For Roberto Silva. March 21, 2018
Inside every man and woman exist multiple forces that increase the ability to think, to communicate and achieve a greater understanding of the world and the people around us, for It is necessary to make an effort to increase these forces, which are none other than those of love and reason.(1)
Let us use the words of the German thinker to establish more precisely what he meant when he spoke of being active or adopting an orientation productive: “Love is an aspect of what has been called productive orientation: the active and creative relationship of man with his neighbor, with himself and with the nature. In the sphere of thought, this Productive orientation manifests itself in proper understanding of the world for reason. In the sphere of action, the productive orientation manifests itself in productive work, the prototypes of which are art and crafts. In the sphere of feeling, the productive orientation is expressed in love, which is the feeling of union with another person, with all men and with nature, provided that one retains the sense of integrity and independence".
He questioned that the activities carried out by people should have a utilitarian goal, much more so that they should seek to obtain some profit or benefit, and this is how he expressed it: “… more and more we limit ourselves to doing what has an end, that from which something results. And in the end what is this? It turns out to be money, or fame, or socioeconomic advancement, but less and less man thinks of doing something that has absolutely no end; he has forgotten that this is possible, and even desirable and, above all, beautiful. The most beautiful thing in life is to externalize one's own forces, and not for a specific purpose, but for the act itself ”.(3)
He categorically rejected that despair that seizes many individuals to obtain profit or some other type of benefit, and to consider without sense any activity that deviates from that purpose.
He pointed out that ideas that were the product of active thinking are generally new and original, not because they haven't previously thought by other people but because they allow us to discover new things, both in the world and in ourselves themselves.(4)
To grow and develop man needs to continue being born, This means dissolving the primary ties that bind it to blood and soil, it is taking a bold step with the consequence of renouncing certainties and defenses, it implies giving a leap towards commitment, according to Fromm psychoanalysis could help to undertake this path but in no way could it replace it, each person must assume responsibility for it before the lifetime.(5)
Fromm argued that being active was a basic requirement for human well-being, in the sense of exercising all his faculties, this means, neither more nor less, that swimming against the current, because in modern society we try to transform people into passive beings, thus depriving them of actively participating in social affairs, even in the company where he works and spends a good part of his time, consequently an attempt is made to limit his activity to affairs personal. If the man is passive in his work, it is quite possible that he is also passive in his rest time.(6)
The active and productive man is the one who captures the world objectively with his own faculties, which he cannot do if he is prey to the alienation that is the denial of productivity.
But there is only one solution which is to face the problem and use your own strength to give meaning to life, this does not imply full certainty, the demand for certainty can prevent the search for the meaning that life has for each one, the most important is the development of the powers of each human being, but always recognizing the limitations imposed by the laws of existence.(9)
The concept of productivity is a human faculty that contradicts the idea that man is lazy by nature. At the same time, Western society has been obsessed with the culture of work and the need to sustain constant activity, but laziness and compulsive activity are not opposed, they are two symptoms of the same disorder, the opposite of both is the productivity.
Freedom, economic security and a social organization in which work can be an expression of qualities of Man, will show the natural tendency of individuals to make productive use of their powers.(10)
In our opinion, what was interesting about the Frommian system of thought was that it left in the hands of men and the societies built by them the responsibility to achieve happiness or not, In other words, it should be the effect of their productive activity and not a gift that the gods gave. Happiness or joy is not the product of the satisfaction of a physiological or psychological need, it is not the relief of a tension, is a phenomenon that accompanies all productive activity, whether when thinking, feeling or in the action.
He differentiated joy in the sense that it refers to a particular activity, from happiness that is linked to a continuous experience. Happiness indicates that the person has found an answer to the problem of human existence, that is, he has achieved develop its potentialities and meets two essential conditions: it is part of this world and has preserved its own integrity.
Suffering is part of human existence and suffering it is inevitable, avoiding the pain at all costs only can be achieved through total isolation, which also excludes the possibility of experiencing happiness. The opposite of happiness is not sorrow or pain, it is depression which is inner sterility and unproductiveness.(11)
This is how Fromm explains it: Irrational pleasure is a sign of greed: indicates failure in solving the problem of human existence: Happiness (joy) is, on the contrary, the proof of partial or total success obtained in the ‘art of living’. Happiness is the greatest triumph of man; it is the response of his total personality to a productive orientation towards himself and towards the outside world ”.
