Eric Fromm described a common illusion about Hitler in the following way. He noted that this is perhaps the "most dangerous" illusion of all. The illusion is:
"... that men like Hitler had gained power over the vast apparatus of the state through nothing but cunning and trickery, that they and their satellites ruled merely by sheer force; that the whole population was only the willess object of betrayal and terror. In the years that have elapsed since, the fallacy of these arguments has become apparent. We have been compelled to recognize that millions in Germany were as eager to surrender their freedom as their fathers were to fight for it; that instead of wanting freedom, they sought for ways of escape from it; that other millions were indifferent and did not believe the defense of freedom to be worth fighting and dying for."
And,
"The feature common to all authoritarian thinking is the conviction that life is determined by forces outside of man's own self, his interest, his wishes. The only possible happiness lies in the submission to these forces. The powerlessness of man is the leitmotif of masochistic philosophy."
ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM, 1941, Eric Fromm
Masochists unite! Your leader awaits you.
Mike B)
"Would you have freedom from wage-slavery.." Joe Hill http://www.shelfari.com/o1516968161
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