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- The theme of Civilization and Its Discontents is human unhappiness with civilization
- The progress of civilization might have lead to greater human unhappiness than we should
tolerate.
- There are two possible standards for what we should tolerate.
- First, it is possible that civilization has progressed to such a point that greater
sacrifice of instinctual gratification is necessary in order to attain those features of
civilization that do contribute to human happiness, such as technology and relatively
peaceful large-scale political and economic life.
- On this view, some repression of our instincts is unnecessary for civilization.
- It is also possible that we would be happier with somewhat less civilization and
somewhat more instinctual gratification.
- Perhaps, to have more instinctual gratification, we should be willing to live with
- Lower economic growth, because people work less hard
- Smaller countries and more political strife (and warfare) between them.
- Freud leaves these possibilities open for our own contemplation at the end of this work.
But he is clearly concerned that the greatest danger to our future is an imbalance between
the expression of eros and that of aggression.
- Civilization seems to have required even greater sacrifice of eros than aggression.
- And thus we are in danger of destroying ourselves with the tools we have developed.
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