The Fear of Freedom by Erich Fromm
View from my window, waking up in the morning. Taken with FujiFilm FinePix F50fd, Feb, 2009.
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I’m such a nerd. And I love the library here; too many books and too little time to read . Well, that’s besides the point. I came across Eric Fromm’s “The Fear of Freedom
“All our energy is spent for the purpose of getting what we want, and most people never question the premise of this activity: that they know their true wants. They do not stop to think whether the aims they are pursuing are something they themselves want. In school they want to have good marks, as adults they want to be more and more successful, to make more money, to have more prestige, to buy a better car, to go places and so on. Yet when they do stop to think in the midst of all this frantic activity, this question may come to their minds: “If I do get this new job, if I get this better car, if I can take this trip-what then? What is the use of it all? Is it really I who wants all this? Am I not running after some goal which is suppose to make me happy and which eludes me as soon as I have reached it?” These questions, when they arise, are frightening, for they question the very basis on which man’s whole activity is built, his knowledge of what he wants. People tend, therefore to get rid as soon as possible of these disturbing thoughts. They feel that they have been bothered by these questions because they were tired or depressed-and they go on in the pursuit of the aims which they believe are their own.
Yet all this bespeaks a dim realization of the truth- the truth that modern man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants what he is suppose to want. In order to accept this, it is necessary to realize that to know what one really wants is not comparatively easy, as most people think, but one of the most difficult problems any human being has to solve. It is a task we frantically try to avoid by accepting ready-made goals as though they were our own.”
These were the questions I’ve asked myself a year ago. And I still don’t really know what I want.
You see I know exactly what you want:
you want a fulfilled life, one where you can’t wait to wake up everyday and feel like you accomplished a lot by the time you get to bed.
Seng Ming
February 24, 2009 at 1:44 pm
ah… that’s true. But then you’d have to think… what make me feel fulfilled?
linglingtai
February 24, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Do something you like every single day =)
Seng Ming
February 25, 2009 at 1:07 am