Wilhelm Reich wrote Listen, Little Man! during moments of spiritual ecstasy, in an outburst of compassion, indignation, and despair for the fate of the simple and humble person, who, lacking awareness of their power, passively submits to the clutches of any oppressor, and, integrated into a herd, walks in the mud instead of standing tall and proud.

“Whoever loves me makes me cry,” says a popular Greek proverb. Tears of the soul are also evoked by Reich in Listen, Little Man!. Tears for our spiritual alienation, for the exploitation we endure, for our fear of confronting the truth, for our ultimate humiliation when, misled by various propaganda abhorrences, we loudly praise our tyrants for our pettiness, defeatism, and superstitions, our chameleonic cover for our actions, and the insidious pursuit of a hidden, indulgent life.