Bauman's liquid society

The liquid society is an article by Umberto Eco appeared in the magazine "Espresso" on 29 May 2015 which deals with the themes of the book "Crisis state" by the sociologist Bauman.

The title "liquid society" would be a way of affirming how the liquid world represents an eternal threat for the protection of the negative face understood as a perennial threat to our possibility of preserving our "territorial" space. In fact, external events are never in our control and therefore I often find myself adhering to the "constrained" cultural dimension.

The liquid society is a society without a "solid" reference, which mean the impossibility of having an adherence to a "strong avoidance of uncertainty" as a characteristic feature of the entire post-war period from the 1950s to the 1980s on the European continent. As a result, many people find themselves adhering to the same dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty" but for wrong reasons related to stress, anxiety and a lack of consideration for their own well-being.

Liquid society eliminates the possibility of creating a cultural dimension with a "long-term temporal orientation" because it cancels the concept of "future". Furthermore, the population is pushed to live in the "restrain" cultural dimension because "things" do not depend on our will, we live with little inclination to remember positive emotions and the role of free speech in this context becomes less and less relevant . In essence, the liquid society becomes the dominant ideology to make this society more and more adherent to a "high social distance" among its members because the legitimacy of the managers in a broad sense becomes irrelevant since people are too worried about looking after themselves (economic survival as the only mental paradigm) or in living in their narcissistic egoism. This condition of "subjectivism" is certainly not favourable to be able to imagine challenging the wrong choices made by previous generations.

In short, the precariousness or "liquidity" has increased that sense of "existential" hierarchy due to economic reasons. This society pushes people to live with a dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" because you are forced to live in the ambiguity of the absence of a future and in the duty to live by accepting to take the days as they come. The "liquid" society described by Bauman pushes people to adhere to a cultural dimension that is purely of the "individualism" type because "I" must take care only of itself" prevails, "I" is the most important word of my language. This social situation leads to an increase in the "masculinity" dimension because in such a world work prevails over the family because of its scarcity. In addition, one is obliged to live within a "short-term temporal orientation" because all that matters is taking place at the moment while many people would like to have a future by adhering to a "long-term temporal orientation" to obtain that "solidity" of that Bauman talks about. Unfortunately, today we are forced to live with a need to adapt according to circumstances where good or bad depends on situations and everything can change according to situation. Umberto Eco mentions how liquid society begins to take shape within the "umbrella" concept of post-modernism, intended as a crisis of "great narratives" in order to understand the world. Post-modernism is described by Eco as a movement with a playful and ironic vision of the past and therefore this has created the right ground to establish a dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty". In the same way, the post-modernism described by Eco is aware of being a "temporary" movement and therefore returning to the cultural dimension of a "short temporal orientation" movement because this movement is like a ferry of modernity towards the unknown, that is towards adherence to a "weak avoidance of uncertainty" because we live in times of chaos. Umberto Eco mentions how Bauman's thought highlights a series of crises, such as the crisis of the State, ideologies, parties and ultimately any form of community useful for the social recognition of people.

The crisis of the State can be perceived as the crisis of the negative collective face of people willing to protect their "intimate-territorial space" in the face of changes in society. This is very difficult today because in the past the State allowed to obtain clarity in one's life as in the dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty", offering an emotional need for rules. The State was also the place with a "short-term orientation" because the State is an element of stability par excellence and never changes its skin. In addition, the State can give a feeling of control over its own life in order to give adhesion to a "satisfied" dimension, especially in the contexts of Northern Europe. The concept of crisis of the ideologies mentioned in Umberto Eco's article means the end of an "umbrella" of protection for one's positive face which could find recognition in a great "narrative" functional to one's ideals and therefore favorable to one's "in- group ". Therefore, the end of ideology as a "strong avoidance of uncertainty" with its "collectivism" through the emphasis of one's opinions, of a "conscientious we" seems to have gone into crisis in Bauman's vision.

The theme of the party crisis pushes to the end the society within a "low index of social distance" because the power within the party had to look for some form of legitimacy and was subject to the criteria of good or bad. The party was like an extended family form that offered protection in exchange for loyalty, emphasizing membership and "in-group" opinions as we find in the "collectivism" dimension. Eco's article mentions the crisis of the community to be understood as a place to be interpreted with "low social distance" because the choices had to be legitimate and it is a place where the hierarchy is seen as a inequality role; the community allows you to have a "weak avoidance of uncertainty" because you live with self-control, less anxiety and with a tendency towards personal well-being and with greater tolerance towards people.

