Erich Fromm - To have or to be (1977)

[@andreselectrico]

He is taking about today's world. More than four decades and still so valuable. A real philosopher. The School of Frankfurt was great stuff.

[@jamesboswell9324]

This is so good. Fromm is one of those brilliant thinkers who through the power of his straightforward communication of ideas makes you feel brilliant when you listen to him. And the main idea here also connects in many ways with the more recent work of Iain McGilchrist on the role of brain lateralisation. He would say having mode is left-hemisphere dominant whereas the being mode is right-hemisphere dominant.

[@jossiesh7649]

Erich Fromm is a profound thinker. If it was possible, I would oblige all country leaders to read and discuss Fromm's thoughts.

[@HodsBroo]

This is a remarkable discussion

[@AxmedBahjad]

Notice how this journalist is a well-read! Chris Hedges is the only journalist who follows in that tradition!

[@navegandomivandestadt34]

Brilliant Fromm very prevalent today

[@fabiodeoliveiraribeiro1602]

This can be considered the first piece of resistance to the apotheosis of "having" as the only form of expression of human existence that was imposed on everyone by neoliberalism in the 1970s.

[@badreddine.elfejer]

The having mode transposed into religious practices makes it profoundly interesting and relevant

[@debralegorreta1375]

One dies from having.

[@5hydroxyT]

for me what matters most is finding the balance between having and being...one needs to acquire certain necessities for the body (food, water, oxygen) to function well enough that being (or becoming) a fully realized human is possible.

[@numbersix8919]

And that is the basic idea behind socialism. To remove the burdens of survival for everyone.

[@user-yk9sk7pg6v]

Excellent, thank you.

[@nicoangelchiu]

Thank you for your sharing

[@kristinamelnichenko5775]

Thank you❣️

[@eqapo]

"Ive been had"

[@greggeerts5176]

the commutative laughs,from the radio host are indistinguishable from the real talk that /Erich Fromm has to say..

[@bundleofperceptions1397]

Oh Erich, you missed a great opportunity at the end. When the interviewer said "Thank you for being with us today," your response should have been, "Thank you for having me." It is not true that knowledge is expensive. I gained most of my knowledge out of college, and paid for it with my rent or property taxes which partly went to pay for the public library. It is true that gaining knowledge takes a tremendous amount of effort, and those who have not put the effort into it must take some of the blame for the mess we are in. Democracy depends on a well informed electorate, and most of the electorate have not put forth much of an effort to inform themselves about the world.

[@simonkalajdjiev9901]

hahaha brilliant

[@JoseSanchez-zo5tb]

Why is that funny?

[@TI_Ted]

@@JoseSanchez-zo5tb “thank you for having me” ?

[@famile888]

What's the sound of one hand clapping?

[@sebastianarevalo9113]

@@JoseSanchez-zo5tb be= "being here" have= "having me" Like the title book

[@ciscomail1315]

The mother of all the Questions...

[@Joke9972]

I 'have' a body... or I 'am' a body. If I 'have' a body, what has?! And if I 'am' a body, where is 'I' in that body?!

[@ivangoran4461]

"I" should not be perceived as thing in itself, but as connection to society and nature.

[@numbersix8919]

I "am" embodied.

[@zeusares4217]

I am what I am. I am most certainly not what I have. I am proud of what I am and not of what have or I would like to have.

[@AnthonyStJohn1]

The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

[@greggeerts5176]

the radio mind had not contemplated what has been said.

[@larryprimeau5885]

Luther honored Mary

[@TomerBenDavid]

But we don't use it as edit video computer we use it for work so why all reviews edit video with it

[@FilipAdamus]

To have in order to be: You need a property to be a good parent, citizen capable of acting for countrymen, free individual. It's not an alternative, but an implication rather

[@anhumblemessengerofthelawo3858]

A free individual? You are a single cell within an organism. A free cell would be a mutation -- cancer. Look at American pop culture! Living death! You call it ... Freedom!

[@FilipAdamus]

Mate, that's funny. Fromm's ideas are packed with contradictions.

[@ShawnMicheldeMontaigne]

Most people are unalive. They "live" to have, not to be. They are pure consumers, content to spend their lives consuming everything from goods and services to their relationships, no matter how intimate. Nothing escapes their consumption--not even a sunset, or their child's smile, or sex with their partner. They even consume spirituality and religion. They don't seek to serve, but to be served. Jesus is a butler. So is the Buddha and all the rest of them. Is it any wonder that this world is literally burning up or flooding away? Is it any wonder that our political leaders are nightmare clowns, to coin a term from Benjamin Hoff? Is it any wonder that fascism is on the rise--the ultimate consumer political philosophy? Few ever bother looking at any of this, not for even a second, so myopic are they intellectually and spiritually. Because to do so would instantly call their entire "lives" into question. And that they will never, ever do.

[@lifechoices6643]

Sending one's children to school,paying their fees,doctor's fees-which category does all this fall in-having or being.

[@extraorchidinary6347]

It's having. You pay for your children because you want to have educated and successful children or have your success in the form of such children. What about making your children honest even if it risks their even being successful in having something. I bet you would never want this. After all who wants honest but unsuccessful children.

[@spritecut]

These are existential needs, as they are the demands of existence. You do not ‘have’ an education, you ‘are’ educated. The proof of this is that you can freely give away, or share, your skills and knowledge without losing anything yourself. You do not get medical help, your sickness is attended to by a physician. This may sounded like linguistic pedantry, but the nuance is important in understanding and prioritising your needs and desires. He gives a good example at the beginning of this interview, ‘I do not have a happy marriage’ as opposed to ‘I am happily married’. One can go further to clarify this position, I do not ‘have’ a wife/husband, I am in a relationship with a wife/husband. With this subtle change, the relationship is understood and experienced differently.

