freud and hegel take on the ever-changing nature of:

Transcription

1 freud and hegel take on the ever-changing nature of: sigmund freud georg wilhelm friedrich hegel by zoe tillman

2 one afternoon, the long deceased psychoanalyst sigmund freud and philosopher georg wilhelm friedrich hegel were watching television... Hmph... Oh my. I just don't understand, dr. freud...

3 What?...why is the world so violent these days? I suppose men are just aggressive, mr. hegel. i'm not talking about a rugby match, friend, i mean capital-v violence... Ahh, I see. Perhaps I can help you understand... please do.

4 well, In the beginning, there was the primal father... I dominate you. says who? i am almost irrelevant in this maledominated world. i reject your authority. i covet our father's power and i also desire to possess our mother. Agreed. We must kill our father.

5 father, you've left us no choice. we must kill you. I am free of my father, but i am still not satisfied... one last game of hoops...? there is only one solution......i must kill my brother. this doesn't feel very permanent. The death of the brothers brings on a brief period of peaceful, matriarchal rule...

6 ...but her reign is shorti dominate you... here we go again. but what does familial strife have to do with anythiing? how did we get from them to this? i'm getting there!

7 Men realized that to keep their power, they had to find a way to control groups larger than just their respective families... We used lynching! i abused my authority as an officer of the law and caused an entire city to divide and riot. using these and many other violent tactics, control, in the name of "civilization," was imposed on a resisting majority...

8 ...by a minority that learned to use coercion and force. This is starting to make sense. Continue please. as you Naturally. It goes without saying that a civilization that leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied...

9 ...and drives them into revolt......neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence. but no one has yet found a way to break this cycle. Now I'm definitely starting to understand. fantastic

10 but it seems that more must be at stake psychologically for this kind of violence to have evolved into the norm. i have my own theory you know... please it seems as though, in one way or another, your oppressive groups always see the oppressed as subservient, agreed? well i believe that men, in their desperate search for recognition, see oppression of the subservient through fear as the ultimate way of being recognized. agreed. i like where this is headed. Thank you. So regardless of whether the struggle is between the father and son, or the oppressive and the oppressed...

11 fascinating... may i interject?...violence has evolved as a means of getting recognition, and will continue to grow worse until we can end the domination of one social class, gender or race over another. who are i do not believe we have been introduced. I am herbert he must be new... i couldn't help but overhear your conversation. and while i agree, i believe there is another issue that has contributed to the process you are discussing. and that is...? the repression of eros.

12 you mean sex? i covet my mother... well of course sexual repression plays a role. I've already discussed that. you misunderstand eros isn't just about sexual freedom, it is the force of life, the ability to live without having to follow prescribed rules or norms, which have a tendency to be enforced using violence. at times, yes. but these norms come from a lot of different sources under the pretense of "civilization." like those imposed by organized religion?

13 even elements of supposedly non-violent social control, like segregation......or censorship... berkeley, here we come! comic books are such filth!...are still "violent" at their core. they are just new ways of suppressing eros, or the life instinct. young man, you are quite a radical! thank you.

14 so violence is ever-changing and expanding as men continue to seek out new ways to control one another? and seek recognition? And repress our instinct for life? yes.

15 how do we put an end to all of these forms of violence? how depressing. create a forum for mutual recognition among men? abolish religion and other outdated hierarchies? end the domination of white men in the realms of politics, economics and philosophy? huh??

16 ah, i hope you don't mind, but i brought a few friends along... greetings... you were talking about an evolving cycle of violence and oppression, gentlemen? the end...

17 All photographs courtesy of the associated press archives, through the University of pennsylvania libraries web site, except the following: 1. image of portrait of georg Friedrich hegel by jakob schlesinger (1831), used throughout, courtesy of 2. pictures from the tv show "leave it to beaver" (pp. 4-5) courtesy ofwww.sitcomsonline.com; tvland.classictvhits.com; associated press archives 3. picture from the tv show "the brady bunch" (p. 6) courtesy of abc photo archives 4. picture of video game art from "civilization iv" (p. 12) courtesy of source material: 1. freud, sigmund. civilization and its discontents (1929)and the future of an illusion (1927). 2. hegel, georg wilhelm friedrich. the phenomenology of mind (1807). 3. marcuse, herbert. eros and civilization (1955).