Furthermore, the community pushes to the "collectivism" cultural dimension with a "conscientious" us and with the maintenance of harmony as a prevalent datum. At the same time, the community pushes towards a "feminility" dimension because we find more balance between work and family (community as extended family). The concept of "community" involves the double presence of adherence to a long-term as well as a short-term orientation since long-term orientation is found with the parameter that sees important events to be placed in the future of the community while the "short-term" element is there with the importance of being at the service of others. The community also involves the presence of the "satisfied" cultural dimension because many people say they are happy, with greater feeling of control of one's life, with a more important freedom of speech, with free time and the memories of positive emotions more taken within your community life.

The absence of community brings out an unrestrained "individualism" in which the others are antagonists, that is to say, for Bauman "subjectivism" is the central cause that has led to "liquid" society.

This thesis is certainly to be verified, especially in the context of southern European countries where the absence of social policies and workers' union protection has pushed people to see  each other as antagonists.

Later in the Italian context we also had the loss of legal certainty in addition to precariousness as reported by Umberto Eco, who notes how the Italian response to these problems was the appearance at all costs and consumerism. In line with Eco we note how consumerism has now become a form of aimless bulimia because objects are quickly obsolete in a few years. Ultimately, consumerism for Eco has become "the orgy of desire".

In this description we see how subjectivism as a form of "individualism" can be translate as the need to speak for oneself, in which others are individuals to fight and the tasks to carry out are more important than relationships. In the context of the Italian political context, we also had a certain loss of legal certainty, that is, that strong avoidance of the fundamental uncertainty to obtain clarity in life has been missed. However, this legal uncertainty has been going back for many years and therefore it has been easier to strike a "happily ill body" like Italian justice.

The solution for many Italians is to appear understood as a radical form of affirming "I is the most important word of my vocabulary" in harmony with the "individualism" dimension while consumerism is part of the " short term orientation" dimension "because it's good to spend money on your social life. Consumerism represents a way to be in tune with the "satisfied" cultural dimension, giving importance to free time and to the memory of positive emotions connected to the moment of purchase.

Turning instead to the theme of the crisis of the parties, we see how these parties in Italy are seen as an opportunity for the individual leader, who must adapt according to the circumstances of "communication". This situation also allows us to better understand the "turncoat" behaviour present in many politicians. In other words, the party becomes a place of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" because it accepts to live in ambiguity with little stress and a feeling of tendency towards well-being within these parties. If this dimension is no longer possible within the party, there is an urge for the leader to create another party or to leave that party. For Bauman not only individuals but it is society that experiences this phenomenon of precariousness, that is, a phenomenon of complete absence of "solid" in one's life as a constraint to adhere to a culture of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" with a wide tolerance towards ambiguity, in which the individual must think only of himself and with an ability to adapt to circumstances.

The question that Eco asks himself in his article is the following: "What can replace this liquefaction?". In other words, what will come next with the intent to give some collective positive face to the majority of the population that has suffered and continues to suffer very high costs during this "precarious" period. For Bauman this "interregnum" will last long enough with the consequence of becoming a period to live as a strong threat to the need to reduce costs for the negative face of people and at the same time as the absence of potential benefits for a restoration of the positive face of people involved in the precariousness in their lives.

For Bauman we have many movements of "indignados" understood as movements that know what they don't want but don't know what they want, in other words indignation is reached when the limits of adhesion to a given cultural dimension are exceeded as those of the "constrained" type "because there is a limit to the feeling of abandonment just as there is a limit to uncertainty with the" weak avoidance of uncertainty "imposed by this" liquid-precarious "society. The tiredness of living in full uncertainty, in the ambiguity of one's evaporated "future" becomes the reason to become "indignados". Eco's article highlights how for Bauman today we live a world in total absence of direction which can be interpreted as a life halfway between a "strong and weak avoidance of uncertainty". Eco's answer is to understand "how can we survive in the liquidity of life?" For Bauman this is possible by understanding that this is a new society with new tools to use for its understanding, that is to understand this society it is necessary to adhere intellectually to this dimension of "long-term temporal orientation" with an attitude towards learning new things and only with perseverance it will be possible to find a chance to reinforce the need for a positive face for a multitude of people.