The contents of tradition and the discontents of culture

Abstract

Wherever there are lovers there are whispers - and wherever whispers abound suspicion is bound to arise. So, maybe, it is not enough to appeal to love in order to explain culture. Love, that Figaro of modern-day psychologists, sociologists, counsellors and preachers, could, as a term, profit from some linguistic analysis. A term which is used to express everything says, in the last analysis, nothing specific. One reason, perhaps, why contemporary culture finds it so imperative to establish a link to love is because, according to the well-known thesis of Sigmund Freud, the contents of culture are negative.! We do what we do, undertake arduous enterprises, build cities, discover deserts, chart oceans, explore space, because we are afraid of death. On the contrary, love is stronger than death and capable of making us survive where pyramids crumble and hearts fail. But where this love-link does not reach a faith beyond "animal faith" (to borrow a phrase from G. Santayana, while giving it a specific meaning) it would be idle to talk of positive or love-contents of culture.