For modern man, the greatest value is undoubtedly freedom. It is a universal value cultivated by all societies, regardless of their cultural origin. Among all human aspirations, only two have received the highest ennoblement: the concept of love and freedom. In the name of freedom, many salutary ideas have been created, whole systems have been transformed, and blood has been shed. For the sake of freedom, people have been killed and died, tried and sentenced, hated and loved. For freedom, creative work has been sacrificed and a frenzy of destruction has been unleashed. At the same time, no other concept in the history of man has been interpreted so differently, making it the object of so many abuses and speculations.
What exactly is freedom and are we really free? Freedom is understood as a simple definition, which in the author’s opinion most accurately conveys its essence and character. Freedom is the right to do whatever one wants on the condition that one does not harm others. Harming another person is tantamount to denying the very idea of freedom, which by its very law includes every living being. Throughout its history, the Western European civilisation, also known as the Latin civilisation, has come closest to this ideal of freedom.
Latin civilization has promoted the widest spectrum of human freedoms and liberties, at the core of which is its tolerance. In no other part of the globe will we find such an extensive range of tolerance, humanism and free-thinking. The system of parliamentary democracy which has developed since the nineteenth century, for all its faults, has so far been the most extensive in realizing the postulate of freedom, the framework of which is set by modernity. Modernity, by destroying the archaic world of millennia-old traditions with its system of orders and prohibitions, is almost automatically identified with the idea of progress, which in turn is identified with freedom.
The question is whether the man of modern civilization is a fully free man? Along with technological progress, the process of detaching man from the natural world has begun. Being the main determinant of modern civilization and an element playing an important role in sustaining vital forces, the cult of work and money is a necessity. At the same time, it is the cause of unhappiness and enslavement of modern man. The power of civilization was built on the ethos and apotheosis of work. Work erected the symbols of civilization: pyramids and palaces, cities, aqueducts, universities and temples. The perpetuation of a civilization based on the necessity of work solidified the role and importance of slavery and feudalism. The human desire for freedom in the flame of constant revolts and uprisings led to the formal abolition of both. However, they were quickly replaced by a new form of slavery.
Capitalism as a specific socio-economic formation is embedded in specific transformations without which it could not develop. Scientific and technological progress made it possible to intensify work through the triumph of the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution as a multiplication of production by the power of the domino effect became the basis for the triumph of the determinants of capitalism such as profit, capital and money. Marx claimed that the essence of capitalism is the alienation of work. Work that was to serve man became his master, enslaving man in the name of the greatest god of civilization – money.
The automatism of work dehumanized humanity. Money and profit have become values to which man has subordinated his life. As a result, individuals were reduced to the role of factory tools. The triumph of industrial (and now digital) civilization is the dehumanization and de-spiritualization of man in favour of materialism and consumerism. The primacy of spiritual values which should be the basis of man is replaced by the cult of profit and a full stomach. Creativity, creative activity, all intellectual and artistic passions, i.e., everything that ennobles, elevates and, above all, develops an individual is replaced by stupefying and repetitive activities in everyday work.
Marxism, despite its declaration of the need to overcome the alienation of work, based its system on its glorification. It wanted to build progress through the competition of labour, convincing that the road to man’s earthly salvation leads through the toil and weariness of everyday life, thus confirming man’s enslavement through labour. People free in spirit and mind, escaping from the constraints of work, were condemned as social misfits and freeloaders. The “bluebird” (the man who avoids work) on a par with the counter-revolutionary became the enemy of the system.
Although Marxism affirmed the enslavement of man by labour within the system of industrial civilization, one exception to this rule must be mentioned. Paul Lafargue came from Cuba. He settled in Europe becoming one of the leading Marxists by marrying Marx’s daughter, Laura. He wrote a work with the peculiar title “The Right to Be Lazy” in which he argued that the way to happiness was to enjoy a life free from the drudgery of work. Marx’s analysis of the alienation of work was also taken up by Erich Fromm, who strongly condemned consumerism and shallow materialism that degrades human spirituality by making man a slave to the cult of money.