Writer Between Worlds

“Many of these same young people (…) had not progressed from freedom from to freedom to. They simply rebelled without attempting to find a goal toward which to move, except that of freedom from restrictions and dependence. Like that of their bourgeois parents, their motto was: ‘New is beautiful,’ and they developed and almost phobic disinterest in all tradition, including the thoughts that the greatest minds have produced. In a kind of naive narcissism, they believed that they could discover by themselves all that is worth discovering. Basically, their ideal was to become small children again (…). They were happy as long as they were young enough for this euphoria to last, but many of them have passed this period with severe disappointment, without having acquired well-founded convictions, without a center within themselves. They often end up as disappointed, apathetic persons – or as unhappy fanatics of destruction.”

Erich Fromm – To Have or To Be?