Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West

by R.R. Reno

In Civilization and Its Discontents, a general theory of culture written late in life, Freud posited two main human instincts.5 One seeks sexual satisfaction. The other is aggressive and seeks domination. Taken alone or together, neither conduces to the cooperation necessary for human beings to survive in the hostile conditions of life, much less flourish. Over time, then, human culture has evolved modes of socialization that sublimate man’s instinctual energies, redirecting them to the task of their own repression. Freud coined the term “super-ego” to describe this repressive agent. It is the voice of conscience but not the oracle of a higher law that calls us to live more nobly. Moral self-discipline is part of a complex economy of instinctual energy circling back upon itself in the form of cultural norms. What looks like a high ideal is in fact repressed sexual desire or the aggressive instinct transformed into a severe taskmaster.