The Perils of Freedom - and Hate in America

Since the violence in Charlottesville and the tragic loss of Heather Heyer, much blame has been placed on Donald Trump . His presidential campaign emboldened white nationalists. As president, he has done little to discourage hate speech, and by equating neo-Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists with those who protested against them, he has justly earned condemnation. Yet this analysis is far too simple. Donald Trump did not create the hatred on display last week. It was there before him. In some respects he is the result of it, not the cause. Nor will it go away when he does.

Hatred in America is not limited to white nationalists. We see it in road rage, angry tweets, trolling attacks, parents who yell at children's sports coaches, abuse hurled at and by flight attendants, and the speech, ads, and actions of the political right - and left. It was, after all, an angry liberal who shot Rep. Steve Scalise.

Removing Confederate monuments and condemning the president - however attractive this seems - will only address symptoms. It will also create more protests, counter-protests, and hate. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, we must dig deeper to avoid the "superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes."

Standing at her flower-strewn memorial, I kept asking where the anger came from that took Heather Heyer's life. I sense a partial answer in Escape from Freedom, written by social psychologist Erich Fromm in 1941 as fascism was tearing the planet apart. The modern world, Fromm argues, has freed the individual from most of the constraints of an overbearing social order. In Western democracies, at least, we can choose what we think, who we love, how we worship, what work we do, where and how we live, and how we express ourselves. Yet, paradoxically, Fromm concludes about man that: "Freedom, though it has brought him independence and rationality, has made him isolated, and thereby anxious and powerless." The social, cultural, religious, political, and economic institutions that previously gave him roots no longer do so.

Too many, as a result, are unmoored - ships free to travel but knowing neither the port they seek nor how to navigate their way. Such freedom can be psychologically terrifying. For Fromm, the healthy response is a life of meaning and purpose, an integration with the world through the love of others and ennobling work. Yet, when that seems unattainable, people seek their anchor in authoritarianism (submission to a leader who will define and structure their world) or destructiveness (obliteration of what or who they deem responsible for their anomie). Both were on display in Charlottesville, and can be found in many who seek a cause or politician that preaches strength and encourages submission to something greater and in the desire to tear down "the Establishment."

Reason, the legacy of the Enlightenment, for all its benefits sometimes exacerbates problems that plague the human condition. The lack of (or unsatisfying) jobs, inadequate income, broken families, damaged social institutions, an uncertain social safety net, inadequate education, urban crime, and rural poverty are among the ills that still devastate the lives of too many in America. Such conditions can become the parents of hate. Such problems, Fromm argues, can seem so complex as to defy solutions. Even facts - the building blocks of solutions - are now suspect, leaving only our emotions to guide us. As we saw in Charlottesville, that guidance is a faulty sextant in a cloudy sky. This does not, of course, excuse white nationalists or anyone else for hateful speech or acts, but it may help us understand what needs to be done to prevent them.

For too many in America, a life of meaning, connection, and purpose is, in the words of Langston Hughes, "a dream deferred." Millions of words have been written this past week and people have marched to deny hate the power it too often commands. But words and marches are not enough. We need actions - individual, social, and governmental - to help Americans realize the potential of their freedom to ennoble their own lives and the lives of others. We need policies and programs to strengthen our social institutions, especially in local communities, large and small. We need creativity and the commitment of resources to ensure free people can be productive people, can experience loving connections and meaningful work.

When we accomplish this, false leaders, fraudulent ideologies, and the destruction of others' lives will no longer serve as outlets. Just blaming Donald Trump will not get us there.