Er, I had a response to that last bit written out but then it... went *poof*, so ^^;; Suffice it to say that I agree, and that this reminds me of the usual portrait of repressed American suburbia, where everyone thinks what's important is the face you put on and the things you do in public, etc, and even if you've got severed fingers in little jars in the basement at home, everything's fine if you those fingers either aren't Mary's or John's from down the street or alternatively no one knows and the party goes on as planned.
I guess I don't really think of having a Super-ego as something to congratulate someone over? So yeay, you don't go out and kill/rape/pillage, yeah, repression and fear of consequences and civilization in general has done its job? Er? I used to have arguments about the value of actions (as 'reality') vs. feelings/thoughts (as 'reality') often, and people... well, I think they may honestly think that their inner world is 120% less real and significant than the world of what they ate for breakfast and where they went last Sunday, and in fact that's what 'reality' is, just as 'normalcy' is merely resembling the Joneses enough to 'pass'. I don't even think you can call it a 'lie' because it's such a culturally accepted and deeply rooted belief, one that they build entire social orders on. They bring out the 'fiction/desires are dangerous! oppress now!!' thing when people get a little too much religion (and guilt), but basically Western society functions through repression of the individual Id and its subsequent sublimation into 'acceptable' venues.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-06-02 10:33 pm (UTC)Suffice it to say that I agree, and that this reminds me of the usual portrait of repressed American suburbia, where everyone thinks what's important is the face you put on and the things you do in public, etc, and even if you've got severed fingers in little jars in the basement at home, everything's fine if you those fingers either aren't Mary's or John's from down the street or alternatively no one knows and the party goes on as planned.
I guess I don't really think of having a Super-ego as something to congratulate someone over? So yeay, you don't go out and kill/rape/pillage, yeah, repression and fear of consequences and civilization in general has done its job? Er? I used to have arguments about the value of actions (as 'reality') vs. feelings/thoughts (as 'reality') often, and people... well, I think they may honestly think that their inner world is 120% less real and significant than the world of what they ate for breakfast and where they went last Sunday, and in fact that's what 'reality' is, just as 'normalcy' is merely resembling the Joneses enough to 'pass'. I don't even think you can call it a 'lie' because it's such a culturally accepted and deeply rooted belief, one that they build entire social orders on. They bring out the 'fiction/desires are dangerous! oppress now!!' thing when people get a little too much religion (and guilt), but basically Western society functions through repression of the individual Id and its subsequent sublimation into 'acceptable' venues.