Analysis of the Age of Perplexity: Rethinking the World We Knew (part 1)

Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.

Hannah Arendt

We are undergoing an era of social and political change. The world is in a state of perplexity, uncertainty, and insecurity. This analysis argues that this postindustrial, technological revolution, that we are in the midst of, will produce, in the medium-term, more well-being, growth and employment, but only after a transition that is proving difficult for many. Appropriate economic policies could help to speed this transition and minimize its costs. The promotion of a digital transformation of the financial system should be considered among these policies.

Change and Perplexity

We are witnessing profound changes in political, economic and social models. Long-held beliefs and assumptions are being questioned.

The influence of the United States is weakening not only because other areas, especially Asia, are growing quickly, but, also, the United States is appearing to adopt a more unilateral view and use its economic and military power only in defense of the interests of the United States. 

At the same time, free trade agreements are losing impetus in different regions. Also, the E. U. now faces "Brexit," and this (along with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin's embrace of nationalism) has inspired a wave of nationalist sentiment that threatens to tear the E. U. apart.

At the root of these geopolitical shifts we can observe changes in nations: We see the growth of populist political parties around the world, as well as a downward trend in people's participation and trust in politics, institutions, elections, and the liberal democratic system in general. In return, we see the development of state authoritarianism and what is sometimes called direct democracy. Direct democracy is a form of democracy in which people decide on policy initiatives directly. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are representative democracies.

Political rhetoric and its narratives are also changing with increasing polarization and a growing tendency towards "framing" of the news and outright disinformation, often in the form of "fake news."

The result of all this is a less transparent political debate focused on solving problems in the short-term, one much more oriented toward confrontation, rather than the search for common ground. 

In this setting, citizens feel attacked, insecure, and pessimistic: They tend to support drastic solutions to their problems, and defend themselves by taking on extreme identities (nationalistic, religious, or other kinds) that exclude any that are perceived as different, and therefore dangerous.

In social terms, this results in a loss of cohesion, especially between different ethnic and religious groups, and growing integration problems, with increased restrictions for different groups, but particularly, in immigrants' access to housing, citizenship, public services, the social safety net, etc.

We are living in an age in which social, economic, and political models are no longer fixed. And this causes insecurity, fear of others, and fear of the future. This feeling may resemble what the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman (1998, On Globalization) called Unsicherheit, a complex combination of uncertainty, insecurity, and vulnerability that he blamed on the economic, social, and cultural consequences of globalization. Similarly, many economists, like Mary Kaldor (2004, Global Civil Society and Nationalism and Globalism), think that "new nationalisms" are an answer to globalization.

Many researchers attribute these new nationalisms to other factors, such as the effects (perceived or feared) of globalization. These effects are frequently identified with economic crises and the austerity policies that have been imposed in many countries.

Among those in favor of globalization, the predominant view is that, ultimately, the increase in international trade and growing interdependence will promote greater global growth and consolidate democratic political systems worldwide, supporting stability and welfare at a global level. These effects only provoke more controversies, such as the loss of jobs moving from developed countries to emerging nations with lower labor costs, as well as increased racial, ethnic, and cultural conflicts associated with migration flows. 

Technological change speeds up and multiplies the effects of globalization, and improvements in telecommunications, connectivity, the Internet, etc. encourage economic, political, and cultural globalization. Globalized markets are the natural habitat of the technological revolution we now find ourselves in.

But, beyond all this, these technological advances also harbor their own complications: They improve communication and the access to knowledge, productivity and efficiency, but they are also tools for political destabilization, organized crime, and terrorism, because they facilitate the planning and financing of these acts. And they also create new targets for these activities: Cyber-attacks are directed precisely towards the enormous data volumes and the infrastructures that store, protect and transmit them, which are essential for smooth running of the global economy and society, which is where we turn our attention in the next post "Globalization and Technology: Fears and Facts."

*SOURCE: GONZALEZ, F. (2018) THE AGE OF PERPLEXITY: RETHINKING THE WORLD WE KNEW, 2018, OpenMind (www.bbvaopenmind.com), PP. 8-11)*

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