; and he therefore becomes exactly as all others are and as they expect him to be. The discrepancy between "I" and the world disappears and with it the conscious fear of aloneness and powerlessness...The person who gives up his individual self and become an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of self.
Ultimately,
The more the drive toward life is thwarted, the stronger is the drive toward destruction; the more life is realized, the less is the strength of destructiveness. Destructiveness is the outcome of unlived life. Those individual and social conditions that make for suppression of life produce the passion for destruction that forms, so the speak, the reservoir from which the particular hostile tendencies — either against others or against oneself — are nourished...."
posted by Pearl Pocock | 11:00 AM
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