Spontaneity: If one asks what makes for the attraction small children
have for most people I believe that, aside from sentimental and conventional
reasons, the answer must be that it is this very quality of spontaneity. It
appeals profoundly to everyone who is not so dead himself that he has lost the
ability to perceive it. (Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm. P260).
Most of us can observe at least moments of our own
spontaneity which are at the same time moments of genuine happiness. (Escape
from Freedom, Erich Fromm. P260).
Why is spontaneous activity the answer to the problem of
freedom? We have said that negative freedom by itself makes the individual an
isolated being, whose relationship to the world is distant and distrustful and
whose self is weak and constantly threatened. Spontaneous activity is the one
way in which man can overcome the terror of aloneness without sacrificing the
integrity of his self; for in the spontaneous realization of the self man
unites himself anew with the world—with man, nature, and himself. (Escape from
Freedom, Erich Fromm. P260-261).
The basic dichotomy that is inherent in freedom—the birth of
individuality and the pain of aloneness—is dissolved on a higher plane by man’s
spontaneous action. In all spontaneous activity the individual embraces the
world. Not only does his individual self remain intact; it becomes stronger and
more solidified. (Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm. P.261).
The inability to act spontaneously, to express what one
genuinely feels and thinks, and the resulting necessity to present a pseudo
self to others and oneself, are the root of the feeling of inferiority and
weakness. Whether we or not we are aware of it, there is nothing of which we
are more ashamed than of not being ourselves, and there is nothing that gives
us greater pride and happiness than to think, to feel and say what is ours.
This implies that what matters is the activity as such, the process and not the
result. In our culture the emphasis is just the reverse. (Escape from Freedom,
Erich Fromm. P.262).
The experience of living in the present moment: We produce not for a concrete satisfaction but for the
abstract purpose of selling our commodity; we feel that we can acquire
everything material or immaterial by buying it, and thus things become ours
independently of any creative effort of our own in relation to them. In the
same way we regard our personal qualities and the result of our efforts as
commodities that can be sold for money, prestige, and power. The emphasis thus
shifts from the present satisfaction of creative activity to the value of the
finished product. Thereby man misses the only satisfaction that can give him
real happiness—the experience of the activity of the present moment—and chases
after a phantom that leaves him disappointed as soon as he believes he has
caught it—the illusory happiness called success. (Escape from Freedom, Erich
Fromm. P.262).
Individual initiative and capitalism: “Individual initiative was one of the great stimuli both of
the economic system and also of personal development under liberal capitalism.
But there are two qualifications: it developed only selected qualities of man,
his will and rationality, while leaving him otherwise subordinate to economic
goals. It was a principle that functioned best in a highly individualized and
competitive phase of capitalism which had room for countless independent
economic units. Today this space has narrowed down. Only a small number can
exercise individual initiative.” (Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm. P.275).
Inner authority: “Were it only that people worked because of external
necessities, much friction between what they ought to do and what they would
like to do would arise and lessen their efficiency. However, by the dynamic
adaptation of character to social requirements, human energy instead of causing
friction is shaped into such forms as to become an incentive to act according
to the particular economic necessities. Thus modern man, instead of having to
be forced to work as hard as he does, is driven by the inner compulsion to work
[…] instead of obeying overt authorities, he has built up an inner
authority—conscience and duty—which operates more effectively in controlling
him than any external authority could ever do. ” (Escape from Freedom, Erich
Fromm. P.284).
