Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the tension between the standardization of individuals in society and the concept of equality.
Erich Fromm suggests that just as mass production in modern economies necessitates the standardization of products to ensure efficiency and profitability, society also imposes standardization on individuals in the name of equality. This standardization reflects a societal expectation that can suppress individuality and diversity, offering a critical perspective on how the pursuit of equality might lead to conformity rather than true freedom for all.
In practice
During a debate about social policies, one might use this quote to argue against the over-standardization of citizens.
Love, experienced thus, is a constant challenge; it is not a resting place, but a moving, growing, working together; even whether there is harmony or conflict; joy or sadness, is secondary to the fundamental fact that two people experience themselves from the essence of their existence, that they are only one with each other by being one with themselves, rather than by fleeing from themselves.
Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating the outside world.
Infantile love follows the principle: "I love because I am loved." Mature love follows the principle: "I am loved because I love." Immature love says: "I love you because I need you." Mature love says: "I need you because I love you.
To have faith requires courage, the ability to take a risk, the readiness even to accept pain and disappointment. Whoever insists on safety and security as primary conditions of life cannot have faith; whoever shuts himself off in a system of defense, where distance and possession are his means of security, makes himself a prisoner. To be loved, and to love, need courage, the courage to judge certain values as of ultimate concern – and to take the jump and to stake everything on these values.
In times of change, learners inherit the earth
In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.
Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were behind you.
Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
You have freedom when you're easy in your harness.
I have seen my Lord with the eye of my heart, and I said: 'Who are You?' He said: 'You.'
When man tries to imagine Paradise on earth, the immediate result is a very respectable Hell.
Isn't it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.