Who is Erich Fromm?

Answer 1

Eric Fromm can be called a "hands on" philosopher and author who's most famous work was called Escape From Freedom. This work is studied in both philosophy and political science courses. Fromm builds a strong case as to why society wishes to leave important aspects of how a society is run to in many cases a dictator or other type of government where the difficult decisions are made by strong leaders.

Recently this contributor was working on the workings of the dreaded Nazi Party in pre war Germany. Falling perfectly into one of Fromm's favorite categories was Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda minister of the Nazi Party.

Fromm believed that within mass movements, individuals can find an identity without having one of their own. They in this type of case "escape" from individuality to a mass movement.

In studying Goebbels, he was a brilliant man, a Ph.d, a man of letters so to speak who flirted with joining the mass movement of the German Communist Party. He later decided that the Nazi Party was more to his liking. The irony here is that both parties hated each other. And despite Goebbels' flirtation with Marxism, Hitler was happy to have him become a key member of the Nazi Party.