#Gajo Petrović

[gregor-samsung]

As a being of praxis, man is a being of freedom. There is no freedom without man, and there is no humanity without freedom. This does not mean that all men have everywhere and always been free. On the contrary, one of the most widespread phenomena in contemporary society is the escape from freedom (See E. Fromm, “Escape from Freedom”, New York, 1941). People feel their freedom and the responsibility associated with it as a heavy burden of which they wish to be relieved, transferring it to others. The escape from freedom was one of the most fundamental factors in the spread of Fascism and Nazism as movements in which individuals were freed of the burden of freedom and all responsibility was assumed by a leader (il Duce, der Führer). Those who so freed themselves of freedom were willing to submit without contradiction to the leader, silencing any inner human voice. They were ready for the most wicked crimes, but also for physical hardships and sacrifice. Without deliberation they killed and looted, froze on snowy plains and choked in the sands of the desert. The burden of freedom is also heavy for people in "democratic" (capitalistic) countries. To them as well, the escape from freedom is a mass phenomenon, only the forms are different. One of these forms is avoidance of the effort of thought; uncritical, passive acceptance of opinions that are suggested by the media of mass communication, as well as other ways. The escape from freedom makes its appearance in socialism too. Here too we encounter people who seek to avoid or be rid of freedom, who reduce or attempt to reduce themselves to blind executors of the directives of higher social or political forums, who are prepared to be active to the limit even of physical exhaustion only in order not to have to carry the invisible but nevertheless difficult and unpleasant burden of freedom. The escape from freedom is a spreading phenomenon in the contemporary world, and to the extent that he evades freedom man is not man. “The escape from freedom is a form of man's self-alienation”. The young Marx wrote: «A life danger for every being consists in loss of oneself. Unfreedom is thus a real death danger for man» (Marx, Engels, “Werke”, bd. I, p. 60). This is well said, but one should go even farther: “Unfreedom is not merely the death danger for man, unfreedom is man's death”. Through becoming unfree, man ceases to be man.

Gajo Petrović, Marx in the Mid-Twentieth Century: A Yugoslav Philosopher Reconsiders Karl Marx's Writings, Anchor Books, Garden City, New York, 1967; pp. 118-19.

[onecoloroneday]

Gajo Petrović