< A beneficial cane
>
2023.01.30
Seunghee You
Seunghee You
"Fantasy about oneself can be a beneficial cane for those who cannot walk alone.
But a cane only makes a person weaker. ”1)
But a cane only makes a person weaker. ”1)
The 21st century is closely related to illusion, fiction, fantasy, and virtuality. The online world, where everyone can adjust and create as they please, is an ideal space to be considered fantastic. Just as a cane is beneficial to a person who cannot walk alone, fantasies made in cyber are beneficial cane that causes the impossible in reality. A useful cane gives pleasure and satisfaction through vicarious experience. This satisfaction consciously makes you think that you are a free being in the real world. It brings the illusion that you are an individual with your own will because you are not bound by anything. In a short period of time, it stimulates through a lot of things and It quickly help to escapes us so that I don't suffer from the annoying question of "Is this what I want?", "who I am?". Then, the individual becomes distant from the real world where he or she lives and forgets his or her anxiety. Here, anxiety does not disappear, but still remains and is only forgotten momentarily. Therefore, the real world loses its true relationship with reality and accumulates anxiety without even realizing it. That's why "a beneficial cane only makes a person weaker.". A beneficial cane, how grateful to someone who cannot walk alone. It's even touching. Today, however, the welcome and warmth conveyed by the emergence of a cane that is desperately needed for those who cannot walk alone are becoming a trick that makes individuals weaker in the online world.
I explained the fantasy generated in the cyber world by comparing it to a 'beneficial cane'. In 『Escape from Freedom』 , Eric Pinchas Fromm (1900-1980) brings a cane as cited above and explains the dangers of fantasy about himself in a culture based on a modern industrial system. His theory is so timely that I can't believe it was in the 1940s when he wrote the book. The sharp interpretation that modern people broke ties under the name of freedom and isolated individuals into helpless beings is reminiscent of modern people still obeying a new type of totalitarian rule and moving away from true freedom.
Reading so far can make you feel pessimistic. However, just as Fromm found the possibility of overcoming the tragedy of modern freedom that makes individuals isolated through the spontaneousness, i writes and paints with the aim of making the aforementioned beneficial cane truly beneficial through consideration of spontaneous activities. Fromm defines an individual who can express itself voluntarily as an artist. He said, 'When we sense a landscape spontaneously, when we realize a truth as a result of our thoughts, when we feel unconventional sensory pleasure, or when love for others springs up, we all recognize what spontaneous action is at this moment. 2) Artists are people who boldly express their expressions about the world they see, so there will be more moments when they recognize spontaneous actions than ordinary people. Today, however, it is difficult to see an artist as a representative object of spontaneity because there are people who have fake egos through the expectations and needs of others or economic and social life among artists. Instead Children who have the ability to act as they feel and say what they want to say properly reveal the meaning of spontaneity. When you see a drawing with innocence like a child, you get joy and comfort that you don't know the reason. That's reason this may be that the desire for freedom in human nature can be resolved for a while from naive drawings that no one is conscious, and expresses spontaneous.
Fromm divides freedom into passive freedom and active freedom. Passive freedom is the freedom felt by the fake self, and active freedom is the freedom felt based on spontaneity. He believes that active freedom is a form of self-realization, which fully affirms the individual's uniqueness. In addition, it is said that humans gain stability at every moment through voluntary activities. Coupang, which is loved by most people, is Korea's leading delivery platform where almost everything can be received with fast delivery at the most reasonable price. The reality that I can compare numerous kinds of items at once and find a reasonable price and receive them quickly makes me lose the sense of reality about the item. It's definitely a product that I chose and chose for myself, but I forget or throw it away so easily that I'm shopping for new items before I know it. Fromm said that just because we use the item doesn't mean it's ours. It is said that only when we have a true relationship with the object through creative activities can it be ours whether it is a person or inanimate object. 3) Here, creative activity means voluntary activity. For example, feeling and thinking about the object and expressing it in one's own language is a creative activity that makes a true relationship with the object. goods that are easily bought and thrown away. There's a lot of stuff, but my own doesn't exist. Avatars, profiles, and beautiful images in Instagram that replace me are overflowing, but "I" who enjoys active freedom disappears. Just as things that have not had a real relationship with me are abandoned, even myself who has not had a spontaneity relationship with myself has been abandoned and I don't even know where they are. The amount of trash thrown away so large that there is no place to incinerate will be proportional to the anxiety of modern man expressed in the act of easily buying and throwing away. The phenomenon that new trends, designs, and model names are pouring out every season to the point where it is difficult to know all about symbolizes modern people's anxiety. In the face of so much information, our emotions and critical judgments freeze. In the end, an attitude of overwhelmed individual is bound to be monotonous and indifferent. Human beings who have lost their spontaneity are anxious. Insecurity doubles for humans who do not even know they have lost their spontaneity and are automated in the media system. Therefore, efforts to find spontaneity should be made to achieve stability, not anxiety.
