Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm was born in 1900, along with the dramatic twentieth century, the only child in a Jewish family, in Frankfurt, Germany. Orthodox Jewry and Christianity, as well as the works of two other Jews, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, have a strong influence on him. In 1941 he published his first book, which became known as "Escape from Freedom." Apparently, there is an absurdity in the title of the book by Erich Fromm. We are accustomed to thinking that a conscious human being aspires to freedom. We trust that everyone wants to get rid of the bondage of the conventions and tyranny of fear. We hope that the aspiration of the people to freedom makes them fair and in solidarity with the misery of others. But very often this is not the case. Moreover, when the slavery of dependence on some is more convenient and secure than the responsibility of freedom.

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It turns out that freedom is not only a high value, it is also a heavy burden for man. Because it is your responsibility. The free man not only takes autonomous decisions. He also realizes the implications of them. It is not free, for example, the sleepwalker. He is not responsible, but rather responds to him. Free action is engagement with other people. It is an expression of morality. If, for example, I believe that in a given situation I have to behave like an honest person, I show with my action how everyone else should behave in such a situation. This means that my individual action binds me to everyone else. Being free means not thinking about your action as just an individual but also as a universal one. When we affirm certain values ​​with our behavior, we actually defend what we understand as valid for all. Therefore, it seems much easier and less painful to comply with generally accepted norms, with public opinion. It is a fear of the responsibility that we take if we act differently from other people, because then the guilt is only ours. Conversely, if we do something, not according to our own conviction, but simply because it is accepted, it means uncertainty in the general sense of the act. Such behavior and action is not truly free. Indeed, free will obliges, it is responsible behavior. And responsibility for the consequences of choosing is difficult for people. In most cases, one wants to act innocently, that is, so that the blame for the failure of the actions is not his.

The escape of freedom is a denial of personal choice. Erich Fromm first analyzed the reasons for this escape. He sees the roots of the escape from freedom in the perceived feeling in people that they can not influence social processes, which causes some of them to fear their own affairs and not to take responsibility for personal choice. The escape of freedom has many forms. The most common is conformism. This is an uncritical agreement with others. The escape of freedom is mythical, unconscious - it is accepting without reflection what others are doing. It is a follow-up to the commonplace, public opinion and traditions, it is an unconditional obedience, a conscious self-conceitment of society. The escape of freedom is the adaptation to the stereotypes of the action of others, the conversion of the individual into their reflection, the loss of personality. It is a constant comparison with what is a common cause and never a distinction from it. By running out of their free choice, people become the same, ie. average people. They do not act autonomously, but rather automatically, as it does in society in general. Due to a lack of own decisions, the prisoners follow the social norms mechanically. Their behavior resembles that of automatic machines whose program is preset. This is behavior without risk and responsibility. Responsibility for cases is transferred to the state, the institutions, the public system, the parents, the leaders, and so on. Such obedience, according to the traditions of psychoanalysis, is characteristic of masochism, self-humiliation, and trampling of the Self. The escape of freedom is such a masochistic act. It is voluntary giving to the power of other people, institutions, and so on. In this, Erich Fromm sees the psychological cause of the emergence of authoritarian societies in Europe in the twentieth century. In its most extreme versions, fascism and communism are not only a consequence of the repression of totalitarian power but also of a voluntary masochistic obedience to significant parts of the people, to bear the burden of their personal responsibility. This explains to a large extent the true authority that many leaders of the authoritarian states - Hitler and Stalin - held for many people. Fromm sadly finds that the maxim that Hegel once said that "the truth of authority is slavery" is fair. For, even though it is true that slavery is violence, there are no rulers without slavish attitude.