RESENTMENT IDENTITY, THE AGE OF ANGER
“The fragmentation of a society is translated by a loss of confidence and generates individualistic behaviour (based on fear and a communitarianism, or tribalism), resentment and rejection. This leads to the blockage of individual and collective phenomena of resilience.
In philosophy and psychology, resentment refers to a form of resentment mixed with hostility towards what is identified as ‘the cause of a frustration’.
In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in decay. Two years later, his predictions were right: the rise to power of a series of political outsiders with authoritarian tendencies threatened to destabilise the entire international order.
These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic connection to ‘the people’, who are usually defined in narrow identity terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large parts of the population.Unfortunately, demand for recognition of one’s identity is a master concept that unifies much of what is going on in world politics today.
Populist nationalism that springs from the demand for recognition cannot simply be satisfied by economic means. Identity is therefore a serious warning that unless we forge a universal understanding of human dignity, we will doom ourselves to continuing conflict.
The current situation is what the prospective models have been predicting for more than ten years now. We have entered an era of social deconstruction as we knew it: the western, capitalist, democratic, economic, and social pillars of our society are collapsing. It is only the beginning of a chaotic, violent phase that will sweep away our old ways of doing, our certainties, our models of representation.
The generalised rejection of the other, of the ‘Old World’, will produce negative and devastating results on our society. In this period of great tensions, misunderstandings, individual ego, collective violence will crystallise…
Given that populist forces maintain a difficult relationship with democracy, there is an open debate about how to respond to their rise. The main challenge will be to answer this rise by implementing cooperation rather than rejection or violence; as advancing a radical approach against populism, might generate more harm than good.
Therefore, rethink a new model of democracy is not an invitation but a necessity: the necessity to create a citizen, active, entrepreneurial democracy, embodied by shared values: humanity, dignity, fraternity, and solidarity”. #beonehumanity
This article is en excerpt of “At the dawn of humanity, Enterprise a better World” book.
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The book is also available in French here: https://www.editions-harmattan.fr/livre-a_l_aube_de_l_humanite_idees_concretes_pour_changer_le_monde_yannick_le_guern_laura_petrache-9782343239101-70837.html
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