War is no longer declared, so it is never known whether we are in a state of war or not yet (already). An accentuated apocalyptic worldview, generated by uncertainty before tomorrow; hypertrophied quotation and reference to authority. The nation state is replaced by the power of Cities and TNCs with a vassalage system. This is how the thinkers Eco, Bauman and Beck see the first features of the coming New Middle Ages.
Philosopher Elena Pilyugina collected the main theses of Umberto Eco, Siegmant Baumann and Ulrich Beck, with which they describe the main features of the New Middle Ages (article "Postmodern Society in the Paradigm of the" New Middle Ages ": conceptualization", the journal "Sociology of Science and Technology", No. 3, 2016) …
Umberto Eco
One of the first features of the Neo-Middle Ages in the postmodern world was seen in the early 1990s by a recognized specialist in the study of the classical Middle Ages, the Italian medieval scholar, philosopher, and writer Umberto Eco.
First of all, Eco notes the similarity of the socio-cultural situation that developed at the end of Roman history and is also inherent in our time: “a huge world empire, a powerful international state power, which at one time united part of the world in terms of language, customs, ideology, religion and technology "; the empire collapses due to internal reasons (excessive complication of its own structure), as well as under the onslaught of the pressing "barbarians" who are "not necessarily uneducated, but who bring new customs and a new vision of the world," weakening the political giant on the periphery with targeted strikes and penetrating social and cultural matter, eroding from the inside. "Today we live in an era of crisis of the Great American Empire."
Eco captures other "neo-medieval" features in political life:
- decentralization and general crisis of the central government, which turned into a fiction, a system of abstract principles;
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- clan relations, which are becoming the predominant type of social interactions in the once mentally homogeneous space of the modernist City;
- "Vietnamization of the territory", which is understood as the progressive formation of private military formations designed to protect the private interests of the "powerful of this world" (let's call them "new feudal lords") in conditions when state power is weakening.
Relying on mercenaries, neo-feudal lords, represented by the key shareholders of transnational corporations and interstate investment funds, begin to fight for the redivision of the world. Moreover, as Eco notes, recognizing the characteristic features of the so-called "hybrid wars" in violation of the customs established by liberal states, "war is no longer declared, so it is never known whether we are at war" or not yet (already). As a result of the almost undisguised activity and influence of the "new feudal lords" with their private military corporations, not only specific state structures, but also the authorities and existing laws as such, are suspected of lacking legitimacy. So the mental space of society is cleared for the adoption of new power and new laws.
Speaking about culture, Eco notes the following signs of a neo-medieval view of the world:
- an accentuated apocalyptic worldview, generated by uncertainty before tomorrow, replete with prejudices that play the role of symbolic supports in a crumbling social space;
- hypertrophied quotation and reference to authority: aphorisms “walking” around the blogosphere, allegedly belonging to famous historical personalities, are, in fact, the same tactics of the ideologues of the classical Middle Ages who appealed to the authority of previous thinkers;
- as a result, the entire set of cultural utterances looks like a huge monologue without differences, with the same quotations, stereotypical formulations, and similar vocabulary.
Modernity is characterized by a medieval orientation towards entertainment, with the only difference that today the place of the "stone book" - a medieval cathedral with its frescoes and stained-glass windows - is occupied by Hollywood. In both situations, the classical Middle Ages and the postmodern neo-Middle Ages, there is a hierarchization of knowledge (and thus the stratification of society based on access to knowledge). On the one hand, there is a cultural elite (in the space of which there is a place for both disputes and polylogue), its knowledge is declared sacred, since access to this knowledge provides the status qualification of “those who know”. On the other hand, there are stereotyped masses, ready and accustomed to using knowledge digests.
Most Internet users are users, not information processors. Eco labels such a culture as bricolage, which implies "non-distinction between aesthetic and mechanical objects."
The key word in culture is “interpretation” as the interpretation of interpretations. The past is also interpreted and fragmented; in fact, the neo-medieval, like the classical medieval, worldview does not imply actual study and penetration into the past. The story is declared to be emphatically biased and is presented not as scientific works, but “in the songs of the vagants,” creating mythical images of historical heroes and events. Such a story looks like a flashback - and justification - of modernity.
