Man’s biological weakness is the condition of human culture. - Erich Fromm

Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort. Love is not a spontaneous feeling, a thing that you fall into, but is something that requires thought, knowledge, care, giving, and respect. And it is something that is rare and difficult to find in capitalism, which commodifies human activity.

إن معظم الناس مقتنعون بأنه طالما أنهم ليسوا مضطرين صراحة إلى عمل شيء بسبب قوة خارجية، فإن قراراتهم هي قراراتهم وأنهم إذا أرادوا شيئا فانهم هم الذين يريدونه. ولكن هذا هو أحد الأوهام الكبرى التي لدينا عن أنفسنا. إن عددا كبيرا من قراراتنا ليست حقا قراراتنا، بل أوحى بها لنا من الخارج، لقد نجحنا في اقناع أنفسنا بأننا نحن الذين نصنع القرار بينما نحن في الحقيقة نتطابق مع توقعات الآخرين مساقين بالخوف من العزلة وبتهديدات مباشرة أكثر إزاء حياتنا وحريتنا وراحتنا.

Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it. He has to find principles of action and decision-making which replace the principles of instincts. He has to have a frame of orientation which permits him to organize a consistent picture of the world as a condition for consistent actions. He has to fight not only against the dangers of dying, starving, and being hurt, but also against another danger which is specifically human: that of becoming insane. In other words, he has to protect himself not only against the danger of losing his life but also against the danger of losing his mind.