Civilization and Its Discontented

Raymond A. Jones is a history professor at Carleton University in
Ottawa.

The three essays that constitute this small volume deal with the concept
of civilization and the use to which it has been put from the
Enlightenment to 1930, when Freud wrote his essay “Civilization and
Its Discontents.”

The first essay traces the debasement of the word “civilization” in
the Victorian era. By 1900, it had become an item of cant, in the sense
that the values associated with the word had become less associated with
refinement and more with material progress and power. The second essay,
which derives its inspiration from postmodernism, deals with
civilization’s marginalized groups—women, criminals, the working
class, and the crowd. The final essay, devoted to Freud’s 1930 essay,
argues that his psychological insights amply confirm the Hobbesian view
that the life of man is nasty, brutish, and short.

Laffey’s concluding remarks are more optimistic than we might have
been led to expect. A universal standard for civilization is possible;
the demands of a global civilization can be addressed by rational
discourse.