In Society

   "We are surrounded by things of whose nature and origin we know nothing. ... We consume, as we produce, without any concrete relatedness to the objects with which we deal; we live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manage or consume them. Our way of consumption necessarily results in the fact that we are never satisfied, since it is not our real concrete person which consumes a real and concrete thing. We thus develop an increasing need for more things, for more consumption. ... There is a legitimate need for more consumption as man develops culturally and has more refined needs for better food, objects or artistic pleasures, ect. But our craving for consumption has lost all connection with the real needs of man. Originally, the idea of consuming more and better things was meant to give man a happier, more satisfied life. Consumption was a means to an end, that of happiness. It now has become an aim in itself. The constant increase of needs forces us to an ever-increasing effort, it makes us dependent on these needs and on the people and institutions by whose help we attain them. Each person speculates to create a new need in the other person, in order to force him into a new dependency, to a new form of pleasure, hence to his economic ruin. With a multitude of commodities grows the realm of alien things - which enslave man." - Erich Fromm, Social Psychologist