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ON DISOBEDIENCE ERICH FROMM  |
On Disobedience - Erich Fromm
There is no rationality or sense in it. But the fact is that, 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.(....) Why is man so prone to obey and why is it so difficult for him to disobey? As long as I am obedient to the power of the State, the Church, or public opinion, I feel safe and protected. In fact it makes little difference what power it is that I am obedient to. It is always an institution, or men, who use force in one form or another and who fraudulently claim omniscience and omnipotence. My obedience makes me part of the power I worship, and hence I feel strong. I can make no error, since it decides for me; I cannot be alone, because it watches over me; I cannot commit a sin, because it does not let me do so, and even if I do sin, the punishment is only the way of returning to the almighty power. In order to disobey, one must have the courage to be alone, to err and to sin. But courage is not enough. The capacity for courage depends on a person's
state of development. Only if a person has
emerged from mother's lap and father's commands,
only if he has emerged as a fully developed
individual and thus has acquired the capacity
to think and feel for himself, only then
can he have the courage to say "no"
to power, to disobey. A person can become
free through acts of disobedience by learning
to say no to power. But not only is the capacity
for disobedience the condition for freedom;
freedom is also the condition for disobedience.
If I am afraid of freedom, I cannot dare
to say "no," I cannot have the
courage to be disobedient. 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.
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