If "man is a being in search of meaning," as Plato once said, then I would suppose that man created civilization to pass the time until he finds all the answers. There is a great deal of conflict and frustration to be found in the history of man. I believe in the idea that history repeats itself over and over throughout the ages. If this is so, then man's progress is like an obese person getting liposuction: the fat is gone, but the bad lifestyle remains. Man's progress is the illusion of man's advancement. How is this so? The best example I can use is war. Napoleon said that war is the business of barbarians. I absolutely agree. True civilization would create true order, not some deviant function that exists in the give and take power struggle of nations. Sometimes it reminds me of two men in a bar that cannot agree or agree to disagree and so they "go outside" to settle their differences.
Thus, civilization is created in this simple action. The man who wins goes back into the bar and sets the tone for everyone's dealings with him. Everyone acts or reacts based on that tone. To make sure no one has any questions about what tone to follow, law is created. Subjectivity and individuality are lost to conformity and order. The search for meaning is now nothing but a search for the self. Without the self, man will never find meaning, because meaning is only discovered when man learns to know, understand, and realize the means by which he tries to make sense of himself and others in the world.
My Analysis and Critique of the Freudian Theory of Culture
ÃÂÃ ÃÂÃ ÃÂÃ ÃÂÃ ÃÂÃ ÃÂÃ ÃÂÃ ÃÂÃ Prior to my own theory, there was Sigmund Freud and his theory. Freud would say the...