Views on Freud: Civilizations and its Discontents Chapter 1 part 1

Freud starts out describing his feelings about humanity; “…that people commonly use false standards of measurements – that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others and that they underestimate what is of true value in life.”   Freud stops here regarding the subject of the values of man, so these questions come to mind: What are the true measurements? Who are we to judge other peoples decisions on what is valuable to them in life?

Maybe what really should be asked is ‘Why’. What is the reason for this behavior, the need to acquire these loose and relative terms- wealth, power and success?  Well to answer that we should start from the beginning and the actual reason for us to do anything at all.   The answer is that everything we do is for our existence, clear and simple. Everything from the moment we wake up in the moment until we fall asleep is purely for the reason of existing or so we assume. During our course of life we observe others at their success and their assumed happiness, simply deducing that those attributes that we lack, those that are related to control, those are the ones to aspire to in order to achieve true happiness.

Freud goes on, “There are a few men from whom their contemporaries do not withhold admiration, although their greatness rests on attributes and achievements which are completely foreign to the aims and ideals of the multitude.”     Based on what are these considered achievements at all?  Again there is the problem of experience and how we deduce the value of objects, situations and the like.

Ok that was hardly the first page I dot want to continue because for the next discussed subject I will have to go into allot and I want these to be concise and informative regarding my thoughts as much as possible. I am planning on doing this every day so if this interests you, stay tuned.