Having Orientation and It’s Relationship to Capitalism

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Modern life is a life of constant attack. Organizations are continually trying to make their message heard, and sometimes by any means necessary. Marketers, corporations, etc. want the consumer to keep on buying and possessing more objects, and that having ownership of products will complete them. However, even though they promote their products or services to better your life, are they really? Religions, spiritualists, etc believe that life’s happiness is only found from within, an inner peace that satisfies. Though that seems like the logical route to happiness, they have a nemesis named capitalism. This essay will explore the having orientation, the being orientation, and a critique of capitalism in its relationship to having through my interpretation of Erich Fromm’s To Have or to Be.

The Having Orientation

It could be assumed that having is the normal orientation in which people live their life by in the modern societies of Europe or North America. Erich Fromm stated, "To acquire, to own, and to make a profit are the sacred and unalienable rights of the individual in the industrial society" (From 1976:57). Fromm is clearly explaining that to have and to own is the dominant norm and having is related to an individual. Being individualistic is inherent to having because only one can have ownership. If having is shared, it loses its individualistic characteristic. The having orientation is the belief that to be fulfilled in life is sole ownership over a physical object(s) or in-tangibles such as ideas, thoughts or in some cases people. To further explain, the having orientation of physical property, ownership over objects is the ability to hold, possess, and be in control of. Ownership of intangibles is more an abs...

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...iolation of capitalistic having. The system of having is controlling our mind and way of life. If we as a capitalistic society were truly concerned about cost, we would give being more focus. Being is free and takes practice, but it saves a lot of money.

In ending this essay, having and being are states of mind, and having is associate with physical tangible ownership. Having is selfish, while being is unselfish and cheap. Being mindful of capitalistic having brings awareness of its destructiveness, and sheds light on what we have become. Defining ourselves with our career title instead of who we really are as people shows the degradation of our society. We desire to possess, but always seem to forget that even the richest people in the world cannot take with them their things.

References

Fromm, E. (1976). To have or to be? New York, NY: Continuum.

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