Will

What is it about Will that so fascinates the modern conciousness? Throughout Western culture and Christian theology, the Will, the essence of Humanity has ultimately been denied as sinful, inevitably leading to social discord, decadence, and violence. This is further built upon by the Freudian ideal that Civilization is effectively founded upon the denial of the id, that is to say, base instinct and desire, for the sake of social cohesion and collaboration. What makes this so? Do you think this is truly the basis of civil society (as opposed, to say, a social contract, not between polus and government but among citizens themselves)? Is not a recognition of the self, of those emotions, passions, and desires which truly turn vice into passion and the camel into the lion (to excuse the cheap Nietzsche reference)?

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I found it interesting, the link being the self-denial of emotive expression and of desire and will, and the popular connotation of those things as being inherently socially noxious. Why is it that those who would claim their wills are portrayed to do so in malicious manners?

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