Humanities’ Irrational and its Effects on a Utopian Society

The human psyche is divided into rational and irrational drives. Courtesy of Sigmund Freud, it is divided into the id, ego, and super-ego. According to Freud, although the super-ego controls the other two to present ourselves in a rational state within society, the id often tends to be out of complete control by the conscious, making it an unconscious action. For Freud, it’s the recognition that the irrational is there, that it must be controlled to take over. Man’s aggressive nature does tend to overpower the mind, leading to irrational actions. Both Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents and Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground show how humans are controlled by their irrational drives and that, as a result, the attempts to create a†¦show more content†¦The Reavers represent Freud’s mentioned id, or irrational and aggressive drives. Due to groups such as the Reavers and the Alliance, civilization trying to improve and create a perfect so ciety will fail due to human’s inevitable ways of acting through their irrational psyche. A utopian society isn’t possible because of this and Freud suggests accepting such a reality with imperfections in its inhabitants. Underestimated are the â€Å"powerful forces or irrationalism†¦ [which] would erupt with devastating fury in twentieth-century political life†¦extolling violence† (Perry 701-2).Those civilizations that attempt to create a utopian society create the illusion of civilization, the illusion that humans are, in fact, civilized. Enter Dostoyevsky, an anti-government, anti-socialist thinker and writer who offers a strong theory on man’s irrational and failures to create a â€Å"Crystal Palace† society. Being exposed to violence, death, and government suppression through his life, Dostoyevsky was able to write a notable anti-utopian novel. Moving to the discussion of the rational versus irrational thoughts supported by Freud, rather than viewing humanity as being â€Å"innately good,† Dostoyevsky viewed humans â€Å"as being innately depraved, irrational, and rebellious† (Perry 682). Like Freud, Dostoyevsky opposed Enlightenment philosophies of rationality, and believed irrationality was a dominantShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Aldous Huxley s Brave New World Essay2257 Words   |  10 Pagesessential to prioritize individual happiness, emotion, and humanity in order for your life to have value. OVERALL TONE: Satirical Novel Cover Art Analysis The novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, is set in a â€Å"utopian† society where individuals are born into a strict social destiny and given recreational sex and drugs to maintain universal happiness and social stability. The major theme exhibited is individual happiness, emotion and humanity* are essential in order for your life to have value. HoweverRead MoreCommunism And Its Impact On Society And The Production Of Good And Society Essay1945 Words   |  8 Pagescommunism as described by Marx necessarily leads to centralised planning, as market relations are abolished, which can have disastrous effects on society and the production of good and services. Marxist Communism and utopian socialism The term communism is one fraught with many ideas and beliefs. For some, it stands as a humane alternative to the capitalist society in which we live, and to others it is associated with misery and tyrannical governments. Malia (1994) argues that when socialism,Read MoreThe Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald1335 Words   |  5 Pagesdesire to eliminate otherness. Specifically, Sebald draws on Horkheimer and Adorno’s critique of civilization articulated in The Dialectic of the Enlightenment. Horkheimer and Adorno describe the Holocaust as the point where the perceived progress of humanity embodied by the Enlightenment collapses into barbarity. Although The Rings of Saturn is not about the Holocaust in any direct sense, its longer view on questions of mourning, melancholy, destruction and the perversion of progress, tries to find aRead MoreCommunism : An International Political Movement And A Political And Economic System2038 Words   |  9 Pages692). In theory, communism is a no ble concept developed by two visionary philosophers who envisaged a utopian society– a new world where everyone within it is equally set in perfect conditions; there would be no poverty and no one who stands at the top to look down on people who weren’t economically favored by fate. Be that as it may, the perception of the word â€Å"communism† in today’s American society has become shrouded with fear and ignorance. It has developed into a common case: people are not recognizantRead More Complacence as a Facet of Insanity in Hamlet Essay2539 Words   |  11 Pagesripe, and fertile upon one’s inevitable decision to conform to the mass. Such logic is somewhat of a paradox-in-itself and if we deconstruct the meaning of the terms ‘conform’ and ‘individuality’ their contrast is vast, and their apparent use is irrational, therefore all aspects of the human mind remain complacent, and mundane to a certain degree that it erases a ny former beliefs of a unique human being. Rather, human personality is an amalgamation of similar ideas—eclectic-in-nature, but fabricatedRead MoreAge of Enlightenment and Century5169 Words   |  21 Pagestwo paintings reflect about the social life of peasants in the sixteenth century and of urban dwellers in the nineteenth century. 8. 94: Explain the ways in which Italian Renaissance humanism transformed ideas about the individual s role in society. 9. 96 Compare and contrast the patronage of the arts by Italian Renaissance rulers with that by dictators of the 1930 s. 10. ’98 Discuss how Renaissance ideas are expressed in the Italian art of the period, referring to specific works andRead MoreLiterature and Politics the Impact of Dostoevsky9582 Words   |  39 PagesYork: W.W. Norton, 1976), pp. 751-769. Note especially the letters to N.A. Lyubimov of May 10 and June 11, 1879 (ibid., pp. 757 and 759). 8. Robert L. Belknap, The Rhetoric of an Ideological Novel, in William Mills Todd III, editor, Literature and Society in Imperial Russia, 1800-1914 (Stanford: Stanford University, 1978), pp. 173-201. 9. This period is treated in great detail in Joseph Franks masterly Dostoevsky, The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849 (Princeton: Princeton University, 1976), especially inRead MoreEssay on Silent Spring - Rachel Carson30092 Words   |  121 Pageslong-term consequences for both wildlife and humans. To convey the grave danger that these substances represent, she introduces an analogy that will resurface over and over in Silent Spring: pesticides are lik e atomic radiation invisible, with deadly effects that often manifest themselves only after a long delay. Chapter three identifies a small handful of qualities that make the new pesticides so much more dangerous than their predecessors: 1) greater potency 2) slower decomposition and 3) a tendencyRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagesmachine Level 3: ‘Get the structure and systems right so that all is in balance’ Level 4: ‘The machine is alive! – well, almost’ How modernist organization theory underpins conventional understandings of the relationship between organizations and society Is bureaucracy immoral? Form fits function: how modernist organizational theory challenges the relationship between individuals, groups and the organization through bureaucracy and hierarchy The virtuous bureaucracy Modernist themes in organizationalRead MoreFor Against by L.G. Alexander31987 Words   |  128 Pagessuperior to men in almost every field. The hard-fought battle for recognition has been won, but it is by no means over. It is men, not women who still carry on the sex war because their attitude remains basically hostile. Even in the most progressive societies, women continue to be regarded as second-rate citizens. To hear some men talk, you d think that women belonged to a different species! On the surface, the comments made by men about women s abilities seem light-hearted. The same tired jokes about