Carlo Bordoni Books

Human civilization is founded on ethical principles, norms of behaviour that have accumulated over time. Perhaps the oldest of ethical principles is the rejection of violence, which includes the respect for life and for the physical and psychological integrity of others. But in some circumstances, violence itself can be regarded as ethical – for example, when it is used by states claiming to act in self-defense. In these circumstances, the need to defend oneself against an enemy can transform war from an unacceptable act into a necessary, socially shared and morally sanctioned choice. And it is when violence becomes ethical that we must begin to fear for our future. In the wake of the pandemic, we are witnessing the growing prevalence of aggression and emotionality in social and political life. We find ourselves living in an increasingly impatient and insecure society which is skeptical of scientific thought and which takes refuge in the irrational. The decline of rationality and the growing prevalence of violence are increasingly common features of a society that has lost touch with the great Enlightenment narrative. We need, argues, Bordoni, to rediscover the rationality we have lost and recuperate the positive side of technology.

Our societies are in transition, spurred on by a pandemic that has disrupted many aspects of the social world we once took for granted. We’ve left behind the “solid modernity” of the 20th century and even the “liquid modernity” so brilliantly analysed by Zygmunt Bauman, but what kind of society is now taking shape around us? In this highly original reflection on the current state of our world, Carlo Bordoni argues that we are on the threshold of “post-society,” a condition in which social distancing becomes the norm, real social relations are diminishing in favour of those mediated by technology, existential loneliness is becoming widespread and we find ourselves voluntarily submitting to new forms of surveillance and control in the hope of increasing our security. Emotions are assuming an increasingly central role in social life, not only because of the growing prevalence of social media which provide platforms for the public expression of emotion, but also because emotions have been freed from the “repression of emotionality” that had characterized modern society. While many of these developments are rooted in broader social transformations, they have been deepened and accelerated by the pandemic, which is propelling us headlong into a brave new world where social relations are sustained without physical contact but with intense communication. This is the new post-social condition: more humanity, less sociality.

Světově proslulý sociolog Zygmunt Bauman zkoumá v této knize spolu s Carlem Bordonim sociální a politické rozměry současné krize státu. Zmatek následující po finanční krizi z let 2007-2008 výrazně prohloubil společenské změny, podle Baumana a Bordoniho však kořeny potíží, kterým západní společnost v současnosti čelí, vycházejí z mnohem hlubší série změn a přechodů, jež lze vysledovat do minulosti a nesou s sebou dlouhodobé následky.