Summary of Retrotopia - Zygmunt Bauman

00:00:00 - 00:15:00

This video discusses the idea of "retrotopia," a concept that describes a future in which millennials, the first generation to grow up in an era of uncertainty, are doubtful about being able to improve their lives. When politics divorces itself from the ability to build future, it turns to the space of collective memory, which is easier to manipulate in an undefined future.

• 00:00:00 Zygmunt Bauman's book, Retrotopia, discusses the current trend of looking forward to the future with a backward glance, seeing what he calls a "distopic" future in the 21st century despite the stance of Bauman that we are facing what he calls the era of nostalgia, a negation of the negation of utopia. Benjamin's work on Angelus Novus in 1940 provides a framework for understanding Bauman's work. Bauman defines nostalgia as a longing for a past that is no longer possible to have, which is present in many of the contemporary ideologies that invite us to give up critical thinking and embrace an emotional world of mythological return to national identity. This nostalgia epidemic we are living through takes the place of the previous epidemic of exaltation of progress, which was dominant until a few decades ago. We are returning to a past that is not the same as it was, but instead a past we idealize as the one we have today, which was described in George Orwell's book, 1984, with the participation of the Ministry of Truth. This ideology, neoliberalism, underlies the current terror of not being able to meet our basic needs and gives rise to the individualistic idea of progress which Margaret Thatcher proclaimed in an
• 00:05:00 Incompetence has been a problem in India for centuries, with a system of castes based on work assignments deriving migrant workers from "impure" categories below the "untouchables." This situation is still seen in our century, with the birth of a caste of marginalized and excluded individuals - the "animal young" - who no longer impose discipline with fear lost its strength in the civilizing impulse. But it has not disappeared, but has been clothed in different robes: the possibility of states disappearing and unleashing the forces of competition economy put us face to face with the return of the man of the wild, described by jobs. The Leviathan has lost its ability to show the limit between legitimate violence and illegitimate violence. The state has changed its old role of guardian and defender of security for the benefit of contributing to elevate society without insecurity. Uncertainty and protection of human conditions are now the tasks of many security forces turned into punishers. The emergence of emerging violence has no relationship to its cause, the victim of a violent act: the average person hurt by an act of violence is not necessarily the intended target. This unleashed anger becomes its own goal, functioning as a valve for escape. There is a group of consumers deficient in goods and driven to consume
• 00:10:00 This video discusses the idea of "retrotopia," a concept that describes a future in which millennials, the first generation to grow up in an era of uncertainty, are doubtful about being able to improve their lives. When politics divorces itself from the ability to build future, it turns to the space of collective memory, which is easier to manipulate in an undefined future better returning to the familiar and comforting memories of the past, although the future is a space of freedom, but is moldable while the past is an immutable solid territory the politics has managed to control. The past is also able to be molded and transformed today, as people vote not necessarily based on individual interests, but according to their identity and values. Donald Trump, one of the emerging political leaders of the era of anger, is described as one more example of an individual who has been impacted by the effects of globalization. The social cohesion that is caused by the effects of globalization is beginning to damage social bonds, creating a second divide based on economic differences. Policies that promise a return to traditional tribes are met with resistance and are seen as providing refuge for some and hate for others, in 1,943, during the height of the welfare state's success. The objective was to fight against inequality through the
• 00:15:00 The video, entitled "Retrotopia - Zygmunt Bauman", discusses the concept of "retrotopia", or a hypothetical future in which people have become addicted to the feeling of being "in control". Bauman argues that this addiction has led to an era of "narcissism", in which people are more focused on themselves than anything else. He argues that this phenomenon should be considered a mental disorder, or a social problem, and that it is symptomatic of the new culture's conditions of uncertainty and risk. The experience of emptiness and loneliness, which leads to responses of narcissism, stems from the conditions of struggle of a society marked by the risk and uncertainty of the present. Now is the time to be yourself, says Bergman, and to focus on your own desires. We are losing our ideals, or begin to look for them, looking back to the past as an idealized past never happened. If we can't look forward, Bauman argues, we should look back to the past as an idealized past, since the future seems the same or worse than the present. We are beginning to look for hope in the nostalgia of the past, divorcing our intimate lives from our professional responsibilities. The new moral force is directed