AGGRESSIVENESS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 730, 10 July 1953, Page 5

AGGRESSIVENESS

Sir-It is quite true, as "J.B." says, that human beings possess innate propensities (i.e., instincts) towards, inter alia, sexuality and aggressiveness. Nevertheless, it is quite bad psychology to conclude, as "J.B." appears to do, that nothing can be done about it. Human instincts (unlike those of ants or bees, to cite an extreme case) are nothing more than very flexible tendencies that

can be directed into various channels, either of a socially useful or of a socially disruptive nature, For example, the instinct of sexuality is usually channelled into the behaviour pattern which we know as family life, to the common benefit of society and of the individuals concerned. Aggressiveness likewise can be readily sublimated or transformed into socially useful forms of behaviour. In a stable society conscious of the value of constructive labour this is particularly easy. It is a sign of the failure and decay of a given civilisation when the tendency towards pugnacity is elevated into a cult, Nietzsche’s literary worship of the Superman, and the Nazi system in which it received practical expression, were symptomatic respectively of the frustration of a maladjusted individual and of the widespread despair of modern German society. So likewise a society which allows the technical achievements of 3-D cinematography to be perverted. to the glorification of brute force is publishing a commentary upon its own sterility. In refusing to acquiesce in this perversion Mr. Mirams is acting as the conscience of us all. Modern psychology has a great deal to say about that warfare which "J.B." so complacently appears to accept as inevitable. For example, Thouless in General and Social Psychology (p. 191, 2nd Ed., 1943) has this: There are, of course, psychological factors favouring the continuance of war. These, however, are not innate propensities (e.g., instincts), but attitudes favourable to war built up partly as a secondary .result of attitudes national loyalty and hatred of other national groups, partly by social approval of warlike activities and of those who take part in them. Such attitudes are, at the present time, very strong because warfare is a recognised mode of social activity. ere is no reason for doubting that if war was renounced by the civilised world, other attitudes would be built up and other outlets could be found for men’s aggressive tendencies. Ignorance, di:ease and vice are enemies demanding all the. courage, selfsacfifice and determined pugnacity, which are at present poured out in the socially useless activitv of soaking the earth in blood.

H. W.

YOUREN

(Napier).