From 9beb33b138e61ae5a16c687c96f01213021dd9f1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Silvio Rhatto Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2018 15:33:50 -0200 Subject: Eros and Civilization: Phantasy and Utopia --- books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md | 117 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 117 insertions(+) (limited to 'books') diff --git a/books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md b/books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md index 60a736d..d56aa5d 100644 --- a/books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md +++ b/books/psicologia/eros-civilization.md @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ [[!meta title="Eros and Civilization"]] * Author: Hebert Marcuse +* Some subjects covered (keywords): productivity, efficiency, labor, repression, domination, alienation, automation. ## Snippets @@ -591,6 +592,11 @@ Superego: repression, of uninhibited desire and gratification -- but reality proceeds according to the laws of reason, no longer committed to the dream language. + [...] + + The danger of abusing the discovery of the truth value of imagination for + retrogressive tendencies is exemplified by the work of Carl Jung. + ## Unsublimated pleasure Smell and taste give, as it were, unsublimated pleasure per se (and unrepressed @@ -618,6 +624,117 @@ Superego: is more at home in such sub-real and surreal processes as dreaming, daydreaming, play, the "stream of consciousness." + [...] + + The surrealists recognized the revolutionary implications of Freud' s + discoveries: "Imagination is perhaps about to reclaim its rights." + 13 But when they asked, "Cannot the dream also be applied to the solution of + the fundamental problems of life?" 14 they went beyond psychoanalysis in + demanding that the dream be made into reality without compromising its content. + Art allied itself with the revolution. Uncompromising adherence to the strict + truth value of imagination comprehends reality more fully. That the + propositions of the artistic imagination are untrue in terms of the actual + organization of the facts belongs to the essence of their truth: The truth that + some proposition respecting an actual occasion is untrue may express the vital + truth as to the aesthetic achievement. It expresses the "great refusal" which + is its primary characteristic. 15 This Great Refusal is the protest against + unnecessary repression, the struggle for the ultimate form of freedom -- "to + live without anxiety." 16 But this idea could be formulated without punishment + only in the language of art. In the more realistic context of political theory + and even philosophy, it was almost universally defamed as utopia. + +### Utopia + + The relegation of real possibilities to the no-man's land of utopia is itself + an essential element of the ideology of the performance principle. If the + construction of a nonrepressive instinctual development is oriented, not on the + subhistorical past, but on the historical present and mature civilization, the + very notion of utopia loses its meaning. The negation of the performance + principle emerges not against but with the progress of conscious rationality; + it presupposes the highest maturity of civilization. The very achievements of + the performance principle have intensified the discrepancy between the archaic + unconscious and conscious processes of man, on the one hand, and his actual + potentialities, on the other. The history of mankind seems to tend toward + another turning point in the vicissitudes of the instincts. And, just as at the + preceding turning points, the adaptation of the archaic mental structure to the + new environment would mean another "castrophe" -- an explosive change in the + environment itself. However, while the first turning point was, according to + the Freudian hypothesis, an event in geological history, and while the second + occurred at the beginning of civilization, the third turning point would be + located at the highest attained level of civilization. The actor in this event + would be no longer the historical animal man but the conscious, rational + subject that has mastered and appropriated the objective world as the arena of + his realization. The historical factor contained in Freud' s theory of + instincts has come to fruition in history when the basis of Ananke ( Lebensnot) + -- which, for Freud, provided the rationale for the repressive reality + principle -- is undermined by the progress of civilization. + + Still, there is some validity in the argument that, despite all progress, + scarcity and immaturity remain great enough to prevent the realization of the + principle "to each according to his needs." The material as well as mental + resources of civilization are still so limited that there must be a vastly + lower standard of living if social productivity were redirected toward the + universal gratification of individual needs: many would have to give up + manipulated comforts if all were to live a human life. Moreover, the prevailing + international structure of industrial civilization seems to condemn such an + idea to ridicule. This does not invalidate the theoretical insistence that the + performance principle has become obsolescent. The reconciliation between + pleasure and reality principle does not depend on the existence of abundance + for all. The only pertinent question is whether a state of civilization can be + reasonably envisaged in which human needs are fulfilled in such a manner and to + such an extent that surplus-repression can be eliminated. + + Such a hypothetical state could be reasonably assumed at two points, which lie + at the opposite poles of the vicissitudes of the instincts: one would be + located at the primitive beginnings of history, the other at its most mature + stage. The first would refer to a non-oppressive distribution of scarcity (as + may, for example, have existed in matriarchal phases of ancient society). The + second would pertain to a rational organization of fully developed industrial + society after the conquest of scarcity. The vicissitudes of the instincts would + of course be very different under these two conditions, but one decisive + feature must be common to both: the instinctual development would be + non-repressive in the sense that at least the surplus-repression necessitated + by the interests of domination would not be imposed upon the instincts. This + quality would reflect the prevalent satisfaction of the basic human needs (most + primitive at the first, vastly extended and refined at the second stage), + sexual as well as social: food, housing, clothing, leisure. This satisfaction + would be (and this is the important point) without toil -- that is, without the + rule of alienated labor over the human existence. Under primitive conditions, + alienation has not yet arisen because of the primitive character of the needs + themselves, the rudimentary (personal or sexual) character of the division of + labor, and the absence of an institutionalized hierarchical specialization of + functions. Under the "ideal" conditions of mature industrial civilization, + alienation would be completed by general automatization of labor, reduction of + labor time to a minimum , and exchangeability of functions. Since the length + of the working day is itself one of the principal repressive factors imposed + upon the pleasure principle by the reality principle, the reduction of the + working day to a point where the mere quantum of labor time no longer arrests + human development is the first prerequisite for freedom. Such reduction by + itself would almost certainly mean a considerable decrease in the standard of + living prevalent today in the most advanced industrial countries. But the + regression to a lower standard of living, which the collapse of the performance + principle would bring about, does not militate against progress in freedom. + + The argument that makes liberation conditional upon an ever higher standard of + living all too easily serves to justify the perpetuation of repression. The + definition of the standard of living in terms of automobiles , television sets, + airplanes, and tractors is that of the performance principle itself. Beyond the + rule of this principle, the level of living would be measured by other + criteria: the universal gratification of the basic human needs, and the freedom + from guilt and fear -- internalized as well as external, instinctual as well as + rrational." "La vraie civilization. . n' est pas dans le gaz, ni dans la + vapeur, ni dans les tables tournantes. Elle est dans la diminution des traces + du pêché originel" 17 -- this is the definition of progress beyond the rule of + the performance principle. + + Under optimum conditions, the prevalence, in mature civilization, of material + and intellectual wealth would be such as to allow painless gratification of + needs, while domination would no longer systematically forestall such + gratification. In this case, the quantum of instinctual energy still to be + diverted into necessary labor (in turn completely mechanized and rationalized) + would be so small that a large area of repressive constraints and + modifications, no longer sustained by external forces , would collapse. + ### Misc But, again, Freud shows that this repressive system does not really solve the -- cgit v1.2.3