US President-elect Biden delivered a speech, saying that American democracy is facing an "unprecedented attack" and Trump must stand up and end it all. European countries such as Britain, France and Germany also condemned the violence. Many people within the Republican Party have "cut their seats" with Trump, and George W. Bush, the former president of the Republican Party of the United States, also voiced condemnation of Trump supporters’ impact on Congress, calling it "disgusting." Us vice president burns refused trump’s request to overturn the election results. Trump said that "it will never admit defeat."
The us capitol was hit.
This incident that hit the Congress became a ridiculous farce and became the spoof material of netizens from all over the world. Despite losing the election, Trump is still stubbornly resisting and deliberately trying to change the election results. A few days ago, it was revealed that Trump had called and threatened Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger to tamper with the election results, or he would sue Raffensperger. Therefore, The New York Times called him the most lawless president in American history, and should be impeached for the second time and permanently disqualified from holding public office again. According to CNN, more and more Republicans also believe that Trump should be impeached and "dismissed" in advance, although the end date of Trump’s term of office (January 20) is not far away.
Many American netizens think that the farce of attacking the Capitol is very "shameful and conspicuous". Trump’s "ugly eating" for power is a retrogression of American civilization. In fact, since Trump was elected, the liberal media in the United States have been mentioning that "Trump phenomenon" is a "retrogression of civilization". In the history of progressivism, civilization is constantly developing and advancing. In fact, it may not be accurate to describe reality from this perspective, which will make us unable to understand the profound reasons behind many so-called "retrogression of civilization" in reality.
Trump supporters rushed into the Capitol.
Sociologist Norbert Elias believes that the process of civilization is neither continuous nor always progressive, and the process of civilization has been threatened by "de-civilization". De-civilization is also called the inherent threat of modernization by Horkheimer and Adorno. In Dialectics of Enlightenment, they also worry that modernization will make human nature barbaric. The difference is that Horkheimer and Adorno emphasize the influence of system on individuals, while Elias emphasizes the influence of individualization on society.
Therefore, the German sociologist Oliver Nachtwey analyzed this process of "de-civilization" from the perspective of the influence of neo-liberal institutional constraints on individuals and the influence of social and economic decline-how should we understand this group of fanatical Trump fans? Why does Trump’s image of being "not decent" become the object of their unswerving worship? Why did Trump’s defeat make them believe in conspiracy theories more? Neo-liberal globalization abandoned them, and social disintegration made them lack of sense of security and trust. In the "information cocoon room" of the Internet age, this group of groups abandoned by the mainstream finally set off great energy. To outsiders, they seem to be "brainless" and "fanatical"; But in their eyes, this is the source of their fragile self-identity and sense of security.
Authorized by the publishing house, the following is excerpted from The Mental State of Our Times.
The Mental State of Our Times, edited by Heinrich Gesellberg, translated by Sun Bai, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, September 2018.
Original author | [Germany] Oliver Nachtwey
Excerpt | Xu Yuedong
After the first black president, the United States was almost headed by a woman. However, this throne is now in the hands of a real estate entrepreneur who is hostile to women, exclusive and paranoid. He can hardly control his emotions. Yes, he may not want to control it at all. Donald Trump opposes what the western world claims in many aspects: as a self-disciplined society with social progress, it promotes enlightenment, equality and social integration. However, there have also been some landslides in these societies, and their self-image has been shaken: now there are rude and crazy things in the political arena, which people hate, and dangerous emotions, violent fantasies and even the desire to kill are rashly shown.
Emotional control erodes everywhere: on the Internet, on the street and in daily life. Norbert Elias believes that the process of civilization is a long-term tendency of social integration, which leads to more emotional control and self-restraint. To sum up the above symptoms, we are experiencing a dangerous process of retrogressive de-civilization.
It is true that the echo chamber and Filterblasen of the Internet have aggravated resentment. However, it is too short-sighted to regard these social media-literally-as the cause of resentment rather than just the driving force. Letting the computer algorithm take the fall for this is tantamount to letting the radio be responsible for Goebbels. We should not forget that social media was once regarded as a source of strength for the democratic resistance movement. Therefore, we need to analyze the social causes of civilisation.
Trump supporters who rushed into the Capitol
The fundamental situation that brings western society into the "uncomfortable predicament" in society, politics and culture is characterized by the extreme asynchronism among lifestyle, equality of rights and imbalance. Take two examples from the United States: while the life expectancy of Americans has increased as a whole, the number of white male workers has decreased. African-Americans have made great progress in participating in social, cultural and political systems. In southern states, they are no longer segregated. The era of formal apartheid is over-as long as people don’t investigate it carefully. But if you think about it carefully, people will realize that the equality of liberalism goes hand in hand with a system in which a large number of blacks are imprisoned and the lower classes feel ashamed.
