The Essence of Humanity

Description

Many believe that humans are sheep, while others believe they are wolves. Both sides can muster many compelling arguments to support their views. Those who say that humans are sheep need only point to how easily they can be influenced to do as they are told, even if it is harmful to them; how they follow their leaders into wars that bring them nothing but destruction; and how readily they believe any kind of nonsense if it is presented with enough energy and backed by some authority. Do we not see the inhumanity of humankind towards its fellow humans everywhere: in the brutality of war, in murder and rape, in the ruthless exploitation of the weak by the strong, and in the fact that the cries and groans of the tortured fall on deaf ears and hardened hearts? All these realities have led to the conclusion that “man is a wolf to his fellow man.” And they have led many of us today to assume that humankind is inherently evil and destructive, and that it is a killer that can only be deterred from its favorite pastime by intimidating it with other, even more ruthless killers.

With such ideas permeates Erich Fromm’s book *The Essence of Man*, as he analyzes various forms of violence, individual and social narcissism, the constraints of incest, and the concepts of predetermined freedom and free will.