On Disobedience and Other Essays Quotes

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On Disobedience and Other Essays On Disobedience and Other Essays by Erich Fromm
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On Disobedience and Other Essays Quotes Showing 1-15 of 15
“Indeed, freedom and the capacity for disobedience are inseparable; hence any social, political, and religious system which proclaims freedom, yet stamps out disobedience, cannot speak the truth.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience: Why Freedom Means Saying No to Power
“Capitalism puts things (capital) higher than life (labor). Power follows from possession, not from activity.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience: Why Freedom Means Saying No to Power
“The supreme principle of socialism is that man takes precedence over things, life over property, and hence, work over capital; that power follows creation, and not possession; that man must not be governed by circumstances, but circumstances must be governed by man.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience: Why Freedom Means Saying No to Power
“For centuries kings, priests, feudal lords, industrial bosses and parents have insisted that obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience: Why Freedom Means Saying No to Power
“We are poor in spite of all our wealth because we have much, but we are little.' As a result, the average man feels insecure, lonely, depressed, and suffers from a lack of joy in the midst of plenty. Life does not make sense to him; he is dimly aware that the meaning of life cannot lie in being nothing but a 'consumer.' He could not stand the joylessness and meaninglessness of life were it not for the fact that the system offers him innumerable avenues of escape, ranging from television to tranquilizers, which permit him to forget that he is losing more and more of all that is valuable in life.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience: Why Freedom Means Saying No to Power
“Existuje ještě jeden další rozdíl mezi logikou zjevného a skrytého vyprávění. Ve zjevném vyprávění existuje logická kauzální souvislost mezi vnějšími událostmi. Jonáš chce plout přes moře, protože chce utéci před Bohem, usne, protože je unaven, je vržen přes palubu, protože je považován za příčinu bouře a je pozřen rybou, protože se v moři vyskytují dravé ryby. Jedna událost vyplývá z předcházející. (Poslední část příběhu je sice nerealistická, ale nikoliv nelogická.) Ve skrytém příběhu naproti tomu vládne jiný druh logiky. Různé události jsou asociací spojeny se stejným vnitřním zážitkem. To, co se jeví jako kauzální posloupnost vnějších událostí, vlastně zastupuje spojení zážitků propojených jako události vnitřní. Je to právě tak logické, jako je logický zjevný příběh, ale jede tu o jiný druh logiky.”
Erich Fromm, Mýtus, sen a rituál
“If a man can only obey and not disobey, he is a slave; if he can only disobey and not obey, he is a rebel (not a revolutionary); he acts out of anger, disappointment, resentment, yet not in the name of a conviction or a principle.

Obedience to a person, institution or power (heteronomous obedience) is submission; it implies the abdication of my autonomy and the acceptance of a foreign will or judgment in place of my own. Obedience to my own reason or conviction (autonomous obedience) is not an act of submission but one of affirmation. My conviction and my judgment, if authentically mine, are part of me. If I follow them rather than the judgment of others, I am being myself;
(p. 6)

In order to disobey, one must have the courage to be alone, to err and to sin.
...
…; hence any social, political, and religious system which proclaims freedom, yet stamps out disobedience, cannot speak the truth.
(p. 8)

At this point in history the capacity to doubt, to criticize and to disobey may be all that stands between a future for mankind and the end of civilization. (p. 10)

It is the function of the prophet to show reality, to show alternatives and to protest; it is his function to call loudly, to awake man from his customary half-slumber. It is the historical situation which makes prophets, not the wish of some men to be prophets. (p. 12)

Disobedience, then, in the sense in which we use it here, is an act of the affirmation of reason and will. It is not primarily an attitude directed against something, but for something: for man’s capacity to see, to say what he sees, and to refuse to say what he does not see (p. 17)

That which was the greatest criticism of socialism fifty years ago—that it would lead to uniformity, bureaucratization, centralization, and a soulless materialism—is a reality of today’s capitalism.
(p. 31)

Man, instead of being the master of the machines he has built, has become their servant. But man is not made to be a thing, and with all the satisfactions of consumption, the life forces in man cannot be held in abeyance continuously. We have only one choice, and that is mastering the machine again, making production into a means and not an end, using it for the unfolding of man—or else the suppressed life energies will manifest themselves in chaotic and destructive forms. Man will want to destroy life rather than die of boredom. (p. 32)

The supreme loyalty of man must be to the human race and to the moral principles of humanism.
(p. 38)

The individual must be protected from fear and the need to submit to anyone’s coercion. (p. 42)

Not only in the sphere of political decisions, but with regard to all decisions and arrangements, the grip of the bureaucracy must be broken in order to restore freedom. (p. 42)