The following can’t discuss all these issues, but I want to put forward a few historical-sociological arguments, which may help to understand the shock that western industrial countries (but not only them) are experiencing at present. Paradoxically, at least part of the retrogression observed at present is a side effect of social progress. This progress is accompanied by retrogressive contradictory development, which is precisely the "retrogressive modernization" process shown by western capitalism at present. Usually it involves horizontal equity between groups with different characteristics (such as gender or race), which is also accompanied by new vertical inequality and discrimination. This special combination of progress and retrogression has created a standardized demand for civilization, and also created an imaginary loser who chose to escape in the retrogression of de-civilization.
How to understand civilization and de-civilization?
A core theory about the process of civilization originated from Norbert Elias. For Elias, modern civilization is the result of a series of changes in social structure and psychological structure, which is reflected by social differentiation and the interdependence of human beings as a whole. This leads to the strengthening of individual self-restraint, the formation of new psychological characteristics of emotional control, the expansion of thinking space, especially the abandonment of timely satisfaction, and the beginning of long-term thinking.
The starting point of civilization process lies in the formation of central power and competitive differentiation in court society. It is also the result of the rise of specific social groups. During the 18th and 20th centuries, as the middle class of citizens moved closer to the nobility and the upper class of citizens (and merged with them at the same time), forcing the insiders to share social power with them, this class first represented the progressive thought. In addition, they also represent an optimistic outlook for the future, and sometimes they even associate with some industrial working classes. Through these social progress movements, although some privileges of certain groups have been damaged, all groups have participated in social modernization, and even common group contradictions have retreated behind the scenes.
Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
Elias’ theory of civilization is consistent with the premise of "Dialectics of Enlightenment" written by Max Hockheimer and Theodor Adorno: the latter relies on Freud’s hypothesis that cultural development is accompanied by the sublimation of desire, so that individual external constraints eventually turn into self-constraints. Horkheimer and Adorno concluded that a reasonable world is also a world ruled anonymously.
Horkheimer and Adorno believe that there is a general trend of social domination of individuals; In contrast, Elias analyzed the process of individualization as a change of personality structure related to the history of social power balance at that time. Elias, however, believes that the process of civilization is neither continuous nor progressive. For him, civilization "never ends and is always in danger". Therefore, it has been threatened by its opposite: de-civilization. De-civilization is also called the inherent threat of modernization by Horkheimer and Adorno: "On the contrary, when entering the real human state", they once said with such anxiety that human nature "becomes a new type of barbarism".
Next, I will continue to study these two kinds of de-civilization. My point of view combines the standpoint of critical theory with Elias’ point of view. The former takes into account the influence of institutional constraints on individuals, while the latter makes the significance of the individualization process and the change of social rights balance understood, which is helpful to the current de-civilization process-if an intermediate scale is added, that is, the roles of communities and intermediary organizations. In the first step, I put forward an idea about the influence of the [new] liberal system constraints on individuals and the disintegration dynamics under the background of retrogressive modernization. The second step is to discuss the influence of social and economic decline before putting forward the argument about the process of civilization.
Individualization and retrogressive modernization individualization are originally one aspect in the process of civilization: one of the basic self-descriptions of modern society is that its members can be independent individuals. The process of individualization is based on the release from traditional and limited social forms: traditional social relations, family, local communities and neighborhood relations all become less important. Paradoxically, however, the modernized individual ultimately depends on the society, because he has got rid of the traditional social relations.
As more and more people become more mobile, people often no longer live in the same street as their parents, so they need a day care center that can help take care of children at work. However, due to the disaggregation of welfare society and the weakening of centripetal force, the individualization of individuals is becoming more and more negative. Social decline has become one of the characteristics of western capitalism, and its risks are difficult to control.
The role of community and intermediary organizations in this respect is easily overlooked. No matter how stagnant and suffocating the traditional way of life and the [class] class, it will eventually provide a place for negative examples, such as unemployment. Social risks are not regarded as the result of personal mistakes, but as a common destiny. Associations and clubs, which now belong to civil society, not only provide people with space to retreat and extricate themselves from social pressure, but also can form a [even small] society-or anti-society here. This applies to the working class and the middle class. In this place, people feel self-efficacy and what they say is valued. People can express their dissatisfaction here, but at the same time realize a kind of socialization, collective identity, social integration and, in fact, social control. At this level, communities and intermediary organizations are always democratic and civilized schools. However, its importance is declining day by day, which leads individuals to rely on themselves when facing social constraints and changes.
