It often happens that revolutions don't take place in the streets, don't clash with those in power, or resort to violence. Instead, they happen quietly, almost imperceptibly. Sometimes, no one even notices. And perhaps it's precisely the quietest ones that are the most shocking. The future arrives silently but with a deafening roar.
The silent revolution
As early as 1977, Ronald Inglehart, with his " Silent Revolution ," attempted to define what was a slow shift in patterns, values, ideologies , needs, and logical and political paradigms into entirely new forms in today's society: the transition from a materialist to a post-materialist society. And just two years later, Jean-François Lyotard would theorize what constituted a major break with the past: the post-modern condition.
Towards post-materialism
The economic development and the material conditions of Western society since the Second World War have brought about a new orientation, a cultural shift towards new values and new goals. Resuming Maslow, for Iglehart the improvement of living conditions and the stability of democracy has meant that those who shift their attention from those who represent the basic needs, of which we have obtained an almost stable certainty, towards what are defined as the secondary needsOther factors also contribute to this, such as the expansion of education and schooling and the new formative experiences of the new generations who, moreover, are not affected by the events of the Total WarThe need for self-realization and recognition in society now takes on a more significant value than the need for security and the mere satisfaction of one's physiological needs, which have now become easily achievable goals. Inglehart conducts this investigation in which he patiently collects data through interviews and questionnaires samples over several years investigating which values are considered important by individuals through the use of different Item. Finally with the use of the statistics and methodologies comparative observe how there was a strong increase in Post-materialists in the last decades of the 900th century.
The effects on society
As he claimed Talcott Parson, “of all the elements (..) the one that shapes human behavior with the greatest vitality and with the most significant consequences is the set of values”. In fact, there are many consequences that can be found in these changes. An important impact can be found in the electoral preferences, as Inglehart says: “Class politics can wane in favor of politics based on status, culture, or ideals.”. In other words, a shift in alignment no longer based on class but on new values. The more economically well-off, therefore with post-materialist values, will tend to support the left, the spokesperson of those values. On the contrary, workers and wage earners, less well-off, will be more interested in materialist themes preached by the right.
From modern to post-modern
The connotation that knowledge and culture assume in the late 900s is also new, as explained to us Lyotard in his work “The Postmodern Condition”. The planetary dimensions of the economy and financial markets, the aggressiveness of advertising messages, the invasiveness of television, the uninterrupted flow of information on the telematic networks determine in the late-capitalist phase a delegitimization of knowledge and its universality. The continuous change of reality, its growing complexity and heterogeneity means that the claim to confine it within a single framework is no longer valid single system of thought and even more so the vision of History as a direct path towards a positive goal such as freedom, equality and progress is fading. “The grand narrative has lost credibility” He tells us. Values lose their meaning and their validity is declined by contingency. A unified sense of thought as well as action is lacking, resulting in the precariousness of the individual in every sphere, as he will later reiterate. Zygmunt Bauman. Aufklarung enlightened, the trust in reason and its ability to motivate and guide behaviors thus gives way to the plausible, to knowledge fragmented into sectors and to a plurality of values.
The key role of sociology
As he finally suggested Jean Baudrillard, at the same time as knowledge in post-modern thought, theidentity of the individual who converts from a homogeneous unit into a plurality of facets; moreover the world becomes a series of pseudo-events of a spectacular and theatrical nature packaged by the mass media. But on the other hand, all these purely negative traits are inextricably linked to other effects with a more positive connotation: knowledge now has a communication e broadcast maxim Compared to the past, rationalization is being replaced by more emotional forms of action, and fear of authority is diminishing. It is therefore clear that not only do revolutions arise and explode in silence, but that by their very nature they bring about change. It is up to sociology and its authors to trace, interpret and understand these changes, their causes and their effects, so as to make human beings and society a little more aware and in control of their own destiny.
Valerio Adolini
