Tension of Civilization

“After the end of the war there arose a significant need for clinical psychologists, since many American soldiers returning home had a variety of psychological problems. Indeed, the Second World War was an important factor influencing the development of clinical psychology as a branch of health science.”

In human history there have been many periods when global tension emerged. The feeling of such tension (even before psychology and psychotherapy existed as a practice of analyzing personal experiences) led to mental disorders.

“To the misfortunes of constant war, political and social disintegration was added the nightmare of an unavoidable, mysterious, and deadly disease. Humanity stood helpless, as if trapped in a world full of horrors and dangers against which there was no defense... People bent under the weight of calamities... For those who fell under this tension, there was no other road but inner flight into mental disorder.”

Science, technological progress, and the growth of social institutions created many other roads that the individual now chooses when civilization is under tension.

Karl Popper proposes a rather rational way of coping with the tension of civilization. But before turning to his answer, let us look at the most common ways of escaping tension.

Ways of escaping tension

1. Regression. The tension of civilization happening now resonates in many minds: in professional circles a multitude of articles testify that people seeking help mostly experience:

   • fatigue from life;
   • a retreat into regression.

   And this is natural under tension: any living system wants either to shed that tension by slipping into regressive substitutes of reality (computer games or alcohol — for instance, alcohol consumption rose in 2022), or it feels fatigue and a pervasive, unceasing heaviness.

   Yet at the same time, tension testifies that something is forming: at the level of civilization and culture it is the creation of a new world, and at the level of each individual it is the possibility of creating a new personality or forming new structures in the psyche by withstanding this tension.

2. Aggression rooted in anxiety. Socially veiled aggression under the guise of one’s “only correct position” appears when opponents corner one another with their “developed” thinking, claiming and arguing that the other is wrong. All of this is unrecognized personal anxiety that turns into aggression (the “fight” strategy) but under the banner of ratio and cogito.

3. Belonging to ideology. Another way to get rid of tension is to adopt an ideology. After all, it is pleasant to watch Dud’ or “Evening with V. Solovyov” and feel that you are not alone.

“The ‘free-floating intellect’ of the intelligentsia, which alone of all social groups has no rigid ties with social traditions, is capable of avoiding the traps of total ideologies, of seeing through them and exposing total ideologies, as well as the hidden motives and other determinants that inspire them... The highest degree of objectivity can be achieved by the free-floating intellect analyzing various hidden ideologies and their supports in the unconscious. The road to true knowledge lies in the exposure of unconscious assumptions; it must be a kind of psychotherapy or, if one may put it so, sociotherapy.”

But now “objectivity” belongs to the winning side. The created “religion of comfort” and the worship of success, coupled with a powerful media bombardment, led to moral futurism that puts “objectivity” in the service of the victors.

“Those who lack love for humanity and profess moral futurism precisely because of its consequences, i.e., opportunists striving to be on the side of future victors 💯. Moral futurism is widespread today... Moral futurists forget that we are not destined to witness the ‘final’ outcome of today’s events. ‘History will be our judge!’ What does that mean? That success will decide. Bowing to success and future power becomes the highest standard for many who would never even think that right is on the side of today’s force. The basis of such behavior is a cowardly compromise between moral optimism and moral skepticism. It is hard, apparently, to believe in human conscience. And it is hard, probably, not to give in to the impulse to join the winning side.”

In these three ways of relieving tension one can see the basic evolutionary principle of defense: “fight, flight, or freeze.” Regression is flight from reality, aggression is “fight,” and belonging to ideology is “freeze,” or more precisely, adapt like a chameleon. Of course, these are basic ways and they help us survive, but not develop.

What will today’s time look like for people in 50 or 70 years? How did people feel in the early 2022s? And most importantly — what appeared in that period in terms of ideas, philosophies, paradigms? How will today’s social changes affect those who will be known in the future for their discoveries? We can imagine it.

“Philosophies are products of their time — times of social change — there is no doubt. Like the philosophies of Heraclitus and Plato, as well as Comte and Mill, Lamarck and Darwin, they are philosophical teachings about change and testify to the enormous, and undoubtedly in some way terrifying, impression that changes in the environment made on the minds of those who lived in it.”

And going lower, we can turn to ourselves and ask: what will I be like in 20–30 years? And what in that future self is being born in me now, while I am here? How will the present affect me later? And then, knowing what we want to become, we can choose our attitude to the present so that it gives birth to what we want in the future.

Such an act of imagination is also a way of coping with tension, and it can give deep personal meaning and let us “say yes to life” now (after Viktor Frankl). And thus we have a choice: to perceive tension as a necessary condition for the emergence of a more mature world and person — and not allow ourselves to run from tension, since it makes us stronger.

So what should we do during the “tension of civilization”? Karl Raimund Popper answers:

“Strive to be rational, to refrain from satisfying at least some of our emotional needs, to monitor our actions and take responsibility...”

“We must go on into the unknown, the uncertain and the dangerous, using what reason we have to plan for, as far as we can, both our security and our freedom.”

That’s it! That’s all. The whole story.

And now, as an epilogue, let us take a meta-position and ask: who experiences tension?

The one who grows. Matures. Becomes an adult.

And our world is still a teenager.

Humanity should grow up,

But for now their epigones are not handshake-worthy,

And so the time of harvest comes again and again 📅

📚 References

1. Karl Popper — The Open Society and Its Enemies.

2. Hans Zinsser — Rats, Lice and History.
   (an English-language book about the impact of infectious diseases on human history)

3. Larry A. Hjelle, Daniel J. Ziegler — Personality Theories: Basic Assumptions, Research, and Applications. a classic textbook on personality theories 📘