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Vol. XXII, No. 4
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to relegate the value seeking contemplative life of man a very inferior status and make the active adaptational life as the supreme value. (With the contributions of Karl Marx this process of reversal of the order between contemplative and active life became complete). As Sorokin (19 has observed about this Freudian notion of man: “...this conception and this technique concentrate on man as a perverted animal, on his subconscious as the basic driving force, on an 'adjustment' of his 'ego' and 'super ego' to the 'id', rather than on an adjustment of the 'id' to the norms of a rational 'ego' and a sociocultural 'super ego'. “Sorokin rightly observes that instead of "lifting man and society to the higher levels of the consciousness and superconsciousness; instead of sanctifying parenthood and childhood, Freudiapism degrades them to the level of perverted animalism.” Just as Freud believed that freeing man from the unnatural and overstrict sex-taboos would automatically lead him to mental health, Marx also believed that the emancipation from exploitation would automatically produce free and cooperative beings. Like Freud, Marx too did not give the moral factor in man' its due importance and assumed that the goodness in man would automatically assert and take care of itself when the economic changes had taken place (Fromm, 1963). Marx could not visualize that a better or healthy society could not be manufactured merely through structural transformation of the society, a psycho-moral change from within the being of man is imperative. Without an appropriate ethico-spiritual self-awareness, social systems are always prone to barbaric authoritarianism and a variety of terrorism including that of the state. Abundance automatically brings happiness and liberates man from miseries and social maladies is a great myth of progress theories. Contrary evidence to this assumption could easily be witnessed in our daily life experiences. For example, the United States and other affluent countries at the international level. Punjab in India, and Ganganagar in Rajasthan-the three levels of high affluence-probably present the maximum incidence of crime rates. How abnormal the definition of normalcy in the modern sensate society is could be guessed by Sorokin's (1958) remarks that if an individual 'can get along somehow' with others, without committing a criminal offense; if he becomes capable of finding a means of subsistence, of doing a job, of satisfying his bunger, his sexual instincts, and his other biological needs without criminal violation of the law, he is regarded as a normal 'adjusted', 'educated' and 'integrated' person. If he can do these things by defeating his competitors in sex and business, sport and politics, money making and social clim
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