But he made the clarification that he almost never forgot: nothing that is valuable is easy to obtain, humanistic ethics can postulate happiness as the supreme virtue, but it must be taken into account that the full development of productivity is the most hard.(12)
The humanism that Fromm proposed based on the long tradition of all those that we have cited throughout this work, does not have the purpose of repressing the evil of man, which is sought in authoritarian tendencies, but rather the productive use of capacities human. The essential thing is that the development of human beings is the end of all social and political activities, where people are the only objective and not the means for anything or anyone.
Any increase in joy that accompanies any productive activity that a culture can provide, will contribute more to the ethical education of its members than all the threats of punishment and the preaching in favor of virtue.(13)
They are the anxiety and insecurity of a person which induce him to hate, envy or submit to others, finding pleasure in these feelings lies in the lack of productivity, both physiological and irrational psychic needs are part of the system of scarcity.
Whereas the kingdom of abundance can exist only when people should not spend most of their lives working to survive. The evolution of the human race is characterized by the extension of the kingdom of abundance, of the use of energy surplus available for achievements that are beyond survival, all the advancements of Humanity were the result of the abundance.(14)
But that abundance also caused a state of conformity in broad social sectors: “We are training people without courage, who do not have the courage to lead an interesting or They are trained to pursue safety as their only vital objective, which in this way can only be achieved through total conformity and total lack of dynamism. In this sense it seems that joy and security are completely opposite, because joy is the consequence of an intense life, and if one lives with intensity it must be able to endure a lot of insecurity, because then life is at all times a very risky undertaking, with the only hope of not wavering or getting completely lost ”.
We should keep a certain sense of adventure, losing it for a sense of security would make life a complete boredom, which is tried to overcome through movies, television, magazines that tell us about the marriages and divorces of the show business, that is, satisfying the sense of adventure through third parties.(15)
Fromm also tried to show that passions rarely appear in isolation, usually taking the form of syndrome. Love, justice, solidarity and reason are interrelated, all of these are one manifestation of the productive orientation to which he gave the name of "favorable syndrome of lifetime". Sadomasochism, destructiveness, voracity, narcissism, often go together and make up the "syndrome contrary to life." Of course, people totally governed by one orientation or another are rare, most have a mixture of both, what matters is the strength of each one of them and in that the prevailing trend in the society.(16)
Let us now attend to another voice on the issue we are addressing, for that we will resort to one of those called for the book "Socialist Humanism." Mathilde Niel, who participated in the Resistance of Nazi-occupied France, said that the man who achieves his liberation is generous and selfless, he is also a creative person. Achieves develop your personality without for that reason ceasing to harmonize with his peers, he does not need idols, dogmas or prejudices because he is tolerant, with a deep sense of justice and equality, he is aware that he is an individual different from others but at the same time he is also a person universal.
The alienated man never manages to be himself, he does not live in the present, only in the future and seeks to adapt to a model that impose, do not think or act by himself, he must always resort to something or someone external: to tradition, to a creed, to a being top, etc. He needs to serve, hate, revere or fight someone. He dedicates his life to pursuing something, be it a material end: wealth, comfort, prestige; or a spiritual end that he transforms at all. The alienated person is usually violent, authoritarian and intolerant; but he is also usually cowardly because he fears authority, is afraid to think and act differently from others, he is fundamentally a conformist.(17)
Most people and even social classes cannot bear disappointment if not there is a positive solution, they simply will not listen or will not understand for more tests that are given to them show. That is why Fromm wondered if it would not be better to live in deception to avoid suffering, obviously he had an answer to that dilemma and is that the truth has a liberating effect, as a consequence makes it independent and helps to find a balance within our. You may come to the conclusion that you cannot change things but you will have managed to live and die as a man and not as a sheep.
Yes avoid pain and enjoy of the greatest comforts were the supreme values, deception would be preferable to the truth, but they are not, when more men succeed in removing the veils from their eyes, more social and individual changes will be possible.(18)
