"A society trapped in the present makes no plans for the future and has no memory of the past; it harbors resentments and fears, managing only to adapt. It replaces desire with impulses, plans with announcements, passions with emotions. It becomes a shrunken society." With these words, the Italian sociologist Giuseppe De Rita describes today's society, defining it as a society of presentism, disconnected from the past and the future.
Presentism
Western man is in the midst of an anthropological crisis, no longer able to govern modernity and has lost his most precious compass: the relationship with linear time , the only one capable of preserving our identity. Hence the submission to an eternal present, circular time , shattered by an incessant sequence of moments.
The gap between politics and society
Current politics has been reduced to a Babel-like juxtaposition of slogans and proclamations. It exhausts its purpose in capturing the instincts of the citizen-voter, converting them into a day-to-day consensus factory, forgetting what was said yesterday and showing no interest in the facts that, consequently, might happen tomorrow. What matters is the exclusivity of the present . There is a frenetic focus on the moment, and it matters little whether a post, a tweet, or a shout during a television talk show represents not only a lexical involution of politics but also its most serious consequence: the rift between political power and society , increasing indifference and inequality , diminishing social inclusion.
A carefully calibrated mechanism leads to the interpretation of politics as a struggle between individuals, each with their own communication skills, who in turn represent fragmented individual interests, or at most small, local, and clientelistic corporations and cliques. This provides the long-term scope and dignity to a politics capable of seeking effective solutions to problems, striving to find common ground in the collective interest of the many, rather than the private interests of the few.
The representation
Representation, as we have known it throughout the twentieth century, refers to political parties complete with their respective organizations. These are communities of people who share interests, programs, goals, and methods that cannot be reduced to mere announcements. Indeed, a political force must not merely have a label, but rather must embody the painstaking pursuit of a long-term mission. The well-being of Italians has been built under the influence of two engines, both now stalled: the primacy of politics and social inclusion . This constant upward movement, with each section serving a widespread sharing of solid political and social goals, has led to a widespread sharing of solid political and social goals. Currently, politics and society constitute two increasingly closed worlds, estranged from one another. The same separation occurs with knowledge, even considered a hostile and negative factor, an obstacle to the direct and "sulfurous" communication of contemporary politics.
Society and inequalities
Social stratification is one of the main forms of differentiation and inequality. The latter is the social process by which individuals have different access to privileges and resources, based on their characteristics. Stratification is a phenomenon that affects all eras and all societies . Its study dates back to the 1700s; E. A. Ross classified it as a social process and distinguished three forms: differentiation, segregation, and subordination.
The current pandemic has worsened the overall situation, especially due to the emergence of new inequalities, exposing and further accentuating the weaknesses of every sector, from the economic to the political . We are now living in an era of uncertainty that led us to believe we could extract the best from the first wave of the pandemic, but which now leads us to withdraw into ourselves, knowing that the only way out is through relationships with others, a sense of belonging to a community, and the desperate need to be heard.
Martina Giampà
Bibliography
- De Rita, G., & Galdo, A. (2018). Prisoners of the Present: How to Escape the Trap of Modernity. Einaudi.
- Touraine, A. (2017). We, Human Subjects: Rights and New Movements in the Post-Social EraThe Assayer.
- CENSIS, Report on the social situation of the country, FrancoAngeli, Milan 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.
