In this paper the author argues that Erich Fromm’s analysis of the commodification of contemporary life, his description of automaton conformity, and his call for the overcoming of alienation represent important, though ignored, elements of the critical tradition that have great resonance for the practice of education. By drawing particularly on the early Marx of the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, the author shows how Fromm conducted a radical, yet highly accessible, analysis of life and learning. Fromm argued that learning to penetrate ideological obfuscation, and thereby overcome the alienation this obfuscation induced, is the learning task of adulthood. Education as a force for resistance would make people become aware of ideological manipulation and educate them for participatory democracy. By calling his ideas humanist, Fromm ensured that his work beckoned enticingly to many educators. But his normative humanism was a militant, Marxist humanism, entailing the abolition of capitalist alienation and the creation of democratic socialism.