Can We Become Fully Human during and after Late Capitalism?

As we try to envision a sane society for the current age, while clearly attempting to update Erich Fromm’s analysis, there are two topics that warrant consideration. Fromm was, of course, a professed Marxist humanist (and atheistic mysticist). He focused heavily on character types and political economy but said very little about the nature of contemporary political economy as such. Today, the extent to which neoliberal, globalized capital has impacted social character requires more careful scrutiny of political economy, beginning with the extent to which the means of production and accordingly the social relations of production undergird the dominant ideology and culture. For Fromm, obsessive pursuit of money is alienating, inimical to the full development of the self and society, not only for wage workers, but even the more lavish material comforts do not fully mitigate an underlying emptiness and loneliness. Although capitalism emphasizes unending technological progress, we want to show that it also creates its own negation through alienation that separates people from meaning and reality itself. To regain a sense of empowerment, some people embrace conspiracies, anti-science, and other beliefs that turn reality into a type of consumer choice.