After reading Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud, you will start to see how civilization starts to limit human nature. Before civilization came about, primitive man was free with no restriction on his instincts. When civilization came about, this was started to repress human nature in exchange for a portion of security. In the modern-day, we have a government, which is a political union that has authority over all the people, and they create laws to keep people from doing illegal actions. In our history, we have seen laws that were unjust to African Americans in the 1960s. There were Jim Crow laws which was basically a belief that white was superior to blacks in all ways. Today, we have laws that say all humans are equal regardless of their race or age. Freud believes that the government has made laws that restrict people from having full access to their freedom which is true. Many people tend to blindly follow laws because they believe they are just when they are not. We learned last week about how Dr. Martin Luther King broke the cycle and showed everyone that they respect the government and follow the law, but if it is unjust laws, then they would not follow them.
While the government has repressive laws, they are also benefiting from civilization. Freud talks about how happiness is something our ancestors did not have much of. Today, our civilization has offered us protection against nature and helped us develop relationships without peers. Our ancestors had to worry about food, shelter, weather every day. We have attained a high level of civilization and we find happiness in achievements. Overall, I agree with Sigmund Freud on how civilization has started to limit human nature.
