ABSTRACT
It has taken a long time for the communal societies of the world to turn into modern ones—this historical process has been slow, gradual, and unevenly distributed in geographical space. The decisive factor of this shift was literacy, the written word released ideas from the constraints of orally transmitted tradition. Written texts opened up new vistas for the accumulation of knowledge, thus creating the possibility of limitless cognitive growth. Interpersonal relationships became bifurcated by modernity based on whether the actors encountered one another in formal (non-elected) or informal (elected) roles. Up to the present day, the incest taboo related to us through King Oedipus’s tragic fate admonishes humans of the fault line between the two types of role relations marking the origins of the modern western individual—one who is free and accountable for their deeds. And while inclined to live by the pleasure principle, they cannot do so under the pressure of the reality principle. Modernity has recreated the social world, laid the grounds for new values, and set off new processes and institutions that blocked the paths of return to the communal structures of society.
