The spiritual sphere of society's life. Spiritual life of society
Spiritual Development is a mandatory goal for everyone, for everyone worthy person! But, Spiritual Development people are understood very differently and the misconceptions in this area are through the roof. And start understanding this issue better just with adequate understanding – .
Development is a change in oneself, a person’s ability to become better: to purposefully reveal the necessary talents, strengths, abilities, to form the necessary qualities and eliminate shortcomings, vices and any negativity that makes a person unhappy, angry and weak.
And before we consider in detail what Spiritual Development is, let’s consider the main misconceptions, illusions, that is, what spiritual development is not!
Spiritual Development or the Illusion of Perfection?
The bottom line is this: true spiritual development is always confirmed by a person’s life, his condition, the growth of pure and high joy in the heart, achievements and positive results, ideally in all areas of life.
If a person truly develops spiritually, truly grows in soul, this will inevitably lead to changes throughout his life: positive changes in him will be noticed by close people, his work and career will go up, the problems of such a person are solved quickly, the effectiveness of everything increases and he manages more and more, enjoying life, his power of influence on people grows, some new talents and abilities appear that he had not previously noticed in himself, material well-being improves, and much more. etc. Of course, this does not mean that everything is rosy and there will be no trials and difficulties in life, but in general we can say that the whole Universe begins to help such a person.
And if a person supposedly develops spiritually, and at the same time his life not only does not change for the better, but becomes even worse (joy, energy - no) - this is not spiritual development, but delirium, illusions that will inevitably lead him to disappointment and to collapse.
What is not Spiritual Development?
1. Simply, reading literature, accumulating intellectual knowledge “on this topic”. If Knowledge (information) does not turn into experience, into feelings, qualities, skills, this is not Development, but at best Cognition. Development and Cognition are completely different things; I’ll quote from the magnificent book “Two Lives”:
“You can answer me that you know and understand all this, but I will tell you that you know and understand nothing. Because in the language of wisdom, To know means to be able to, and To understand means to act. Anyone who says that he knows and understands, but does not know how to act with inspiration in his work day, actually knows nothing. In its activities, it is no different from circus dogs and horses, which have simply acquired a number of habitual associations, perceived in one order or another.”
2. Sitting for many hours in meditation and numerous spiritual practices, without realizing the corresponding knowledge in one’s own destiny, are also worth little. What is the use of owning energy techniques, knowing many prayers and mantras, if you have not used all this to improve the lives of yourself and other people, if you yourself, as an individual, have not changed at all in your beliefs, goals in life, in the scale of your personality. This is not spiritual development, at most it is feeding your always hungry ego.
3. Separation from people and society, withdrawal into oneself, increased closeness, arrogance, etc. Spiritual development must always be subordinated to the High Goal of Service to the World. If a person does not have such a Goal, to make the world a better place, to love people and help them, all his development will result in Pride-Himalayas, in an illusory elevation above others and will lead, sooner or later, to an inevitable fall and collapse.
4. Various kinds of extremes! A) Often a person who begins to engage in spiritual development (as he believes) forgets about his responsibilities, his Duty to his Family (leaves it, leaves his children, etc.), to Society (quits his job) - this is a big mistake! Spiritual Development, on the contrary, should lead to a more effective and worthy fulfillment of one’s duties to those who are given to a person by Fate, who ceases to appreciate this and, as a result, quickly loses (is left with nothing).
IN) Refusal of material things! Spiritual development does not imply poverty and abandonment material assets, on the contrary, the more spiritual strength a person has, the greater financial potential he is able to manage and do this for the benefit of the entire Society. Grudzhiev ( Spiritual Teacher) she says about this: – “Only a person who is able to feed 10 of his own kind can engage in spiritual development.”. It is too early for a weak person who cannot even feed himself to engage in spiritual development; he has not even developed responsibility for his own life.
From an esoteric point of view, Spiritual Development is the desire and opening of a chakra, and for this, a person must have more or less opened and developed the previous two chakras ( and ).
There are other illusions about spiritual development that need to be debunked.
