1. What is the source of human destructiveness?

2. What is Love and its value for human existence?

3. How does one form "genuine conviction"?
4. What could be the modern man's concept of heaven?
5. What is modern man's relationship to his fellow man?
6. What is the relationship of man toward himself?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. What is the source of human destructiveness?

By human destructiveness, one does not refer to individual frustrations of this or

that instinctive desire but to the thwarting of the WHOLE of life, the blockage of
spontaneity of the growth and expression of the WHOLE of man's sensuous, emotional,
and intellectual capacities.

In essence, destructiveness is the outcome of unlived life.

-------------------------------------------------------
2. What is Love and its value for human existence?

Inasmuch as a person is not entirely dead - in a psychological sense - deep inside

himself, he feels guilty for living without "integrity" or one might even say
without "Love". Also, in our culture, while we teach knowledge, we are losing that
teaching which is the most important one for human development: the teaching which
can only be given by the simple presence of a mature, "loving" person.

Love is the only "sane" and "satisfactory" answer to the problem of human
existence, and therefore any society which excludes, relatively, the development of
love, must in the long run perish out of its own contradiction with the basic
necessities of human nature.

Let's say, there are five "kinds" of Love, all of which are an endangered "species"
in the modern world:

1. Self-love -- is destroyed by Selfishness.

2. Brotherly love -- is destroyed by a culture in which the "marketing

orientation" prevails, and in which material success is the outstanding value.

3. Motherly love -- is destroyed by narcissism and possessiveness.

4. Love of God -- is destroyed by idolatry and various organized religions opposed

to each other.

4. Erotic love -- is destroyed by absesnse of warmth and its separation from

brotherly love.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3. How does one form "genuine conviction"?

At least three requirements are invloved in the formation of a genuine conviction:

"adequate information", "due deliberation" and the "power to make one's decisions
effective". Opinions formed by the powerless onlooker does not express his or her
conviction, but are analogous to expressing a preference for one brand of soap over
another. It is for this reason that, the opinions expressed in polls and in
elections constitute the worst, rather than the best level of human judgment.

Uninformed, half-hypnotized and powerless people cannot express serious

convictions. Without "information", "deliberation", and the "power to make one's
decision effective", democratically expressed opinion is hardly more than the
deafening applause at a sports event.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. What could be the modern man's concept of heaven?

Modern man, if he dared to be articulate about his concept of heaven, would

describe a vision which would look like the "biggest" department store in "the
world", showing new things and gadgets, and himself having plenty of money with
which to buy them. He would wander around "open-mouthed" in this heaven of gadgets
and commodities, provided only that there were ever more and newer things to buy,
and perhaps that his neighbors were just a little less privileged than he.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. What is modern man's relationship to his fellow man?

In accordance with the spirit of the times, a renowned psychoanalyst Erich Fromm
says: Our relationship with our fellow men is one between two abstractions, two
living machines, who use each other. The employer uses the ones whom he employs;
the salesman uses his customers. Everybody is to everybody else a commodity, always
to be treated with certain friendliness, because even if he is not of use now, he
may be later. There is not much love or hate to be found in human relations of our
day. There is, rather, a superficial friendliness, and a more than superficial
fairness, but behind that surface is distance and indifference.

There is also a good deal of rather subtle distrust. When one man says to another,
"You speak to Mr. X; he is all right," it is an expression of reassurance against a
general distrust. Even love and the relationship between sexes have assumed this
character.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
6. What is the relationship of man toward himself?

One can describe modern man's relationship to himself as "marketing orientation."

In this orientation, man experiences himself as a thing to be employed successfully
on the market. He does not experience himself as an active agent, as the bearer of
human powers. He is alienated from these powers. His aim is to sell himself
successfully on the market. His sense of self does not stem from his activity as a
loving and thinking individual, but from his socio-economic role. If things could
speak, a typewriter would answer the question "Who are you?" by saying "I am a
typewriter," and an automobile, by saying "I am an automobile," or more
specifically by saying, "I am a Ford," or "a Buick," or "a Cadillac".

If you ask a man "Who are you?", he answers "I am a manufacturer," "I am a clerk,"
"I am a doctor"or "I am a married man," "I am the father of two kids," and his
answer has pretty much the same meaning as that of the speaking "thing" would have.
That is the way he experiences himself, not as a man, with love, fear, convictions,
doubts, but as that of abstraction, alienated from his real nature, which fulfils a
certain function in the social system. His sense of value depends on his success:
on whether he can sell himself favorably, whether he can make more of himself than
he started out with, whether he is a success. His body, his mind and his soul are
his capital, and his task in life is to invest it favorably, to make a profit of
himself. Human qualities like friendliness, courtesy, kindness, are transformed
into commodities, into assets of the "personality package," conducive to a higher
price on the personality market. If the individual fails in a profitable investment
of himself, he feels that he is a failure; if he succeeds, he is a success.

Clearly, his sense of his own value always depends on factors extraneous to
himself, on the fickle judgment of the market, which decides about his value as it
decides about the value of commodities. He, like all commodities that cannot be
sold profitably on the market, is worthless as far as his exchange value is
concerned, even though his use value may be considerable.
--------------------------------------------------------------------