According to philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, society and technology have a crucial influence on individual happiness. Fromm identifies the “promise of unlimited progress” that drove Western development from the Industrial Revolution up into the 1960s, as one of the fundamental problems of modern capitalist systems. According to Fromm, the dream of endless technological development has led to a depletion of natural resources and the destruction of nature. It has created societies that emphasise material possessions, while, at the same time, making it harder for their citizens to become balanced and happy individuals.
This article is part of The Ultimate Guide to the Philosophy of Erich Fromm.
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Fromm on Society, technology and progress
Fromm wants to argue that our societies, as they are now, necessarily create unhappy individuals. This is an important point, for many reasons:
First, if this was true, one could not just blame the unhappiness of people in industrialised societies on accidental events, like a pandemic, a war, unemployment or a disease. All these, of course, tend to make things worse – but, according to Fromm, it is the very fabric of our system that is bound to create unhappy individuals. We cannot hope to get a happy industrial society by, say, raising the taxes or lowering them, by promoting social housing or supporting free enterprise, by regulating against pollution or in favour of big oil. None of these, as necessary as some of them might be, will be able to change the root of the ailment of our societies: that capitalism, as it practised in the Western industrialised world, is just not compatible with human happiness and flourishing.
Second, if this was true, it would mean that we don’t need to individually feel guilty for being depressed, unhappy, plagued by anxiety and feelings of inadequacy. We might be doing nothing wrong and still be victims: victims of a system that we cannot control and that takes away our chances at a full, satisfying human life, a system that cheats us out of our lives without giving us anything of real value back.
And third, if this was true, it would mean that the only proper way to deal with human unhappiness would be a revolutionary one. No visits to the psychiatrist would help, no extended holidays, no pay raise. If the society is what is making us sick, then this society must go. In a way, this is the purest form of the legacy of Marx in Fromm: the rebirth of man must happen through a restructuring of the society in which we live.
The promise of unlimited technological progress
In explaining how capitalist societies make people unhappy, Fromm goes back to the beginning of industrialisation and to the height of its …
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