Spirituality – one of the most complex concepts on Earth. A lot has been written and said about it, but no one has yet given an exhaustive, convincing definition and it is not clear enough why a person practically needs it, which significantly reduces the possibilities of its development. Many stereotypes and contradictions do not allow us to form a coherent understanding of spirituality, so let’s consider the primary issues of spirituality: its concept, meaning, development and main mistakes.
Understanding spirituality. Spirituality - this is the knowledge realized in a person about God, Good and Evil, about our society, one’s destiny and about everything that concerns a person’s interaction with higher powers, himself and the world around him. This knowledge determines most of the basic manifestations of a person (thinking, psycho-emotional sphere, behavior, lifestyle), his individual characteristics, the attitude of other people towards him, the ability or inability to achieve any significant achievements, and much more.
Most important goals spiritual development:achieving perfection (inner strength, positivity), knowledge and realization of one’s destiny. Truly spiritual knowledge makes a person’s life joyful and happy, allows him to gain power over himself and his destiny, and brings him closer to God. Pseudo-spirituality and various delusions make a person weak and evil, lead to suffering and unhappiness, and oppose him to the will of higher powers.
Inner strength – the ability to achieve any significant goals and overcome life’s obstacles. It is characteristic of a few, they are born with it or form themselves, receiving the appropriate upbringing, they clearly know what they want, have a great desire for the goal, unshakable confidence in themselves and their abilities. They do not rely on chance and are convinced that everything in this world must be earned through their professionalism, development and activity; they actively act and achieve goals, respect and recognition from others. “Nothing can stop me” is their motto.
Weakness – aimless existence, lack of dignity, respect from others and any significant achievements, endless doubts, uncertainty, vulnerability, etc. Such people are the majority; obstacles stop them, failures break them, and they only make excuses: “What can I do?”
In esotericism, internal power has many clearly defined levels (stages of development), which describe the logic and sequence of changes in all the main components of a person: from his beliefs to external manifestations. Understanding these levels is extremely necessary for people, as it allows them to determine the direction of human evolution, the stages of his spiritual development, evaluate oneself, one’s strengths and find one’s place in the general hierarchy of beings in order to set more complex but realistic goals and objectives, and answer many others. questions. The acquisition of power is subject to universal laws, but it can be light or dark, which is determined by the goals and methods being implemented.
For the emerging information society, rationality acquires the greatest importance. Objects and phenomena of reality as a whole are perceived only from the position of their usefulness. A person is characterized, first of all, by his autonomy and freedom. The latter refers to the right to perform actions that do not contradict the law. The presence of a democratic system, as well as a hierarchy of production, administrative, and government functions, coupled with significant social mobility, lead to the development in a person of the desire to achieve success, a career, and material well-being.
Achieving success involves getting ahead of other people, performing more significant actions, and possessing benefits. Self-realization, superiority over other people in a person modern society have significance compared to traditional society. In addition, the use of new technologies contributes to a significant expansion of the capabilities of an individual, the formation of independence, ingenuity, resourcefulness, stubbornness to achieve goals, practicality, and prudence.
A person can consciously commit negative actions, without feeling the need for moral approval from others and without fear of censure from society. Representatives of the information society are characterized by the predominance of general alienation, including from themselves, from others, from society as a whole; alienation largely determines the destructive activity of the individual. Despite the fact that man has largely subjugated nature, he cannot properly manage the world he has formed. It seems that the use of modern technologies opens up to the individual an unknown potential for self-realization, freedom, which was a guideline western people for many centuries, however, it should be noted that the price of achieving this goal is the loss of a sense of complete security, an increased feeling of loneliness and anxiety. Freedom is not only a blessing, but also a burden that often turns out to be unbearable for people. A free person must look for ways to develop himself; therefore, in the event of an unsuccessful set of circumstances, he has only himself to blame. Man must again answer the question about the meaning of existence, including his own. Gaining freedom entails not only the acquisition of benefits, but also an increase in anxiety, an increase in feelings such as loneliness, isolation, helplessness and fear.
The gap between the manifestations of freedom and security is determined by the difficulties associated with human existence. People strive to achieve freedom and autonomy, but the struggle to achieve these benefits leads to a feeling of alienation from nature and society2. A person must have power over his own life and the ability to make choices. In addition, a sense of unity and connectedness with other members of society is also important.