[@simonkalajdjiev9901]

It`s more about how you think of it, rather than how it is.

[@tsun2beculturd33]

To my understanding,, in some degrees, there are things for survival we need to address. But the means we use to gain those needs, can be in a mindset of BEING. I thank Old man Fromm for bringing forth enlightening ideas and concepts of how one may handle such crisis of NOT BEING, NOT ENJOYING LIFE AS IT IS. Perhaps these days we care so much about our superficial needs because we haven't been confronted by death as seriously and grimly as the days past. Of course, I'm merely speaking out of subjective notion. Though, through being Zen, being in a state of wuwei, can certainly help make our earthly vessel a curiously observant and functionally present vehicle we travel in. The art of not forcing. To relate to the now, we may Feel what it's like to be in a sorrowful world of pandemic issues, how effortful it is to earn money, see how ill managed many cities and nations are, though on the other hand, also feel how much you love your children and willing to make sacrifices for them, out of love, the true love you brew for so long with your family, the delightful moments shared with friends and loved ones, the happiness in your solitude, in passion, in loving companies and engagements of their presence. 🙄 I think TO HAVE- is almost like a FOMO mentality, where you basically think by having certain something, your life will be of joy and love. I guess you can argue, what if we already are loved, but we need cash to upkeep life,,, So here I might be pushing it,, but I think that can also count as TO BE, if one makes the journey to create passions in one's life, they can be present and passionate in what they do.

[@debralegorreta1375]

Depends on your mode of being at the time of making the payments. . . the fact that you focus on the payment aspect of these relationships says a lot about you. Sanjit, did you purchase an elite education for your offspring, a luxury brand, like IIT? Did you get what you paid for? What if one of your offsprings was inadequate, did you bribe the school officials to let him in?

[@ahmadkazemi8728]

as I said before it's a sick world that made the humans sick, for example if you leave a kid in a candy store with complete freedom unsupervisioned see what happens, kid will consume enough candy to get sick,

[@jabeurs2124]

I'm Rich or I have a lot of money There's a difference?

[@robertburatt5981]

"If I 'have' nothing-I am nothing"; don't stop there! What is the effects on a democracy if a large number of the electorate are in this condition-an important consideration beyond the individual case where the clinical merges with the political.

[@robertburatt5981]

How does Fromm associate the words a person uses with his/her character that is a valid inference within this hypothesis ?

[@robertburatt5981]

​@HappyManSometime I agree, except I think that the linguistic approach and emphasis to identifying the zeitgeist can be attributed largely to Fromm, not consumerism as such.

[@Koral171]

He would write this book quite differently in present time..

[@aromasatanicata]

not too differently though

[@kunwerali]

Bookmark 31:00

[@markofsaltburn]

Soundtrack by Boards of Canada.

[@laceydelayne8708]

Who is the interviewer here? What program was it?

[@calsavestheworld]

Those are great glasses. I want glasses like those. I wonder if they cut his cheek. I think I'm willing to take the chance. A face scar. That would be badass. Yes this is all coming together.

[@ShawnMicheldeMontaigne]

Pathetic.

[@sabaokujava5202]

Classic example of journalist's erudite performance. Wish there were more, instead of capitalistic journalists

[@downandout73]

Well, Erich Fromm criticized capitalism. The Sane Society was a good book, and so was Escape From Freedom.

[@zardoz7900]

Let's say I live in a small village and I suddenly get attacked by barbarians, what would Erich Fromm suggest that I do? I'm surrounded and I can't escape and I do have weapons and I can't reason with them because they are running towards me with weapons.

[@deviwarrior5072]

This neoliberal society feels more like I’m living in an insane asylum 😮

[@hanskung3278]

Christ wanted something.....heaven.

[@numbersix8919]

To be in Heaven, not to have it.

[@hanskung3278]

@@numbersix8919 Really?

[@numbersix8919]

@@hanskung3278 CS Lewis: "Then in a certain sense, Heaven really is a state of mind?" George MacDonald: "Do not blaspheme, my son!" -- CS Lewis, "The Great Divorce"

[@gmmaal7161]

if you never wanted to have anything for yourself you would never show respect for other people to have things for themselves. you could always say that the poor people might have nothing but they still "are". Beeing is not enough. The poor people want their rights to own property too.

[@numbersix8919]

In the USSR, everyone had the right to "be" a landowner! That's why all the pampered Russia-haters of Eastern Europe still have nice country houses -- the USSR gave it to them!

[@greggeerts5176]

this interviewer has no idea of the main goal of this person,..

[@hanskung3278]

Yes, let's go back to being a primitive society, superstition and no antibiotics and life span, if you lucky, 30 years....oh yes, the good ole days.

[@figurefiguras4104]

The 30 years thing is completely wrong, infant mortality is what lowers the average lifespan, and can't you notice how nowadays w all the cool sh*t we HAVE depression is steadily rising in every demographic group? as for supersition well... Lol just look around you

[@hanskung3278]

@@figurefiguras4104 Right on! Bring back the Middle Ages and witch burning!

[@ShawnMicheldeMontaigne]

Ignorant.

[@figurefiguras4104]

@@hanskung3278 see thats some retarded logic there bro

[@taylornovia8911]

Is the quantity good quality?