Beauty and Order in Civilization - Essay Example

Beauty and Order in Civilization Every year tens of thousands of people visit the Taj Mahal in India and the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The one significant thing they have in common is the beauty they possess. While the Taj Mahal is a majestically beautiful monument to a monarch's love, the Sistine chapel contains the famous painted ceiling of Michelangelo, one of the greatest painters of the world. Both the edifices represent mankind's greatest achievement- capturing beauty .At both these monuments, one experiences a feeling of reverence. Both represent the apogee of civilization. Considering the large number of people who visit the two places, one would think that people find happiness there. But in Civilization and its Discontents, Freud claims that, " our civilization is largely responsible for our misery"!(Freud,Sigmund.38) Beauty, cleanliness and order are characteristics of civilization, which condition humanity to place a high value on these qualities. Although the individual attains psychological development through civilization , it does not enable him to attain happiness because his basic instinct of aggression is always at loggerheads with the restraints placed on him by civilization. These ideas of Freud are demonstrated in Bury me standing by Isabel Fonseca and Love my rifle more than you by .Kayla Williams. We come to the question, what is civilization and why do we need it Freud defines civilization, or 'Kultur' thus: (civilization)"describes the whole sum of our achievements and the regulations which distinguish our lives from those of our animal ancestors".(Freud 42) . Freud avers that the purpose of life is to find happiness.(Freud 25)In the psychological development of the individual, the program of the pleasure principle is of primary importance. The child is born with Id, which works on the pleasure principle Id is not concerned with reality of the world, but only wants its needs to be met. When the child is three years old, the next part of its personality called Ego begins to develop. The ego is based on the reality principle .Ego satisfies the needs of the id , within the reality of the situation. The superego, which is the moral part of the child's personality, develops a little later, when it encounters the restraints placed on it by its parents. The individual learns to subordinate his need for pleasure to the restrictions imposed by civilization. Civilization is the aggregate of man's achievements and regulations, according to Freud. Now we come to the next question, namely, what is the need for civilization Freud says that civilization serves two purposes- it protects man form nature and it helps him to adapt himself with regard to his relation towards other humans .In Civilization and its Discontents Freud asks the question , why is humanity not happy Freud reasons that the suffering of humanity has three main causes-"The superior powers of nature, the feebleness of our own bodies and the inadequacy of regulations which adjust the mutual relationships of the human beings in family, state and society"(Freud,274) According to Freud , man needs civilization for his security against the superior powers of nature. Beauty, cleanliness and order are the main aspects of civilization. Although beauty is not directly involved with satisfying man's primal needs, nor gives him pleasure, man is conditioned by civilization to worship beauty. Thus we pay homage to great works of art and architecture, and try to emulate the beauty of nature in all things we do. Order and cleanliness are the other characteristics of civilization. We are taught to admire order and eschew disorder. We raise the concept of cleanliness to great heights- placing it next to godliness. Beauty, cleanliness and order translate into higher achievements of humanity, be it philosophy, art or scientific achievements. They also enhance the quality of life.. Dirty things and people are thought to be less than civilized .The 'civilized man' abhors the dirty, 'uncivilized' person. His abhorrence may develop into prejudice against the person and then against the whole community of 'dirty people'. This is evident in Isabel Fonseca's book, Bury me standing. In this she describes how the Gypsies of Europe have been targets of hate and violence since centuries .They were as a race branded as liars and criminals and were considered to be dirty .In the middle ages, diseases like the plague were attributed to their presence in the neighborhood. The life style of the Gypsies which is different from that of the local population adds to this myth .In her book, Fonseca describes many cases of aggression against the Gypsies. She cites a case of bombing which happened as recently as 1995 in Austria where four Gypsy men were killed. This happened in Obwart, where the Gypsies had settled since three centuries. The bomb was concealed behind a sign saying "Gypsies go back to India" .Ironically, the Austrian police searched the victims' settlement for concealed weapons. According to Fonseca, the Gypsies have a" brilliant sense of color" .The Gypsy men love to wear flashy clothes ,hats, watch fobs and plenty of gold jewelry, showing their need for decoration which gives them a sense of beauty. She admits that the men are lazy ."That the men did nothing came very quickly to seem not so much a privilege as a relegation to child status."(Fonseca,340) She describes the Gypsy leaders as "scattered, vain, egomaniacal, ignorant, power-mad, back-stabbing", not the qualities of a civilized community, but hardly qualities which invite virulent hatred. History has proved it otherwise. Throughout their stay in Europe since centuries, the Gypsies have been hounded and persecuted. In Romania, they were slaves for centuries- they could be bought and sold like commodities; in Albania, Bulgaria and Austria they were tortured and their settlements burned. They along with the Jews were the prime victims of the Holocaust. Fonseca says, "The Gypsies alongside the Jews , are ancient scapegoats."(Fonseca,271) Committing these acts of unspeakable violence against a community obviously did not bring lasting pleasure to the perpetrators. The Holocaust certainly did not bring fame and honor to its architects. Love my rifle more than you by Kayla Williams is the other book we will consider in the light of Freud's theories on civilization and its facets-beauty, order and cleanliness.. Williams served as a soldier of the US armed forces in Iraq in the first year of its war against Iraq. The U.S military can be safely considered to possess a great deal of the defining qualities of civilization, namely, cleanliness and order. Williams recounts the episode of the nineteen year old soldier who had the opportunity of giving vent to his aggressive instincts. After killing an Iraqi civilian for a minor transgression, he brags to the other soldiers, "I got a kill last week . It was the coolest. To see what happened when the dude got it"(Williams )This incident clearly illustrates how the restraints of civilization were overcome with the help of one of its ingredients-order. The boy does not seem particularly happy to have killed the man. During the time of Freud , society was prudish- sex was a 'bad 'word. In the present times, people discuss sex openly and without feeling ashamed. But the soldiers serving abroad have , of necessity, to repress their sexual urge. According to Freud, cleanliness and order have both been linked to "genital love". Such control over human behavior in the matter of sex defeats its own purpose. "Thus civilization threatens love with substantial restrictions."(Freud, 50) Williams says that the atmosphere in the camp was charged. She writes ,"Sex is the key to a woman's experience in the US military"(Williams,1)She goes on to describe the role of the woman in the armed forces thus, "Slut. The only other choice is bitch."(Williams,1) Later in the book she recounts how some of the prisoners were questioned with violence and disrespect. The account of the naked ,weeping Iraqi prisoner who was sexually humiliated and had lighted cigarettes thrown at him horrifies one. Reading the accounts of the humiliation and torture meted out to the Gypsies and the Iraqis, one realizes that Freud was right in his theory about civilization and its discontents .In spite of his great achievements in the fields of philosophy, science and technology, man is still governed by his primary instinct of aggression. Civilization with all its restrictions is still necessary for achieving greater heights in various fields of human endeavor. It is necessary for human life itself, although it prevents the attainment of happiness. Works Cited Fonseca ,Isabel. Bury me Standing, New York: Random House1996 Freud, Sigmund, Civilization and its Discontents, Trans. Strachey, James .reissue ed. New York W. W. Norton &Company, 1989 Williams, Kayla, Staub , Michael .E , Love My Rifle More than You, W.W.Norton& Company Inc.2005 Ginsberg, Debra. "Kayla Williams' 'Love My Rifle More Than You' is a rough look at rough woman soldier's lot in Iraq". The San Diego Union-Tribune 9 Oct 2005 viewed 27 Feb 2008 Read More