Gaining freedom comes with feelings such as loneliness and alienation. The spread of negative actions in the information society is influenced by the anonymity of social connections. Usage complex technology and technology contributes to the creation of huge teams, within which interpersonal relationships can only be called pseudo-collectivism. In large associations, many individuals lose themselves; they are unable to adapt to such relationships. Most of the employees of production teams strive to move up career ladder, which implies an increase in one’s social status, superiority over one’s real and potential rivals. Constant rivalry leads to the practical impossibility of providing mutual understanding and support.
The disunity of people leads to internal discord of the personality itself, its fragmentation, disharmony, and a feeling of loss of one’s own “I” and freedom. Due to the growing alienation and disunity, the individual’s feeling of lack of freedom and dependence on alien forces increases. Emotional impulses in the information society are “victims of repression,” therefore, people are characterized by constant tension and individualization, a significant decrease in the level of people’s trust in each other. Informatization and isolation of a person, his distraction from interpersonal communications are closely related to each other. The situation is further aggravated by the family crisis characteristic of the information society. There is an increase in the proportion of divorces and the number of single-parent families. This factor leads to a violation of the order of transmission of cultural codes from one generation to another and affects the basics of personal security.
It should also be noted that there has been a significant decline in the role of some public structures. The consequence of these phenomena is the spread of the feeling that a person lacks common values and interests with other people. Often, within the framework of the information society, a person experiences a feeling of isolation and uselessness, which results in the growth of negative spirituality3. In the nai to a greater extent this is evident in large cities. Everyday human life in the context of the information society is characterized by constant complication and increasing uncertainty, which results in a serious life crisis that many people experience. The modern stage is characterized by a significant acceleration of the pace of life, the presence of a person’s desire for the greatest intensification of his activities, the use of every unit of time. This leads to an increase in the number of stressful situations in which people find themselves, an increase in their irritability, lack of restraint, and the inability of individuals to adequately respond to changing conditions. It should be noted that at the present stage, the loss by rationalized institutions of society of an organic connection with specific people and their natural needs contributes to limitless growth of material goods and steady growth of consumption. At the same time, in present moment individuals are no longer interested only in the quantity of material goods they have, but also in their quality.
A large role in the information society is given to concern for the quality of life. People often think that money can buy any benefits - love, friendship, attention, care. Currently, there is a continuous increase in production, leading to an abundance of consumer goods, suppressing people's ability to enjoy the goods produced and a sense of happiness. As a rule, a person simply refuses these benefits, as well as the fulfillment of a large number of his needs. He turns into a consumer, functioning in accordance with externally imposed standards of thinking and behavior. A manifestation of the one-sidedness of human development is the transformation of everything that exists into an object of rationalization, possession and consumption. The implementation of intellectual work is accompanied by significant neuropsychological stress caused by the need to continuously make responsible decisions, often intuitively, and therefore a huge faith in own strength, determination and continuous and many years of dedication to achieving your own goals. The high pace of life leads to stressful situations for many people engaged in intense intellectual activity, who do not always have the opportunity to relax and restore their strength. As a result, a person becomes irritable and impulsive, which can lead to an inadequate response to the influence of individual stimuli and lead to the commission of negative actions in a state of passion.
Qualitative transformations in the production sector and new information technologies contribute to a significant increase in labor efficiency and an increase in free time, which can be used to achieve personal goals. Associated with this is a significant increase in opportunities for self-realization. A person can realize himself creatively in various fields: entrepreneurship, art, religion, science. In the context of virtual reality, an individual can receive additional opportunities for self-realization. This environment contributes to the generation new sphere human activity, new forms of its organization, new relationships. Virtual technologies ensure that post-industrial civilization man masters both already known and unknown “spaces” of his psyche. Virtual reality technologies have the following negative consequences.
First of all, virtual technologies are able to control and imitate human sensations and actions, which leads to negative psychophysiological consequences for the individual, in particular, the appearance of fatigue and nervousness of a person, disorganization of his inner world, which leads to making mistakes in the work sphere. There is a point of view according to which the growth in the number of individuals using the Internet causes the destruction traditional ideas about morality, the ineffectiveness of certain legal norms. In addition, excessive involvement in computer games can lead to destructive personality changes. It should be noted that life modern people is closely connected with television, which currently plays a significant role.
