Are We Heading Towards social and Civic Disintegration?
The early 1980s marked a turning point, initiating a period of capitalist neo-liberalization driven by political leaders globally.This shift, the author argues, has fundamentally altered the social landscape, “laminating social classes by eradicating large industrial and public enterprises.” This erosion of traditional structures has contributed to a growing sense of precarity and disillusionment, notably regarding familial investment. The promise of social mobility – the ability for children to surpass their parents’ socio-economic standing – is increasingly perceived as unattainable, breeding “bitterness” as the guarantee of “comfort, consumption and enjoyment of material goods” fades.
This societal anxiety is compounded by a perceived “state impotence” and a “massive disavowal of voluntarism.” Political leaders, the author contends, are increasingly “entangled in the complexity of the world and less and less capable of deciding between contradictory interests…to arbitrate between emergencies and to act in the long term.” This perceived inability to effectively govern fuels a deepening crisis of trust.
The Rise of Subjective Reality and the Erosion of Common Ground
A key driver of this disintegration, according to the author, is a basic shift in how reality itself is understood. Historically, even parties with strong ideological commitments acknowledged an objective reality, allowing for agreement on facts and a shared understanding of the world. However, the author observes a contemporary trend where “power lies in expressive excess, the definition and discursive determination of the very reality.” This manifests as the assertion that all perceived truth is merely “cultural construction,” open to questioning in the name of “emancipation and autonomy.”
This leads to a “pure relativity” where any given state of affairs is seen as simply the result of a power dynamic or a contractual agreement. The outcome, the author argues, is a society fractured along lines of entrenched belief, resembling a dysfunctional relationship: “a couple…a quadruple who divorces badly, each endlessly rehashing his reproaches, locked in his knowledge, his beliefs, his convictions, his certainties, unable to enter into another logic than his.” Manipulation of memories and facts becomes commonplace, hindering understanding and fostering perpetual conflict.
Echoes of the Past: Stasis and the Risk of Societal Fracture
The author draws a parallel to the ancient Greek concept of stasis – intense conflict leading to the near-total eradication of opposing factions. They cite the French wars of Religion (the “release” – likely a translation issue referring to the Révocation de l’Édit de Nantes in 1685, which revoked religious tolerance for Protestants) as a more recent, though imperfect, analogy. While acknowledging that the past cannot perfectly predict the present or future, the author suggests that these ancient precedents offer cautionary “rapprochements” – warnings about the potential consequences of unchecked societal division and the inability to forge a “common (a collective life aimed at the search for the common good).”
This analysis paints a bleak picture of a society losing its capacity for shared understanding and collective action, possibly spiraling towards disintegration. The author’s concerns center on the interplay between economic shifts, political failings, and a philosophical embrace of radical subjectivity, all contributing to a fractured and increasingly unstable social order.
