Civilization and its Discontents

We've entered a dangerous era in the United States. Many of our nominal Constitutional protections have been officially suspended for a generation, the USA now runs a vast network of (no other word for it) concentration camps for asylum seekers, whose simple arrival at "our" borders has been criminalized. Politicians use racist invective without shame and freely call themselves “Christian” nationalists. The liberal-ish press sees itself primarily as a purveyor of entertainment and strives for "balance" while their right-wing analogs in the media have no such pretensions and have become blatant propaganda machines.

Why is Western "democracy" so vulnerable to fascism and nationalism? Why does fascism come back with a vengeance every three or four generations? It is a mistake to ascribe this to unique economic and historical conditions that produce monsters like Trump, Duterte, Orban, and Bolsonaro — all gone for now until the next crop of fascists take their place. And though expressions of xenophobia and white supremacy ultimately involve Capitalism and colonialism, Marx never adequately explained it.

There is something dark and perverse in human nature. The fascists we ought to fear the most are not always the demagogues who show up on election years — sometimes they live right next door.

In 1929 Freud saw something frightening approaching as he wrote Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, which has been translated as Civilization and its Discontents. It's one of Freud's best and most pessimistic essays. Whatever you may think of psychoanalysis, mommy issues or cigars, Freud offers insight into the clash — not of civilizations — but between "civilization" and the individual.

Freud’s work, alongside that of anarchists like Emma Goldman, explores why "democracies" never manage to rise above human frailty. More often than not, they enshrine our worst human impulses in law and happily hand over god-like powers to hyper-aggressive miscreants and monsters.