Civilization and Discontents - Essay Example

It is worthy, first, to understand the need for civilization and its importance in qualitative measures and quantitative measures. Civilizations were established to improve modes of relationships among human beings. This was because, in prehistoric times, an action of an individual was guided more by his instincts and wishes. Apart from that, civilization was meant to improve the material prosperity of individuals. This was obtainable through the improvement of science and technology, which in turn increased their economic productivity.

Freud argues that the objective of such changes was due to the inherent human trait of the search for happiness. The search for happiness is achieved by what he describes as utility and yields of pleasure (Freud, 41). However, he states that such an effort is always futility, as an increase in happiness is never achieved. Civilization is thus not responsible for human happiness.

Friedman’s main argument primarily focuses on religion. He describes religion as an imposed delusional feeling that seeks to detach individuals from reality. This feeling, however, cannot be depicted scientifically. It operates in the idea that the suffering of the human community can only be alleviated by trust in an external source of help. In trying to achieve this, individuals escape the reality of their lives. The problem of religion, in this case, is that it imposes only one way of attainment of happiness. In reality, ways of attaining satisfaction should be many and, thus, the individual is tied to his misery if that one way fails (Freud, 32).

Second, Friedman also discusses art as a source of unhappiness among individuals. Art’s effectivity relies on the imagination of creative people who release their pieces of work for consumption by these individuals. Through art, individuals try to master reality by creating images of how it is supposed to be. However, the reality is always too strong for such fantasies and the individual involved never achieves his satisfaction. About this, he attributes work as a cause of anxiety and exhaustion. Individuals are made to strive towards societal set standards of success. The individual ignores happiness, which one is striving after, and believes that achieving such a goal will make one happy. This is rarely true as the individual mostly ends up frustrated (Freud, 27).

Third, Friedman argues that the pursuit of technology and science does not ensure equal satisfaction among individuals. People aim at manipulating the world through science and technology (Freud, 35). They, in turn, grow towards attaining god-like character, which is never a guarantee for their happiness. The concept of these technologies, ironically, tends towards valuing natural concepts such as beauty and order. This means that the civilization itself cannot achieve its purpose without considering basic ways of attainment of happiness. Closely related to this is man’s aim at orderly social relationships of societies. These orderly societies create conflict between an individual’s wishes and the societies’. Consequently, an individual’s happiness is compromised.