...politics, pop culture, and self-deprecation...

10.18.2005

Thought-provoking bit of wisdom of the day:

“If I express a feeling with a word, let us say, if I say “I love you,” the word is meant to be an indication of the reality which exists within myself, the power of my loving. The word “love” is meant to be a symbol of the fact of love, but as soon as it is spoken it tends to assume a life of its own, it becomes a reality. I am under the illusion that the saying of the word is the equivalent of the experience, and soon I say the word and feel nothing, except the thought of love which the word expresses. The alienation of language shows the whole complexity of alienation. Language is one of the most precious human achievements; to avoid alienation by not speaking would be fooling—yet one must be always aware of the danger of the spoken word, that it threatens to substitute itself for the living experience.” - Erich Fromm, Marx’s Concept of Man

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