"Indeed, the shadows are lengthening; the voices of insanity are becoming louder. We are in reach of achieving a state of humanity which corresponds to the vision of our great teachers; yet we are in danger of the destruction of all civilization, or of robotization." - Erich Fromm, The Sane Society, page 363
I haven't done a book review in a really long time. I haven't felt the need to, given I've been incorporating the books I've been reading over the past few years, as part of my research, into the philosophy book I'm currently writing. But The Sane Society (1955) by Erich Fromm, though also part of my research and which has been on my reading list for years and years, has compelled me with the need to, as was the case with Escape from Freedom. It's the fourth book of the great philosopher and psychologist that I read, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in social theory, political science, economics, anthropology, Marxism and/or psychology.
Fromm was a neo-Freudian post-Marxist, and in this fabulous, monumental book, he sides more with Friedrich Engels than with Karl Marx. For, for Fromm, workers owning the means of production wasn't enough. There has to be a revolution socially, culturally, politically, economically, as well as in education if there is to be a true socialist revolution in the benefit of humanity at all, one for, rather than against, the dignity of man—one that would put an end to the working class's feelings of alienation, anxiety, meaninglessness, purposeless, lostness and, what to Fromm was the ultimate bane of the human race—boredom. It would have to be a revolution that would stop people from being mere commodities of automation, like living, breathing robots, i.e., humanoids. They would take interest in their work, would feel a camaraderie and brotherhood with everyone they worked with and, most importantly, would stop feeling alienated from their work, from the products they produce, from their fellow workers, from those who dictated from above (for such centralization of power must become decentralized) and human beings would then stop feeling alienated—from themselves.
"In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead; in the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead. In the nineteenth century inhumanity meant cruelty; in the twentieth century it means schizoid self-alienation. The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots. True enough, robots do not rebel. But given man's nature, robots cannot live and remain sane, they become "Golems," they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life." - page 360
"The cry for individual initiative as an argument for Capitalism is at best a nostalgic yearning, and at worst a deceitful slogan used against those plans for reform which are based on the idea of truly human individual initiative." - page 356
It used to puzzle me the notion within socialist doctrine that the state is to be abolished. The state certainly isn't going to abolish itself. So how would such a thing occur? I used to ask myself. However, Fromm explains that it is the working class that would abolish the state, for the state, thanks to decentralization and humanity empowering itself with the joy of life, individuality, trust in ourselves and the industry we happen to work for, would have no more need for the state; it would become outdated, unneeded, a liability rather than an asset and would naturally, without force, fall away due to its obsoleteness. Laws, rules and regulations, voted on and enacted by the people and those voted in and authorized to defend and stand for said laws, rules and regulations, via checks and balances in the interest of the people, would make sure civilization continued on peacefully and happily without the need for the ugliness that is bureaucracy making us all feel like insignificant, worthless cogs that need to be controlled, checked, kept in line and as if completely and utterly expendable just so the powers that be can keep their authority and obscene wealth. We would finally have a sane society.
"The alienation of automatization leads to an ever-increasing insanity. Life has no meaning, there is no joy, no faith, no reality. Everybody is "happy"—except that he does not feel, does not reason, does not love." - page 360
I was really happy to see the following quote of his in the book, a quote I originally read in his classic The Art of Loving and which I proceeded to put as the epigraph of my 2019 book, The Chaos Cafe:
"The world is one great object for our appetite, a big apple, a big bottle, a big breast; we are the sucklers, the eternally expectant ones, the hopeful ones—and the eternally disappointed ones." - page 166
Fromm must be commended for the very powerful swing he took in life at urging the world to and showing the possibility of putting such madness to an end and replacing it with hope, life-affirmation and sanity, where capital would work for man, rather than man merely working for capital.
Rating: five stars, baby!
