Havin’ fun

Erich Fromm describes the condition of late modern humanity: “well fed, well clad, satisfied sexually, yet without self, without any except the most superficial contact with his fellow men, guided by slogans which Huxley formulated so succinctly, such as: ‘When the individual feels, the community reels’; or, ‘Never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today’; or as the crowning statement: ‘Everybody is happy nowadays.’  Man’s happiness consists in ‘having fun.’  Having fun lies in the satisfaction of consuming and ‘taking in’ commodities, sights, foods, drinks, cigarettes, people, lectures, books, movies – all are consumed, swallowed.  The world is one great object for our appetite, a big apple, a big bottle, a big breast; we are the sucklers, the eternally expectant ones, the hopeful ones – and the eternally disappointed ones.”