Freud believes that civilization controls the liberty of humankind. Civilization has become a key component in human life history because; it gave people a chance to advance economically such technologically. It is also important to note that civilization is defined as the number of one’s achievements and restrictions that have been interweaved in our way of life (Freud 24). Civilization ensures that there is a central authority that acts the ruler and leader so as to ensure there is no aggression through implemented law and order. This paper will focus on how civilization brings misery to the humankind as they pursue happiness.
Freud believes that the human race has to suppress some of their wants and need so as to be part of the greater society. Civilization has a bad effect to the human race because people have to forgo the happiness for guilt. This is because of the structured society we live in especially the system based on capitalistic ideas. Though the guilt may be effective in instilling a sense of orderliness in the society, it brings about aggressive measures among individuals. One of the things Freud discusses are the belief that some people may want multiple sexual partners, but given the laws in place, one can only be in a monogamy relationship. This indicates that civilization limits the individuals to a certain livelihood that is against their will, which makes them unhappy. Freud writes, “the price we pay for our advance in civilization is the increased through heightening guilt and happiness becomes harder to achieve (Freud 28).” This indicates that civilization has brought about more misery to human because of the restrictions instilled in the society.
According to Freud, the human race is concerned with achieving a sense of happiness in their lives and being comfortable. He believes “that humans want to achieve happiness and stay there (Freud 25).” However, to achieve this sense of happiness, one has achieve the society’s standards of living as a way of living comfortably and happy. Happiness can be defined by one’s economic status where humans enjoy materialistic happiness or through sexual pleasures. Freud indicates “that sexual love has given us our most intense experience of sensational of pleasure and has thus furnished us with a pattern for our search for happiness (Freud 33).” This illustrates that humans seek sexual love as part of defining their happiness and pleasure. Sexuality has become something huge in today’s society such that it has become normalized through the rising pornography exposed on our TV sets. This shows that Freud is correct in terms of the human race seeking sexuality to define happiness, which is sad. Thus, men and women seek sexual love in their lifetime to become happy. However, in a civilized society one has to stay with one sexual lover, which is a limitation to people who may want more sexual partners thereby, creating misery for humans.
Freud’s theory shows that a sense of complete happiness cannot be achieved in the society because the society in itself puts restrictions within the community. Freud defines sexual love as aggression because he believes that human primal desires are primitive and mirror most animalistic behavior. Though a sexual pleasure is a parcel to intimate love, civilization threatens to the human race because it limits amount of love and intimacy one should have. Freud argues that sexual love is accommodated within the society when one commits to one sexual partner. This means that one is limited to one sexual partner regardless of one’s sexual libido, whereby humans may be attracted to other people sexually. This form of restriction is opposite of one’s sexual instincts, and one has to choose the societal ways or one’s happiness. In most cases, people tend to choose to comply with society’s measures despite the limitation because one does not want to be an outcast in the society. This goes against our individualistic wants which create the human misery in that one is forced by the society to be committed to a given number of sexual partners. Through this phenomenon, humans cannot achieve true happiness. Freud writes, “The contention of one sexual partner in the name of civilization is largely responsible for our misery, and that we should be happier if we returned to the primitive condition (Freud 38).” This shows that humans are frustrated by the social ethics and people would prefer to go back in time where people could have the freedom and fewer limitations from the social institutions. Freud makes it clear that civilization has brought human misery because people are not content or happy.
One of the key issues that are raised by Freud is whether the social institutions that have been established by society are necessary or we should do away with them. The social institution acts as a medium to create controls in society. However, with the ever-evolving social dynamics societal norms and social institutions appear restrictive to the freedoms of the human race. Freud believes that indeed the happiness and freedoms of the human race should not to constrained by social institutions.
In conclusion, it is clear that Freud believes that social institutions like the government bring human misery because people have to comply with the societal standards and ethics. Freud is redundant of the fact that human sexual libido does not match their happiness because one is limited to one sexual partner because of civilization. Thus, Freud believes that the human race should go back to the pre-civilized era where humans could freely be sexually active with as many partners one would want.
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund, James Strachey, and Peter Gay. Civilization and its discontents. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989. Print.
