Between Self-Reflexivity and Barbarity

Abstract

Present world should not be defined in terms of postmodernity, but in terms of reflexive modernization – an idea previously announced by Nietzsche when speaking about "the shattering of values" (Nietzsche, 1931) and later on elaborated by Spengler, who pointed at the importance of the interpretation of the past cultures. A civilization produces to an extent it can interpret, in other words, the present world finds itself at the stage at which reflexivity/interpretation holds the main productive potential. On the other hand, the recurrent effects of violence and destruction (barbarity) burden, exhaust and, in the end, block the creative impulses, therefore barbarity could create a social institution which no longer produces meaning, but destroys and consumes it. This description could be applied to communism and, within this paradigm, the intellectuals are to compete for a privileged political, journalistic, managerial and administrative place since they are the ones responsible for the way how society is mentally perceived, given the fact that people might have the necessary information on a given subject, but they might not have the social skills of interpreting and translating the information into adequate social action (Halloran, 1998).