At present, Horkheimer and Adorno’s views on individualization have yet to be verified in many aspects. After the economic crisis, although neoliberalism ended in many aspects, and in fact the country has returned to economic policy, neoliberalism has not been buried, but protected. The market continues to provide reference for all aspects of life. Prerre bourdaud called this mechanism symbolic violence: people naturally accept the market and agree with its logic-sometimes voluntarily, sometimes reluctantly.
Hoxheimer
In neo-liberalism, the pressure of self-restraint and permanent sublimation is great: people must always be willing to compete, compare, evaluate and optimize each other. Demanding, depravity, humiliation and failure all blame themselves-and then happily wait for a new opportunity. In the face of corresponding cultural changes, traditionalists will feel uneasy about the applicable standards of behavior. If someone wants to violate neo-liberalism, the market and the state will work together to punish him. At this point, the Greeks have a good say.
Neo-liberalism and almost religious belief in the market are the embodiment of "instrumentellen Vernunft". Horkheimer believes that within the scope of instrumental rationality, everything succumbs to an end means-the ruling logic of rationality, nature and self. Because of its irreplaceable performance, the absolute dictatorship of the market belief is an "anonymous god who enslaves mankind." Horkheimer’s explanation is very effective in understanding the coat of autonomy in authoritarianism. The irreplaceable market forces individuals to internalize this. The pioneers of the Enlightenment believed that man could rule the world. Under the protection of complete instrumental rationality, man’s control over the world has changed into the control of the world over man. Personality consistent with the market has become a social requirement.
The actual modern individual autonomy is closely related to its market function. Winners get autonomy and dividends, while losers are punished and stigmatized. Although modern individuals are still attached to institutions, they are becoming more and more socialized. He changed from a citizen who participated in a more or less organized organization with collective centripetal force to a market citizen and a powerful customer. The disintegrated market has created permanent uncertainty, eroding the self-efficacy experience of many individuals-they no longer believe that they can control the current situation and the future. The demand for clarity, controllability and security is no longer satisfied. Paradoxically, our tolerant culture has led to an increase in guilt, because although people can do a lot, they must remain civilized and maintain economic results. Simply put, self-restraint and internalization will become the external constraints of society-emotional accumulation, the self-restraint of civilization will be weakened, and resentment will escape like a pressure relief valve.
At the same time, the process of social disintegration also plays a role. For example, Axel Honneth once cited Talcott Parsons’s argument that (1) legal system, (2) economy and (3) family all have dual functions: systematic function and social integration function. However, the operation mode of these subsystems has changed in the past few decades, becoming disintegrated resources and even becoming a "barbaric growth of social conflicts".
In every field, people can find a retrogressive modernization: (1) Recently, people have made some achievements in the equal rights of minority groups. However, while great progress has been made in gender equality, racial equality and homosexuality, social civil rights (such as those of temporary workers) are fragmented. This makes (2) the unstable working relationship in the economic field increase. From this point of view, the liberation process of liberal logic in the past 30 years is interrelated with cultural equality and market deregulation. Finally, Hornet emphasized that according to Parsons, (3) the role of father and head of the family is of great significance to social stability. The role of the head of the family can make up for people’s lack of recognition in their work and life. However, at the same time, many men have not only lost the authority to support their families, but also lost the symbolic role of the head of the family.
Since 1990s, the collective rise of western society has come to an end.
The progress of civilized behavior standards in the 20th century is not only based on the growth of self-restraint, but also on "compliance with living habits and standards". One of the key prerequisites is a high degree of social and spiritual security. Although status and rank competition still exists in an increasingly inclusive and equal society, it has increasingly shifted to areas such as sports, consumption and culture.
Since the mid-20th century, new social movements have become active, which has changed the balance of power in society. People only pay attention to the feminist movement and those movements seeking rights, gender and identity recognition. Although insiders kept their position, at the end of the 20th century, new status, identity and behavioral insecurity appeared.
From the 1980s to the 1990s at the latest, the basic motivation of western society has undergone a fundamental change. The process of collective rise has come to an end, not everyone has moved forward, and some people have started to go backwards-especially those groups that used to belong to insiders in a broad sense, such as the middle and lower classes composed of skilled workers. Social progress is naturally familiar with the losers of the past, but today’s losers are often more or less insiders of yesterday.
Oliver Nachtwey, born in Onna, Germany in 1975, is a sociologist from Darmstadt University of Technology. He mainly studies labor, inequality, rights protection and democracy. He has written a lot of articles for German Daily and Friday Weekly. Recently, I wrote Die Abstiggesellschaft. Berdas auf Begehren in der regressive n Moderne, Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2016.
