Social Character versus the Productive Ideal: The Contribution and Contradiction in Fromm's View of Man, Washington 1981 (Typescript). [= MACCOBY, M., 1982c]
- Erich FROMM's strategy of social change was based on reform, with the institutions of alienated society changing in response to increased public commitment to humanistic values. While Herbert Marcuse did not reject reformist strategies outright, and even insisted that every opportunity on that level should be taken advantage of, he distrusted >controlled democracies< and their tendency to manipulate consciousness. The two thinkers did not differ in their advocacy of humanistic values and reformist strategies but in their respective estimates of their efficacy; Marcuse tended to believe that extralegal and politically revolutionary steps would ultimately be required to bring about meaningful social change.