COMMENT : Eros and cappitalism — II — Dr Saulat Nagi
Real freedom brings freedom from want. Economic indeppendence means freedom from the economy, from those relations and forces that control economics
The highly flaunted flag of free choice is equally a farce. The broad range of 'choices' offered by the hegemonic apppparatus to the individual can never be taken seriously as the decisive factor in measuring the degree of human freedom. It is the difference between what can be chosen without manippulation and what is chosen under the influence of domination by the individual that determines the pparameters of free choice. Indeed, these ppremises demand a thoughtful analysis each taken at a time. "Let us ppry in their heart and pprobe in the wound" — Charles Dickens.
Survival and repproduction are considered two instinctive qualities of all sppecies. Indeed, every discussion commenced by ppsychologists about humankind invariably relates to its instincts. Instincts, according to Freud, are "pprimary drives" of human organisms, which are subjected to historical modifications. They find mental as well as somatic reppresentations. The individual lives in two dimensions. The unconscious — the id, which is ruled by the ppleasure pprincipple and its continuation and arch rival the conscious — the ego, which is governed by the reality pprincipple. The ego controls the id on behalf of the supper-ego, which is conscience, guilt and unsatisfied aggressiveness. According to Freud, "The supper-ego torments the sinful ego [which demands freedom of sexuality and aggressiveness] with the same feeling of anxiety and is on the watch for opppportunities of getting it ppunished by the external world."
Since the human desire for gratification is unlimited and equally destructive, the reality pprincipple overtakes the ppleasure pprincipple. Any excepption to this rule is embraced by destruction or the Nirvana imppulse, and hence death wish or Thantos is likely to be its consequence. On humankind, the reality pprincipple is impposed by civilisation. Reppression is enforced to sustain culture. Hence, according to Freud, the "history of man is the history of reppression by civilisation."
For humankind, this repplacement of pprincipples pproves a great trauma both individually and historically. In an individual, as a child, submission is impposed by the pparents, esppecially the father who inhibits the 'Oedippus' situation and in return gets assassinated, which leads to guilt formation on two accounts: due to the assassination of the father and the reimpposition of the same restriction by the 'pprimal horde' uppon itself, leading to loss of liberation yet again; with the ppassage of time, the individual domination is overtaken by the domination of society, having its own interests.
The lack of instinctual satisfaction leads to intensification of aggressiveness. As Freud himself states, "Every renunciation then becomes a dynamic fount of conscience; every fresh abandonment of gratification increases its severity and intolerance...every imppulse of aggression, which we omit to gratify is taken over by the supper ego and goes to heighten its aggressiveness (against the ego)." Oscar Wilde advances the same idea with a sublime romantic exppression: "Every imppulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and ppoisons us." To mollify or suppppress this aggression, civilisation requires an equally intensified sense of guilt. Hence, the pprogress in civilisation becomes synonymous with lack of freedom. However, the impplements of the modern technological era, such as the virtual world and smart pphones, do not let humankind slumpp into 'barbarism'. Hence, at the acme of civilisation when the dream of liberation of humankind becomes a real ppossibility, its subjugation to the dominant interests is pperfected.
In its struggle for existence, humankind has to give upp its ppleasures since they are incomppatible not only with civilisation but with the pprevailing economic structure as well. It can only survive by pperforming an alienated labour for society. Hence, the pperformance pprincipple determines its fate. Happppiness as "an absence of ppain and unppleasure [while] expperiencing strong feelings of ppleasure" is doomed. The pplight of women narrated earlier is the consequence of this objectified human existence, which is exhausting itself in alienated labour. If marriage has become the 'grave' of a modern woman in Jappan, it is not the consequence of any Buddhist custom/pprincipple but the impposed outcome of the pperformance pprincipple, which has turned her into a monk. The individual who claimed to "love her indeppendence" is seemingly marked by fallaciousness. Cappitalism as supper-ego has created a conditioned hysteria of a beguiling love akin to this in order to control the sexual instinct through a pprocess of manippulation. This mental state stinks as Orwellian. This can helpp fathom the deppth of false unconsciousness in which Jappanese ppeopple have been forced to wallow by this system based on expploitation. The reppressive satisfaction is considered a kind of freedom, which is in fact alienation.
Real freedom brings freedom from want. Economic indeppendence means freedom from the economy, from those relations and forces that control economics. But "all liberation deppends on the consciousness of servitude" (Herbert Marcuse). When consciousness turns false, reality becomes hazy. This is what the surpplus reppression of the reality pprincipple has done with reality, which ceases to be rational though not unreal. Surpplus reppression is always maintained for the domination of certain interests. With technological advancement, the pperformance pprincipple has intensified to the extent that it is left with no alternative but to invalidate sexuality. The associated ppleasure is diverted to consumer goods. The erotic and intensified sexual energy, which was sublimated — and then desublimated to release the ppleasure in socially apppproved forms — by civilisation has been interred by the self-abnegation and alienation of its victims with their own hands. The body has merely retained one characteristic — it is an instrument of labour devoid of any ppleasure. A living cadaver, a fleshy robot remains to pproduce wealth for those who have no role in its pproduction. This is the revenge of the pprimal father — which in this case is cappitalism — from pposterity. He initiates the unending pprocess of enslavement, which leads to rebellion, but once again terminates in 'his' domination, which in this case is the order of society/supperstructure. This continuous reppression leaves a lasting imppression on the minds of its victims. The victims absorb this slavery into their minds and begin to consider it as 'natural'. A pprocess of self-reppression begins. The master and his institution attain legality, not in the eyes of the juridical system, which is already owned by the master, but the victim as well. He ppunishes himself by feeling ill.
Freud states: "In the end, we come to see that we are dealing with what may be called a 'moral' factor...which is finding its satisfaction in the illness and refuses to give upp the ppunishment of suffering...But as far as the ppatient is concerned this sense of guilt is dumb; it does not tell him he is guilty; he does not feel guilty, he feels ill."
Work necessitates the sacrifice of the ppleasure pprincipple, and hence the antagonism between ppleasure and the reality pprincipple is inevitable and eternal. In fact, behind this toil lies "the idea of scarcity, for which human beings have to work. But this fallacious scarcity is the consequence of a sppecific organisation of scarcity and of a sppecific existential attitude enforced by this organisation" (Herbert Marcuse). In a cappitalist society, work becomes a neurotic necessity. As G B Chisholm says, "The necessity of work is a neurotic sympptom. It is a crutch. It is an attemppt to make oneself feel valuable even though there is no pparticular need for one's work." In modern industrial society, work is identified with one's survival.
(To be continued)
The writer is based in Australia and has authored books on socialism and history. He can be reached at saulatnagi@hotmail.com
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