To Have or to Be?

An enlightened, sublime, 'awake' (instead of dreaming) utopia! This book must be on the shelf of every one who is above starvation and concerns human well-being. We have shamefully abandoned the City of God for City of Progress. Now wake up from the slumber of passivity, let the new society be City of Being! Oh, no more 'no answer' for the answerless questions...more

An enlightened, sublime, 'awake' (instead of dreaming) utopia! This book must be on the shelf of every one who is above starvation and concerns human well-being. We have shamefully abandoned the City of God for City of Progress. Now wake up from the slumber of passivity, let the new society be City of Being! Oh, no more 'no answer' for the answerless questions -- of Pascal's misery without God, Kant's groundwork for morals, Kierkegaard's existential commitment! The notion of religiosity is so brilliant -- "a group-shared system of thought and action that offers the individual a frame of orientation and object of devotion"! The passion play among the fourfold has at last begun. I particularly love Fromm's apology and critique of Marxism, which has long been misrepresented in both East and West. Soviet Union and China are no communist/ socialist countries. They defeat Marx's noble ideal by 1) further antagonizing other classes 2) spinning around "mass consumption for the whole population" -- exactly the same consumerism as capitalism gives to a minority. The solution may take the form of participatory democracy, consumer strike, Cultural Council, shared information/ knowledge, etc.   hide