The second psychological premise of the industrial age, that the pursuit of individual egoism leads to harmony and peacem growth in everyone's welfare, is equally erroneous on theoretical grounds, and again its fallacy is proven by the observable data. (...) To be an egoist refers not only to my behavior but to my character. It means: that I want everything for myself; that possessing, not sharing, gives me pleasure; that I must become greedy because if my aim is having, I am more the more I have; that I must feel antagonistic toward all others: my customers whom I want to deceive, my competitors whom I want to destroy, my workers whom I want to exploit. I can never be satisfied, because there is no end to my wishes; (...)
Society in which egotism, selfishness, and greed did not exist were supposed to be "primitive", their inhabitants "childlike."
Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be, London, 1976, 2008, p. 5-6
지난 시대의 글들에서 현재에 적용 가능한 "맞는 말"들을 찾아내는 일은 반갑고 안심되는 일이나 한편으로는 참 속상한 일이기도 하다.
