Art between the provocation, and cynicism

[Art-lover]

Сообщение от Meister

Art-lover, but what do you mean by "escape from freedom"?

I partly mean, what does writing more Erich Fromm in his book "Escape from Freedom":

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... modern man, freed from the shackles of doindividualisticheskogo society that simultaneously limit it, and offered him the security and peace, has not acquired the sense of freedom in the realization of his identity, that is the realization of his intellectual, emotional and sensory abilities. Freedom brought the man's independence and rationality of its existence, but at the same time, to isolate him, awakened in him a feeling of helplessness and anxiety. This isolation is intolerable, and finds himself faced with a choice: either get rid of freedom with a new addiction, a new submission, or grow up to the full realization of positive freedom, based on the originality and individuality of each.
....
  In the modern history of the church was replaced by the power of state power, state power - the power of conscience, and these days the latter was ousted by the anonymous authority of common sense and public opinion, which turned into a gun konformizatsii. Freed from the previous open forms of government, we do not notice that the victims of a new kind of power. We turned into robots, but we live under the illusion that we are separate individuals. This illusion helps to keep the individual conscious awareness of his uncertainty, but the more it can not. As a result, the identity of the individual is weakened, so that the unconscious sense of powerlessness and insecurity, not only preserved, but also highly increased. Individual lives in a world which has lost all the original context in which everything and everyone instrumentalizovany, and he became part of the machine, created his own hands. He knows what thoughts, no feelings, no desires waiting for him around, and thoughts, feelings and wishes in accordance with these expectations, losing your ego, which alone can be a true belief of a free man.

The loss of his "I" is profound doubts about the self and thereby reinforces the need for adaptation. If I represent only what - in my opinion - is expected of me, then who am I? We have already seen how the collapse of the medieval system, in which each individual had his undisputed place, began doubts about its own essence. Since Descartes' true essence of the individual was one of the major problems of modern philosophy. Today, we think indisputable that we - that we are, but doubt - what is it? - Not only not disappeared, but perhaps even increased. This feeling of modern man is expressed in the plays of Pirandello. He raises questions: Who am I? Do I have proof of personal identity, but my physical body? His answers are different from the responses of Descartes. He claimed the individual personality, it denies Pirandello: the "I" is not its own essence, identity is simply a reflection of what others expect of her, a person - is "what you want."

This loss is its own essence turns konformizatsiyu an imperative: the person can be confident only if you live in accordance with the expectations of others. If we do not live in the generally accepted scenario, we run the risk not only cause disapproval and increased isolation, but also lose confidence in its essence, which threatens to mental health.

Adjusting to the expectations of others, trying not to differ from them, a person can dampen their doubts about his own nature and gain some confidence. However, the price is high for this: the rejection of its spontaneity, individuality and freedom. Psychological robot lives only biologically, emotionally, he's dead, he moves like a living, but in the meantime his life, like sand, goes through their fingers. Modern man represents the satisfaction and optimism, but deep down he is unhappy, almost on the verge of despair. He frantically clinging to every individual, he wants to be "not like everyone else, because there is no better recommendation for anything much more than words" is something special. " We are told the name of the railway cashier, who we buy a ticket; bags, playing cards and portable receivers, "personalized" the initials of their owners. All this testifies to the desire for "special", but this is probably the last vestiges of individuality. Modern man starved life, but because it is a robot, life could not mean a spontaneous activity, so he is satisfied with any substitutes excitation: drinking, sports, or experience other people's passions and fictional on-screen.
...
What does it mean freedom for the modern man? He was free from the shackles of external hindering act in accordance with their own thoughts and desires. He could operate freely on their own, if he knew what he wanted, what he thinks and feels. But he did not know and he adapts to the anonymous authority and learns is "I" which does not constitute its essence. And the more he does it, so helpless feeling, the more he is forced to adapt. Despite the visibility of optimism and initiative modern man overwhelmed by a deep sense of powerlessness, so it passively, as a quadriplegic, meets the looming catastrophe.

The epigraph to the book Fromm took a passage from Pico della Mirandola:

Neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal, I did not create you, so you can be free on their own will and conscience - and himself going to the creator and the creator. Only you gave me to grow and change on your own volition. You carry the seed of universal life.

Felt a "seed of universal life" can only be a person, but in our time, as shown by Fromm (and after almost everyone who studied this topic) personality rarely found in a mass of individuals, impersonality which masked illusion of personality.

The only freedom that excites the modern individual - freedom of consumption.

Having lost the primary bonds of traditional society, the individual is looking for new "secondary" bonds that dispensed with the complexities of self-knowledge and peace, the burden of selecting, from distinguishing between good and evil, truth and lies, from the pangs of genuine creativity, finally.

Fromm describes several directions to escape from freedom - authoritarianism, destructiveness and automates conformism.
The price of this flight - the prefix pseudo-to all the essential forces of man.
Fromm spoke lyudah in general, but it applies fully to the men of art in particular.
Psevdolichnosti who psevdomysli, psevdoemotsii, psevdozhelaniya, psevdotvorchestvo ...