1) Eric Pinchas Fromm , 『 Escape from Freedom 』, Humanist, Seokhee Kim, 2020, p.269
I explained the fantasy generated in the cyber world by comparing it to a 'beneficial cane'. In 『Escape from Freedom』 , Eric Pinchas Fromm (1900-1980) brings a cane as cited above and explains the dangers of fantasy about himself in a culture based on a modern industrial system. His theory is so timely that I can't believe it was in the 1940s when he wrote the book. The sharp interpretation that modern people broke ties under the name of freedom and isolated individuals into helpless beings is reminiscent of modern people still obeying a new type of totalitarian rule and moving away from true freedom.
Reading so far can make you feel pessimistic. However, just as Fromm found the possibility of overcoming the tragedy of modern freedom that makes individuals isolated through the spontaneousness, i writes and paints with the aim of making the aforementioned beneficial cane truly beneficial through consideration of spontaneous activities. Fromm defines an individual who can express itself voluntarily as an artist. He said, 'When we sense a landscape spontaneously, when we realize a truth as a result of our thoughts, when we feel unconventional sensory pleasure, or when love for others springs up, we all recognize what spontaneous action is at this moment. 2) Artists are people who boldly express their expressions about the world they see, so there will be more moments when they recognize spontaneous actions than ordinary people. Today, however, it is difficult to see an artist as a representative object of spontaneity because there are people who have fake egos through the expectations and needs of others or economic and social life among artists. Instead Children who have the ability to act as they feel and say what they want to say properly reveal the meaning of spontaneity. When you see a drawing with innocence like a child, you get joy and comfort that you don't know the reason. That's reason this may be that the desire for freedom in human nature can be resolved for a while from naive drawings that no one is conscious, and expresses spontaneous.
Fromm divides freedom into passive freedom and active freedom. Passive freedom is the freedom felt by the fake self, and active freedom is the freedom felt based on spontaneity. He believes that active freedom is a form of self-realization, which fully affirms the individual's uniqueness. In addition, it is said that humans gain stability at every moment through voluntary activities. Coupang, which is loved by most people, is Korea's leading delivery platform where almost everything can be received with fast delivery at the most reasonable price. The reality that I can compare numerous kinds of items at once and find a reasonable price and receive them quickly makes me lose the sense of reality about the item. It's definitely a product that I chose and chose for myself, but I forget or throw it away so easily that I'm shopping for new items before I know it. Fromm said that just because we use the item doesn't mean it's ours. It is said that only when we have a true relationship with the object through creative activities can it be ours whether it is a person or inanimate object. 3) Here, creative activity means voluntary activity. For example, feeling and thinking about the object and expressing it in one's own language is a creative activity that makes a true relationship with the object. goods that are easily bought and thrown away. There's a lot of stuff, but my own doesn't exist. Avatars, profiles, and beautiful images in Instagram that replace me are overflowing, but "I" who enjoys active freedom disappears. Just as things that have not had a real relationship with me are abandoned, even myself who has not had a spontaneity relationship with myself has been abandoned and I don't even know where they are. The amount of trash thrown away so large that there is no place to incinerate will be proportional to the anxiety of modern man expressed in the act of easily buying and throwing away. The phenomenon that new trends, designs, and model names are pouring out every season to the point where it is difficult to know all about symbolizes modern people's anxiety. In the face of so much information, our emotions and critical judgments freeze. In the end, an attitude of overwhelmed individual is bound to be monotonous and indifferent. Human beings who have lost their spontaneity are anxious. Insecurity doubles for humans who do not even know they have lost their spontaneity and are automated in the media system. Therefore, efforts to find spontaneity should be made to achieve stability, not anxiety.
1) Eric Pinchas Fromm , 『 Escape from Freedom 』, Humanist, Seokhee Kim, 2020, p.269
2)
Eric Pinchas Fromm
, 『
Escape from Freedom
』,
Humanist,
Seokhee Kim, 2020, p.281
3)
Eric Pinchas Fromm
, 『
Escape from Freedom
』,
Humanist,
Seokhee Kim, 2020, p.282