Rousseau and Freedom

Reading Rousseau last week and during our discussion I came to think about something of Erich Fromm's I read awhile ago. Fromm wrote, in his Escape From Freedom, about two different sorts of freedom that exist: freedom from and freedom to. Fromm's idea of "freedom to" is a sort of freedom by which a previously oppressed individual is in "active solidarity with all men and ... spontaneous activity, love and work, which unite him again with the world, not by primary ties but as a free and independent individual." This is contrasted with the "freedom from" which is "a negative" freedom in which the individual may be freed from bondage but will remain "to a large extent ... tied to the world from which he emerged."

I really like Fromm's idea of "freedom to" because it puts power into individuals to escape oppressive forces in their life. Even though Fromm may think it is very hard to achieve "freedom to," he offers it as an option to human society. Rousseau does not seem to offer this option to modern society, and I think he would only agree that "freedom from" exists. If all technology and art in human society has resulted in inequality and oppression and no one can escape this reality because it is ingrained in everyone's lives, then "freedom to" can not exist. Ideally, I would like to agree with Fromm about "freedom to," but it is hard to escape Rousseau's all-encompassing explanation of society.