Freud saw civilization itself as an adversary hostile to human alterity

Evidence

Every individual,” Freud writes in The Future of an Illusion, “is virtually an enemy of civilization.” But what is it that “disturbs our relations with our neighbor”? And how is it that civilization produces such discomfort, such internal discord and enmity, even between neighbors? How is it that civilization is “perpetually threatened with disintegration,” under the looming threat of what appears as a “primary mutual hostility of human beings”? With this distinct, but no less permanent possibility of war, under the threat of a virtual enemy-every individual-civilization is forced or made to open the hostilities. Civilization becomes an enemy, itself an adversary violently opposed to alterity-be it that of neighbors, enemies, or of sexuality. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 130

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘unveiling/veiling’ civic religion archives — civilization as a hostile power parallels the soundscape book’s framing of environmental forces as adversaries.