To Be Or To Be By Erich Fromm

Shakespeare was one of the firsts to propose such a moving question that in a literal sense, is seen as to live or to die, to be or not to be. Erich Fromm writes To Have or To Be around this question but in more of a spiritual way. Fromm claims that there are two ways that people can choose to live, Being and Having. Fromm’s philosophy is that Having is not truly living, which is where “the question” is brought upon the readers. Throughout To Have or to Be, Fromm explains the distinctions between Being and Having, showing that they are clearly two different lifestyles in order to explain his idea of a new society. Fromm explains that Being is the true form of living. In To Have or to Be Fromm states, “Being refers to experience, and
It is the obsession of possessing as much as possible. Fromm states, “We live in a society that rests on private property, profit, and power as the pillars of existence” (Fromm 59). Fromm believed that there are more people that fall in the Having mode and not the Being mode. Too much of the society is worried about their wealth and possessions. People in the Having mode only focus on profit. They are not worried about going places to make memories or the company of others. Their focus goes to how they can entertain themselves for short periods of time. A society like this creates a monotony of people always trying to one up the other with what possessions they have or can obtain. There is no variety because people often want what others have creating trends that are seen all over. The group that live in the Having mode are never satisfied. The objects they obtain only are good enough for a short period of tie and that is why they want and want more things. There isn’t stopping as the need for more things goes on. Having is clearly the lesser of the two forms of living and Fromm makes that distinction clear in his negative tone when describing