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.
PSYCHOLOGY: Do we belong where we were born and raised? Or where we chose to form new roots? Many people are drawn to authoritarian environments, where organized contempt for people drives away decency and personal responsibility. Has rootedness possibly become less attractive than rootlessness?
PHILOSOPHY: Both the outer and the inner world are today being 'colonised'. What is the connection between the destruction of the mental landscape and the natural landscape, of the inner and outer environment? We look at this in the light of Jonathan Crary and philosophy – including Martin Heidegger.