Ulrich Beck
German sociologist Ulrich Beck examines the Neo-Middle Ages in the context of the challenges of globalization. In order to create and further expand the global "free market", transnational economic networks are destroying the "old" nation-states, thereby clearing the world social space for unlimited consumption and production of services and goods, that is, for their own maintenance and reproduction. For this, alternative local social structures are being created in the form of new states or their associations; later these structures will also be destroyed, and new ones will be created on their basis - and so on ad infinitum, because unstable, eternally "young" associations are always easier to manage.
In fact, a "battle of a new type is being played out: national-state versus transnational actors"; Moreover, the rules of the game are now set precisely by the supranational structures, destroying and pushing national states against each other for the sake of realizing their interests. This is how the “new feudalism” manifests itself, where investment funds and transnational corporations act as “seniors”, and their vassals are entire states, which are no longer fighting for their own benefits or hegemony, but in the name of a “single commodity world”.
Thus, the diversified social structure characteristic of the classical Middle Ages in the postmodern era only expands quantitatively, encompassing all of humanity, globalizes, remaining essentially the same rigidly structured, hierarchical, immobile society, the guidelines of which are set exclusively "from above".
Trying to find a way out of the current situation, the German sociologist outlines a possible positive perspective in the form of the creation of transnational states pursuing a “multi-level policy within supranational systems” taking into account the interests of all components included in these systems. Beck sees the EU as such a trans-state entity capable of resisting transnational corporations.
The rigidly stratified socioeconomic structure characteristic of the Middle Ages has also been recreated, where the "estates" are no longer layers within a separate national society-state, but entire states: the leading countries of the "golden billion", the developing "revanchist" East, including Russia, and in the wake of the westernized world economy, the South.
Zigmant Bauman
Polish-British social scientist Zigmant Bauman also notes the global confrontation between trans-state economic structures and political associations that were finally formed in the era of modernity. De jure states are not destroyed in this case; de facto, they simply annihilate as sovereign political entities, since "international capital is interested in weak states", reduced at the same time to the position of "local police stations, providing the minimum order that business needs", but not giving rise to fears that they can become an effective obstacle to the freedom of global companies.
At the same time, national states find themselves in a twofold situation: they are labeled only as separate local markets in the global market space, which do not have a real opportunity to exercise their power on their territory, act as a guarantor of protecting the interests of their citizens, nevertheless, these citizens continue to be considered socially responsible for everything. - safety, well-being.
Defining the signs of the neo-medieval in the structure of modern social life, Bauman does not stop there. Social stratification and diversification, strengthening and regulation of social inequality, in his opinion, are caused by fundamental changes in mentality. Bauman notes that the key characteristic of our era has become the total lack of confidence of society and the individual in himself, in the world around him, in the future. In the world of “radical pluralism,” a person is forced to bear the burden of individuality, even when he has neither the resources nor the strength to do so. As a result, people are declared de jure individuals, not de facto.
In the 20th century, a person existentially opposed society in the name of preserving the personal principle, and in this context, the personal was dissected into the social. In the postmodern world, a person reduces the social to the individual, concentrates on his own development, deliberately taking him away from the social sphere. This is how people seek to simplify their position in an overly complex world. To cope with his own loneliness and insecurity, modern man transfers his vague symbolic fears to the world around him.
“Small-town” psychology is easy to manipulate, creating “individual hooks” on which “frightened people could collectively hang their individual fears”. That is why, according to Bauman, our time is so "generous with scapegoats - whether they are politicians, criminals or foreigners who are in our midst."
The “era of changes” is coming - the time of the cultural revolution, designed to finally get rid of the principles of modernity (westernization, pragmatism, liberalism, free market, dynamism, progressiveness, rationalism, emphasis on personal development) and create a “new old world” on its ruins: multipolar, ideatic, authoritarian, with a “guild” structure of a limited market, emphatically regressive and mythological, with an emphasis on social identity, not personality."