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Interesting Book - "The Sane Society" (1955) by Eric Fromm.
I read "The Sane Society" by the psychologist Eric Fromm a few weeks back.
Even though it was written in 1955, I think it is still relevant today, maybe even more so.
That was near the beginning of the sort of period we're in and he diagnosed some of the problems at the outset.
It was a great relief to find someone saying what is obvious. Our society is basically unhealthy, insane. :)
He spends the first two thirds of the book saying why this is so and slagging off capitalist society of the last couple of centuries and then in the last third he tries to come up with an answer to the vitally important question: "It's all very well you slagging everything off but what would you do and how would you do it?"
He sketches out some answers and they are quite convincing. I don't think they are utopian. I think they're only natural.
One thing that he stresses and that J.K. Galbraith and E.F. Schumacher (for example) stress is that the conventional economic way of looking at the world is relatively new and complete bollocks.
I also read "The Economics of Innocent Fraud" by J.K. Galbraith, one of the greatest economists who ever lived and he seemed to be saying that his whole subject was bullshit:) .
I wish the style of this little book was less ironic and elusive. I wish he'd been more concrete in it.
I can't help thinking he was reluctant to spell it all out.
The conventional view of work, employment and unemployment is questioned by Galbraith in this book, his last and in his view his best.
Eric Fromm also believed that a component of a sane society was a basic guaranteed income for all, as explained in the book. So I am not the only one. E.F. Schumacher also makes the point that work must come to be regarded as work and not just as paid work. I will put up a quote about this.
Andre' Gorz, another Green philosopher, also believed in some kind of basic income.
I think Eric Fromm is a sensible psychologist, and an excellent thinker.
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Another thing to ask, which is relevant to the question of cultural lag, is :
Why should people be encouraged more to read "The Communist Manifesto" of 1848 - also why should more people have heard of it? - than "The Sane Society" of 1955??
In the year 2048 - if we are still here - will people find "The Communist Manifesto" more relevant than "The Sane Society"?
And will it still be the case that far more people will have heard of "The Communist Manifesto" than "The Sane Society"??
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BASIC INCOME
EARTH NETWORK:
BASIC INCOME
EARTH NETWORK:
http://www.basicincome.org/bien/