ESSAY: According to Erich Fromm, the new freedom and individual independence must be paid for with insecurity, isolation and alienation. A society in rapid transition can pack in tough demands for adaptation to the market, 'change skills', mobility, the necessity of constantly starting over as having more freedom and choices. MODERN TIMES here puts the newly published classic in context with other books on the subject of freedom.
COVID19: SARS in 2003, bird flu in 2005, MERS in 2012, Ebola in 2014, combined with the financial crisis, massive refugee flows, and revolutions in the Middle East and Greta Thunberg's shrill doomsday voice, had largely immunized the population against something as abstract as Covid19.
INSULATION: Acute loneliness affects both winners and losers. Daniel Schreiber visits a wealth of hermit literature – such as Thoreau's Walden and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. But what does social withdrawal mean today – whether it is the occupational or pandemic condition?
TRÆER: Through a conversation with trees, the author of the book becomes clearer about his relationship to loneliness, vulnerability and the grief of the disappearance of things.
Could you consider establishing a long-term love relationship with a silicone doll? Melody Gilbert's thought-provoking documentary explores the relationship between humans and puppets, and as a spectator you are slowly drawn into an exercise in human empathy and compassion.