Modern Barbarism: Causes and Consequences

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article is dedicated to analysis of the phenomenon typically referred to as “barbarism,” which remains in social and political practice to this day. The authors focus on so-called “vertical barbarism.” Unlike the “horizontal” barbarism known since antiquity, this type of barbarism relates not to a direct clash of peoples, but to complex social processes, in particular to powerful vertical mobility and a massive increase in opportunities for broad segments of population to gain access to achievements of civilization. The authors believe that the birth of vertical barbarism relates to the phenomenon described by the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset as “the revolt of the masses.” This was one of the most significant social and cultural shifts in human history, when the development of democracy and industrial technology gave rise to a new kind of social space that brought the “mass man” to the forefront of social and political life. As a result of the revolt of the masses, during the first half of the 20th century, a wave of vertical barbarism swept across Europe, leading to the establishment of fascist, Nazi, and right-wing authoritarian regimes in a series of European countries. After the end of World War II, this first wave of vertical barbarism receded in favor of the formation of consumer society, in which the mass man turned from an aggressive political subject into its relatively passive object. The authors interpret the political engagement of the mass man in recent years as a new wave of vertical barbarism. They believe that behind this wave lie the fear and frustration of a mass man who has failed to adapt to the sharp expansion of his living space, and the qualitative transformation of the social sphere caused by the late 19th–early 20th century development of democracy and technological revolution. This situation is aggravated by a lack of appropriate attention to these shifts by the political structures and powers that be, which leads to a sense of abandonment that motivates the mass man to revolt against the established order and challenge modern civilization.