According to its basic principles, the aim of socialism is the abolition of national sovereignty, the abolition of any kind of armed forces, and the establishment of a commonwealth of nations. (p. 43)

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. (p. 49)

Socialism must be radical. To be radical is to go to the roots; and the root is Man. (p. 49)”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience and Other Essays
“While we are living technically in the Atomic Age, the majority of men—including most of those who are in power—still live emotionally in the Stone Age; that while our mathematics, astronomy, and the natural sciences are of the twentieth century, most of our ideas about politics, the state, and society lag far behind the age of science. If mankind commits suicide it will be because people will obey those who command them to push the deadly buttons; because they will obey the archaic passions of fear, hate, and greed; because they will obey obsolete clichés of State sovereignty and national honor.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience and Other Essays
“Musíme rozlišovat mezi obsahy myšlenkového procesu a logickými kategoriemi použitými myšlením. Zatímco se obsahy našeho bdělého myšlení nepodřizují omezením prostoru a času, mají kategorie logického myšlení prostorově-časovou povahu. Tak například mohu myslet na svého otce a zjistit, že jeho postoj v určité situaci je totožný s mým. Toto zjištění je logicky správné. Jesliže však tvrdím: "Já jsem svým otcem," pak je toto tvrzení "nelogické", protože neodpovídá pojmům fyzikálního světa. Z hlediska prožívání je však ta věta logická, neboť jí vyjadřuji své prožitky totožnosti se svým otcem. Logické myšlenky v bdělém stavu jsou podřízeny logickým kategorím, založeným na speciální formě existence, ve které přistupujeme k realitě v jednání. Ve spící existenci, která se vyznačuje nepřítomností dokonce i potenciálního jednání, se používají kategorie, které se vztahují k prožívání sebe sama. To platí i pro cítění. Jestliže se můj ci v bdělm stavu týká člověka, kterého jsem dvacet let neviděl, jsem si stále vědom faktu, že dotyčný není přítomen. Když o něm však sním, pak ho cítím tak, jako kdyby přítomen byl. Jestliže však říkám "jako kdyby přítomen byl", vyjadřuji tím svůj pocit v pojmech, které odpovídají "bdělému životu". Pro spící existenci neexistuje žádné "jako by"; příslušná osoba je přítomna.”
Erich Fromm, Mýtus, sen a rituál
“Fantazie a sny jsou začátkem mnoha skutků a nic by nebylo horší než je podceňovat a snícímu brát odvahu k nim. Jde o to, jaký druh fantazií máme - zda nás vedou vpřed, anebo zda nás drží v řetězech neproduktivnosti.”
Erich Fromm, Mýtus, sen a rituál
“Masochista má - i když nevědomé - přání nehody, nemoci, ponížení. U masochistické perverze - kdy je toto přání sexuálně zabarveno a pro osobu méně nebezpečné - je toto masochistické přání dokonce vědomé.”
Erich Fromm, Mýtus, sen a rituál
“The act of disobedience set Adam and Eve free and opened their eyes. They recognized each other as strangers and the world outside them as strange and even hostile. Their act of disobedience broke the primary bond with nature and made them individuals. “Original sin,” far from corrupting man, set him free; it was the beginning of history. Man had to leave the Garden of Eden in order to learn to rely on his own powers and to become fully human.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience and Other Essays
“The “organization man” thus reared in the family and in the school and having his education completed in the big organization has opinions, but no convictions; he amuses himself, but is unhappy; he is even willing to sacrifice his life and that of his children in voluntary obedience to impersonal and anonymous powers. He accepts the calculation of deaths which has become so fashionable in the discussions on thermonuclear war: half the population of a country dead—“quite acceptable”; two-thirds dead—“maybe not.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience and Other Essays
“While, according to the Bible, human history began with an act of disobedience—Adam and Eve—while, according to Greek myth, civilization began with Prometheus’ act of disobedience, it is not unlikely that human history will be terminated by an act of obedience, by the obedience to authorities who themselves are obedient to archaic fetishes of “State sovereignty,” “national honor,” “military victory,” and who will give the orders to push the fatal button.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience and Other Essays
“While, according to the Bible, human history began with an act of disobedience—Adam and Eve—while, according to Greek myth, civilization began with Prometheus’ act of disobedience, it is not unlikely that human history will be terminated by an act of obedience, by the obedience to authorities who themselves are obedient to archaic fetishes of “State sovereignty,” “national honor,” “military victory,” and who will give the orders to push the fatal buttons to those who are obedient to them and to their fetishes.”
Erich Fromm, On Disobedience and Other Essays