[Xmca-l] Re: Larry Purss has shared a file with you.

[Lplarry]

Robert,
I am interested in the deep tap roots that seem to travel in a mutually informing *spirit* and go through multiple versions as  transformations on a theme. The Christian theme of The Fall (away from the source) and our yearning to return is one example. 
Erich Fromm is delving deep within an alternative version of the theme of the Fall not as turning away from the source but the leaving Paradise as the theme of the  awakening of humanity entering radical historical humaning. The tradition within Judaism that Fromm calls Prophetic messianism.
Here is how Fromm reads Marx as expressing this awakening in Fromm’s book *Marx’s Concept of Man*

“I shall try to demonstrate that ... (Marx’s) theory does not assume that the main motive of man is one of material gain; that, furthermore, the very aim of Marx is to liberate man from the pressure of economic needs, so that he can be fully human; that Marx is primarily concerned with the emancipation of man as an individual, the overcoming of alienation, the restoration of his capacity to relate himself fully to man and to nature; that Marx’s philosophy constitutes a spiritual existentialism in secular language and because of this spiritual quality is opposed to the materialistic practice and thinly disguised materialistic philosophy of our age. Marx’s aim, socialism, based on this theory of man, is essentially prophetic messianism in the language of the nineteenth century.”

I am focusing on the deep tap root that has travelled through the centuries within Western themes (here a Judaic tap root called prophetic messianiam)  that has generated a particular *development* (within a particular social situation).
This theme as a deep  Judaic tap root informs the arc of Erich Fromm’s life and  developed into his concept of *radical humanism*.
Fromm is appealing to the alternative of *radical hope* in the face of radical cynicism. For Fromm we have an ethical obligation to *choose* radical hope over cynicism.
The arc of his life is exemplary of his choosing this prophetic choice as he participated in generating the *new* commons coming into expression as we re occupy public spaces. For Fromm this is an expression of our radical humanity expressing radical hope.  An ontological need expressing our present social situation of development. 

This is a particular theme which may be transformative if lived deeply. It posits a mutually shared radical humanity as an alternative which chooses hope. 
Only within this choice will this alternative become real. Chosse otherwise and a different future awakens.
Larry



Sent from my Windows 10 phone

From: Robert Lake
Sent: May 23, 2016 9:17 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Larry Purss has shared a file with you.

Thank-you for your astute comments and interest in this work Larry, and for
posting the introduction to Joan Braun's book.  I was also amazed to
discover the many points of convergence between Vygotsky and Fromm's
reading of Marx as clearly distinct from mechanized  and deterministic
materialism.
For example  both Fromm and Vygotsky believed that when “man interacts with
nature and transforms it……nature also interacts with man and transforms his
consciousness.” Or as Vygotsky puts it “method is simultaneously
prerequisite and product, the tool and the result of the study” Vygotsky,
1978, p. 65).
*Robert Lake*

On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 11:37 AM, Lplarry <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:

> I thought this preview of a book on Erich Fromm may be an answer to Trump
> cynicism.
> Skepticism and doubt may lead towards *hope* but cynicism destroys hope.
> This book is volume 4 as  part of a series edited by Tricia Kress and
> Robert L. Lake titled “Imagination and Praxis: Criticality and Creativity
> in Education and Educational Research”.
> This book is researching Erich Fromm’S notion of *messianism*. Fromm’s
> version is *prophetic* messianism and is in marked contrast to
> *catastrophic* or *apocalyptic* messianism.
>
> Fromm’s version has roots in The Judaic tradition expressing Maimondes
> Negative theology. Fromm moves through Judaic theism to a radical
> nontheistic radical humanism and this book traces this arc through his life.
> Fromm’s project of *radical hope* though leaving the orbit of theistic
> Judaism (informed by Maimondes) continues to express the *spirit* of this
> radical humanism.
>
> Prophetic messianism is in the spirit of *alternativism*. Prophets
> announced alternative futures and indicated what they fore saw as the
> consequences of each choice .
> The choice remains with humanity to choose.
>
> Robert Lake came across Joan Braune’s work when researching the
> intersecting lines between Erich Fromm and Paulo Friere. And their mutual
> commitment to creating radical hope as active, dynamic and forward looking.
> For Fromm hope not acted upon is not hope at all.
> For Friere, hope is so *essential* to what it means to be *human* that
> Friere describes it as an ontological *need* of what Ingold calls
> *humaning*.
> It is Robert Lake’s hope that Joan Braune’s book (in the spirit of Fromm
> and Friere’s radical humanism) *inspires* (mitsein) readers everywhere to
> imagine and transform our places into the *new commons*.
> Into dynamic places of radical love, sustainable life, and the
> undiminished light of radical humanity at its best.
>
> These lives become *exemplary* lives expressed through the arc of a living
> commitment that chooses the *new commons*.
>
> A note if reading the term *messianism* with skepticism (but not
> cynicism). These 70 pages as a preview will indicate that Fromm uses this
> term within a  nontheistic radical humanism but recognizes its source
> emerging from within the tap root of Judaic traditions.
>
> This travelling from theistic to nontheistic mythemes that share a mutual
> tap root is a theme to explore within all theories.
> I hope this is one response to Trumpism.
>
>
> To view the file, please follow the link below:
> 2144-erich-fromms-revolutionary-hope.pdf
> https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/423379db-f922-4304-90f0-c54687331f0b
> Sent from my Windows 10 phone
>
>


-- 
Robert Lake  Ed.D.
Associate Professor
Social Foundations of Education
Dept. of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Georgia Southern University
P. O. Box 8144, Statesboro, GA  30460
Secretary/Treasurer-AERA- Paulo Freire Special Interest Group
Webpage: https://georgiasouthern.academia.edu/RobertLake*Democracy must be
born anew in every generation, and education is its midwife.* John
Dewey-*Democracy
and Education*,1916, p. 139