To Have or To Be

In To Have or To Be, Erich Fromm suggests that people fall into two categories: those that need “to have” and those that need “to be.”

* Those that need “to have” are chasing profits, power, and possessions. (I would add attention to his list.) He states that most current culture has a consumerist mindset that leads them in this direction.

* Those that need “to be” understand the importance of experience and can be fulfilled by the experience itself.

I am not recommending the book. It is technical and honestly, I think overreacts to a contemporary problem by promoting an extreme position on the other side. But there is value in the big concepts. As I read, I was inspired to improve my life in two specific areas: social media and politics.

Fromm wrote many decades before social media, but he would be appalled today. Far too much social media is about “having” attention, and very often, we generate social media at the expense of experience. How often do you see people focused on recording an experience such as a sunset for the purpose of posting it on social media? Why do we choose to live great experiences through a 5″ smartphone screen?

The current state of politics is even worse. Rather than focusing on the experience we actually live in with our small circles of friends/family/neighbors, we choose to focus on a game of duplicity many miles away. In that case, we are not even substituting one reality for another. We are rather substituting reality for a warped, fictional view of reality.

In those two areas, we are choosing to swap authentic experience for a very poor substitute. If you stop and think about it, it is obvious that the trade is a poor one.

We live in a great time in history and we can’t change our time. But on the other hand, it is prudent to see how technology and information overload have changed us, sometimes for the worse. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves to find beauty in the mundane and meaning in simple things.

I am resolved to do better. I hope you will join me.