Erich Fromm’s Warning: The Escape from Freedom
Historical protests and revolutions generally aim for “liberation from oppression.” Yet, the moment the chains are shattered, the masses find themselves nose-to-nose with the heavy responsibility and existential anxiety that accompany vast, unchartered freedom. Unable to bear the solitude of legislating their own laws and dictating their own survival, they look once more for a “powerful leader” or a “lucid ideology” to guide them. As Erich Fromm pointed out, even in the absence of external coercion, the masses will willingly surrender their freedom to hide inside a new authoritarian order.
A Change of Power, or a Change of Masters?
The minority rule that emerges in the wake of a revolution is less a violent usurpation of power and more a result of the few gathering up the responsibilities discarded by the masses. The elites who spearheaded the revolution overturn the system by fueling themselves with the public’s aspirations; however, under the pretext of cleaning up the chaos that follows the collapse of order, they simply initiate a new era of “managerial domination.” The masses instinctively prefer familiar control over chaos. In this process, the revolution concludes not as the “attainment of freedom,” but as a “replacement with a more sophisticated manager.”
The Perpetuity of the System: An Algorithm Engineered by Human Nature
Ultimately, the reason structures of domination are never truly dismantled is that they are rooted in the very depths of human nature. Most humans instinctively prefer the tranquility of playing a moderate role within a comfortable, pre-written script over a painful life of acting as a true subject to challenge the impossible. The structure of the ruler and the ruled is not an evil enforced from the outside; rather, it is a tacit symbiotic contract struck between the majority who crave a stable life and the minority who seize power by guaranteeing that very stability.
Conclusion: The Struggle of the Eternal Outsider
In the end, every attempt to dismantle a structure only gives birth to another. This is the futile cycle of history. Yet, those who still seek meaning within this loop do not fall into the illusion that they will “save everyone” through revolution. Instead, they choose to reject the comfortable anesthetics provided by the system, remaining perpetually awake for the sole purpose of ensuring that they themselves stand firm as a “solitary being capable of enduring freedom.”
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