In The Fear of Freedom, first published in 1941, German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm unmasks the ambivalent tendencies that have ingrained modern societies: the liberties achieved by the average individual citizen of democracies reliant on capitalism are directly proportional to the growth of universally experienced loneliness, insignificance, and fragility. This exhausting situation inevitably pushes the individual to seek some form of subterfuge or palliative to try and counter a growing feeling of anguish that seems to be innate, all-encompassing. This essay addresses the correlation between the absurd coherence of the Kafkaesque universe and Fromm’s claims regarding the mechanisms and crushing feelings —exacerbated by the spirit of latestage capitalism that plagues modern Western societies— first developed in Protestant ethics and discusses them regarding the problems of our times...

In The Fear of Freedom, first published in 1941, German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm unmasks the ambivalent tendencies that have ingrained modern societies: the liberties achieved by the average individual citizen of democracies reliant on capitalism are directly proportional to the growth of universally experienced loneliness, insignificance, and fragility. This exhausting situation inevitably pushes the individual to seek some form of subterfuge or palliative to try and counter a growing feeling of anguish that seems to be innate, all-encompassing. This essay addresses the correlation between the absurd coherence of the Kafkaesque universe and Fromm’s claims regarding the mechanisms and crushing feelings —exacerbated by the spirit of latestage capitalism that plagues modern Western societies— first developed in Protestant ethics and discusses them regarding the problems of our times...