Article Summary:
In this guest essay in the NY Times, Dr. Andreas Reckwitz explores the contemporary experience of loss in Western societies, challenging the long-held belief in perpetual progress. Historically, Western civilization was defined by an optimistic faith that the future would continually improve. However, this belief is now under significant threat across multiple dimensions.
Environmental losses, exemplified by climate change, are fundamentally transforming living conditions. Economic decline has devastated previously prosperous regions, fracturing societies into winners and losers. Demographic shifts, particularly in Europe’s aging population, have created widespread experiences of loss. Public infrastructures are weakening, and geopolitical dynamics suggest a potential regression from liberal democratic ideals.
These losses challenge modernity’s fundamental premise of constant improvement. The text argues that the modern secular religion of progress traditionally denied or concealed loss, but this denial is no longer sustainable.
The author suggests several strategies for addressing loss:
1. A politics of resilience: Strengthening societal systems to mitigate potential negative impacts.
2. Revaluing loss as potential opportunity: Recognizing that certain losses might enable more sustainable ways of living.
3. Redistributing gains and losses more equitably across social groups.
4. Acknowledging and integrating loss into individual and collective narratives, learning to accept vulnerability without being paralyzed by it.
Article Excerpt:
“For liberal democracy, the implications are decisive. If politics continues to promise endless improvement, it will fuel disillusionment and strengthen populisms that thrive on betrayed expectations. But if democracies learn to articulate a more ambivalent narrative — one that acknowledges loss, confronts vulnerability, redefines progress and pursues resilience — they may paradoxically renew themselves.”