Best diagnosis of America

[jpgray]

It's old, but I like this one:

WALLACE: In writing about men in America, you've said frequently - you've talked frequently - about what you call "the marketing orientation." What do you mean by "the marketing orientation," Dr. Fromm?

FROMM: I mean by that, that our main way of relating ourselves to others is like things relate themselves to things on the market. We want to exchange our own personality - or as one says sometimes, our "personality package" - for something.

FROMM: Now, this is not so true for the manual worker. The manual worker does not have to sell his personality. He doesn't have to sell his smile.

FROMM: But, what you might call the "symbol pushers" - that is to say, all of the people who deal with figures, with paper, with men, who manipulate - to use a better or nicer word - manipulate men and signs and words.

FROMM: All those today have not only to sell their service, but in the bargain, they have to sell their personality, more or less. There are exceptions.

WALLACE: So, his sense of his own value must, therefore, depend upon what the market, in this sense, is willing to pay for it...

FROMM: Exactly, just as a handbag which cannot be sold because there is not enough demand is, economically speaking, useless. And if the handbag could think, it would have a terrific inferiority feeling, because, not having been bought, it would feel useless.

FROMM: So does a man who considers himself as a thing, and if he is not successful to sell himself, he feels he is a failure.

WALLACE: Alright, let's move to our social relationships, in our feelings toward our neighbors, toward our friends - what's happening to man in those spheres?

FROMM: Well, in the first place, I would say our social relationships are relatively shallow. We are actually afraid to be intimate, with people - many people even with their wives and husbands. And we substitute, or we rather hide, this fear of real intimacy by a superficial kind of friendliness, which is quite nice, but nevertheless, very shallow. But I think there is another answer to your question, which I should like to give.

FROMM: Actually, if you take the average American, and studies have shown that, he is really concerned only with private affairs; that is to say, with his health, his money and family affairs.

FROMM: He is not concerned with his society. He talks about it, but you know if one speaks of being concerned, I mean something about which one loses one's sleep, sometimes.

FROMM: And the average American never loses his sleep about affairs which relate to his society and to our whole country.

FROMM: That is to say, I mean he has separated his private life from his existence as a member of his society, and leaves that to the specialists in the government to take care of.

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/fromm_erich_t.html

Feel free to post your own. :)