The freak of the universe
Erich Fromm states that “self-awareness, reason and imagination” are responsible for disrupting “the harmony” which “characterizes animal existence.” Their development has turned man into “an anomaly, into the freak of the universe.” On the one hand, he is “part of nature,” “subject to her physical laws and unable to change them,” but on the other hand, he “transcends the rest of nature.” It turns out to be that man is “homeless, yet chained to the home he shares with all creatures.” The irony is that we, people, constantly forget that we only share this home with others, we don’t own it. Destroying and changing the word around us, we bring suffering to numerous living creatures that also live on this planet.
The unique ability
According to Erich Fromm, reason is both our “blessing” and our “curse.” We owe our progress to it, for reason forces us to cope “everlastingly with the task of solving an insoluble dichotomy.” In this respect human’s life is “different” from that of all “other organisms.” What is more, man is “the only animal” that can be “bored.” Man is also “the only animal” who finds his own existence a problem “which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.” The irony is that we are not unique in this ability. Many animals – though incapable of questioning the meaning of their existence – can be bored and even depressed. For instance, cats, dogs, and even birds do have feelings which we can’t understand, for we are representatives of different species.
Making new idols
People’s gods have been changing in accord with mankind’s development. As long as man feels “largely identified with nature,” his gods are “a part of nature.” Later on, when his skills “as an artisan” grow, he starts building idols out of “stone or wood, or gold.” Finally, gaining a greater feeling of his own strengths, his gods obtain “the shape of human beings.” The irony is that man becomes his own god. We have yet to see how the concept of God will change in the future. The only thing we can be sure of is that it – the concept – acquires new and loses old characteristics all the time.
