Useful distinctions from Erich Fromm’s book On Disobedience
Posts in: books-and-reading
📚 What I Read in 2021 📚
While I read fewer books in 2021 than in prior years, those books had a large impact on me. The main themes were silence, technology, and Zen Buddhism. (I wrote about my exploration of silence and solitude in this post.) My favorite books of the year were Less is More, Opening the Hand of Thought, The Wild God of the World, and Breaking Bread with the Dead. China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, and Original Zen by David Hinton Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel Work Won’t Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe Dark Matter by Blake Crouch How to Shit in the Woods by Kathleen Meyer The Yoga of Eating by Charles Eisenstein The Provisioner by Rhyd Wildermuth Ned Ludd and Queen Mab by Peter Linebaugh The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton Greening of the Self by Joanna Macy Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Bill Porter Hermits by Peter France The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos Markides Solitude by Anthony Storr Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism by Cory Doctorow Opening the Hand of Thought by Kosho Uchiyama Privacy is Power by Carissa Veliz Refining Your Life by Dogen and Uchiyama The Wild God of the World by Robinson Jeffers Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs
📚 What I Read in 2021 📚
While I read fewer books in 2021 than in prior years, those books had a large impact on me. The main themes were silence, technology, and Zen Buddhism. (I wrote about my exploration of silence and solitude in this post.) My favorite books of the year were Less is More, Opening the Hand of Thought, The Wild God of the World, and Breaking Bread with the Dead. China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, and Original Zen by David Hinton Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel Work Won’t Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe Dark Matter by Blake Crouch How to Shit in the Woods by Kathleen Meyer The Yoga of Eating by Charles Eisenstein The Provisioner by Rhyd Wildermuth Ned Ludd and Queen Mab by Peter Linebaugh The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton Greening of the Self by Joanna Macy Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Bill Porter Hermits by Peter France The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos Markides Solitude by Anthony Storr Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism by Cory Doctorow Opening the Hand of Thought by Kosho Uchiyama Privacy is Power by Carissa Veliz Refining Your Life by Dogen and Uchiyama The Wild God of the World by Robinson Jeffers Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs
From Erich Fromm, On Disobedience (nearly every line of this book so far is worth quoting):
In order to disobey, one must have the courage to be alone, to err and to sin. But courage is not enough. The capacity for courage depends on a person’s state of development. Only if a person has emerged from mother’s lap and father’s commands, only if he has emerged as a fully developed individual and thus has acquired the capacity to think and feel for himself, only then can he have the courage to say “no” to power, to disobey.
A person can become free through acts of disobedience by learning to say no to power. But not only is the capacity for disobedience the condition for freedom; freedom is also the condition for disobedience. If I am afraid of freedom, I cannot dare to say “no,” I cannot have the courage to be disobedient. Indeed, freedom and the capacity for disobedience are inseparable; hence any social, political, and religious system which proclaims freedom, yet stamps out disobedience, cannot speak the truth.
One of the things I’m most grateful for this year is the opening of an independent bookstore nearby. Actually it is a re-opening: the owner was originally put out of business (as I recall) when Borders and Barnes and Noble came to town in the 90s. The Borders closed several years ago and the Barnes and Noble closed during the big wave of closing in the last couple of years. Now Morgenstern’s is back, complete with a cafe, lots of seating, and a clear investment in promoting the local community.
My family and I have had a lot of fun hanging out there weekly since it opened. I have discovered so many books that I never would have come across through my usual ways - and I’m a person who actively seeks out books! I’ve had to start a whole new book list to keep track of them. The joy of bookstore serendipity! 📚
One of the things I’m most grateful for this year is the opening of an independent bookstore nearby. Actually it is a re-opening: the owner was originally put out of business (as I recall) when Borders and Barnes and Noble came to town in the 90s. The Borders closed several years ago and the Barnes and Noble closed during the big wave of closing in the last couple of years. Now Morgenstern’s is back, complete with a cafe, lots of seating, and a clear investment in promoting the local community.
My family and I have had a lot of fun hanging out there weekly since it opened. I have discovered so many books that I never would have come across through my usual ways - and I’m a person who actively seeks out books! I’ve had to start a whole new book list to keep track of them. The joy of bookstore serendipity! 📚