There are two dimensions in Elias’ eyes: the first is the rise and decline of groups in a country; The second is the rise and fall of national status in the world system. Throughout history, he analyzed: the direct result of this decline and loss of rights and status is depression and sense of loss, loss of values and goals, mixed with cynicism, nihilism and egoism that prevail.
In the past two or three decades, it is precisely in the western countries that were once leading in the world system that some specific groups have experienced relative decline. It is often in these groups that dictatorial news like "Make XY Great Again" appears frequently. This is closely related to the global development of capitalism, which is experiencing a special form of retrogressive modernization. It can be concluded that the first is the unusually vigorous development of the global economy. Since the late 1980s, the income imbalance among countries has eased, which is related to the economic prosperity in Asia. The BRICS countries have caught up with and got rid of the status of "developing countries". There are winners of globalization, the new global middle class, although they are still relatively poor compared with the living standards of the western middle class. Because the income of the middle and lower classes has stagnated or increased slightly at most, the inequality within the western world has intensified.
The middle class and working class in the old industrialized world are losers in global modernization. They must watch how they lose their land to others: to cosmopolitan elites, to high-quality globalization winners, and to the emerging capitalist middle class. Men with low or medium education have also experienced frustration and insecurity in other aspects: as mentioned above, they have often lost their symbolic position as the head of the family and are at a disadvantage compared with refugees and other minority groups.
The corresponding resentment not only appeared in the moral foundation, but was then controlled by political operators, and was also incited and legalized by insiders activists. As the Bavarian Governor Horst Seehofer said in March 2011, "We should defend ourselves and oppose immigrants entering the German social system-until the last bullet". In view of such remarks, it is not surprising that patriotic Europeans oppose the Islamization of the West.
What is the reason for the process of de-civilization?
Norbert Elias believes that the main reason for de-civilization lies in the power struggle between settlers (insiders) and outsiders (outsiders). The loss of power "relative to the newly emerging foreign organizations" not only caused fierce resistance for economic reasons, but also an appeal to the old order that was almost divorced from reality, and the groups involved felt more "inferiority in self-worth". Settlers will show contempt if they think they are threatened by outsiders.
There are deeper reasons for de-civilization. For people who are insecure-nothing is rude and barbaric, because what matters most to them is their supreme power and tall self-image … The more vulnerable, helpless and desperate they feel on the downhill road, the more sensitive they are, and the more they want to defend their power, so the ruder their behavior, the more likely they are to ignore and destroy the civilized code of conduct they are proud of. Because for the ruling class, the civilized code of conduct is more a symbol and tool of its power besides other functions, and only in this way can it be meaningful. Therefore, power elites, ruling classes or countries fight for their outstanding values and outstanding civilization, but the way they take is often contrary to the values they claim to represent. Defenders of last stand can easily become destroyers of civilization and barbarians.
These uncivilized phenomena not only appear in the middle and lower classes, but also among elites, especially among middle-aged men with middle education and middle income. I don’t want to talk about other things, and the research has just begun. What do they have in common except paying attention to or spreading negative energy information on the Internet after dinner with their families every day? They feel despised and used by elites, globalization, women and refugees. They feel that they have become outsiders in society and a minority in their own country. They have no sense of belonging and are not taken seriously. This obvious loss of status leads them to seek balance by "negatively classifying" other groups. The lack of material and cultural status is the catalyst of resentment, negative emotions, identity and conspiracy theories, which have long been identified as the characteristics of authoritarian personality structure. Perhaps it is in this context that the "dictatorship aggression" was released by surrendering to the economic irreplaceability of the imaginary market.
Elias
Anyone who feels abandoned by society loses his sense of self-efficacy. Therefore, many people adopt specific strategies to re-enhance their self-worth. This can be both at the practical level and at the cognitive level. As a result of a contradiction, people expect to be redeemed through external constraints from authoritative institutions. Elias mentioned Nazism, and in that insecure situation, a "thirst for the control of powerful rulers" came into being. Insecurity once again leads to resentment, demanding recognition and a new "we" feeling. The fundamental problem raised by radical individualization lies in the role of collective identity and in the fact that people have been seeking a sense of "we". Identity politics is also a reaction to the erosion of communities and intermediary institutions. Radical makes people feel confident again.
Obviously, some groups in the past no longer think that maintaining civilized behavior is something to be proud of. As liberated individuals, they are almost no longer bound by society on the Internet, are not responsible for negative energy information, and let their prejudices spread. In the end, they were satisfied in the alliance of resentment: in the German Alternative Party, when Donald Trump or Marine Le Pen came to power. The strength that unites these groups lies in opposing real civilization in the name of imaginary western civilization.
Excerpt | Xu Yuedong
Editor | Shi Yanping
Proofreading | Li Xiangling