Research results indicate that in an urbanized society, watching television is the second most important activity and the main occupation if a person is at home. Means mass media influence the functioning of consciousness and behavior. Since we can often see scenes of violence on television, excessive “consumption” of the corresponding
current television programs can create a tendency in a person to engage in negative activities. The consequences of transformation processes characteristic of the information society are of a dual nature. Thus, they contribute to the creation of new opportunities for the individual’s self-realization through creative activity, but at the same time they determine the growth of negative spirituality. The spread of negative activities is influenced by factors of uneven access to information resources, rising unemployment, high pace of life, decreased trust of individuals in each other, decreased importance of public organizations, increased feelings of isolation, and a person’s isolation from society.
The use of modern telecommunication networks can also take place to achieve the goal associated with the physical destruction of an individual through a computer. The computer can be used as a tool in the implementation of negative activities. Thus, the information society is characterized by a significant spread of negative human activities, in particular terrorism, vandalism, and murder. This is largely due to the growth of alienation and transformations of the value system.
In modern society, the ideal is an independent, autonomous person, focused on achieving a career and success, often measured by the amount of money. Under these conditions, the feeling of loneliness, isolation and uselessness, the desire to prove one’s own worth, the desire for self-realization in any way, including through destructive activities, become more and more apparent.
It is necessary to note the significant increase within the information society negative consequences negative human activity, which is associated with the emergence of new types of weapons. There is a significant spread of terrorist acts. The environment is being engulfed by negative actions, and the scale of its destruction indicates that there is a real environmental catastrophe, the spread of vandalism, and the destruction of architectural and artistic monuments. In addition, negative activities are becoming universal and pose a threat to human existence.
From our point of view, there is every reason to correlate the origins of the current crisis state in which the world community finds itself and the deformation of the spiritual dimensions of human existence and society, which is manifested in changes in the system of highest values and cultural ideals of society. Thus, more and more attention is being paid to obtaining material benefits, there is a passion for the implementation of man-made aspects of civilization, and virtual creations are taking place. popular culture, a consumer attitude towards life, the consequence of which is a change in the general vector of the existence of society in a direction opposite to the spiritual as the highest, representing special significance for a person. A significant distortion of the general vector of spiritual anthroposocial existence takes place in all spheres of life of the technogenic existence of civilization.
In accordance with this direction, the definition of many strategic guidelines and worldviews is carried out, one of which is expressed in the idea that the consequence of the further development of science and technology, implemented in accordance with modern rates and methods, will be a systematic improvement of the life of society and an increase in the level of life of society, as well as the solution global problems that humanity faces. Information civilization, creating the maximum permissible material point In view of the conditions for the existence of part of the planet's population, threatening the existence of humans and society, it dictates its own strict rules in a market economy, characterized by humanity's tendency to consume, Western-style liberalism, and the total commercialization of life. Let us note that the emerging model of global existence in many of its manifestations causes the degradation of the inner world of man, which is inevitably reflected in such components of social life as the biosphere, anthroposphere, sociosphere, and technosphere. The destructive consequences of human activity are covering an ever-increasing area of the universe.
In the scientific literature we find the statement of the concept of “anthropic crisis,” which is the basis of global problems at the current stage of human development. It reveals an imbalance between the deep nature of man and a number of modern trends. The anthropic crisis is a reflection of those contradictions of modern reality that became a natural result of the development of classical rationalism, which questioned the significance of human qualities themselves. The process of dehumanization of a person, who is now increasingly becoming an object close attention researchers, has led to the fact that a person, who by nature has multifaceted potential, becomes a commodity that has a certain market value.
A person has to do everything possible to demonstrate any dominant inclination of his personality, which has an optimal market value, and sell it profitably within the framework of “free” market relations. Often, buying and selling represents the purpose and meaning of human existence9. A person creates the conditions under which it is possible for him to achieve the necessary social status, which in turn contributes to the receipt of material benefits, the volume of which increases every day. These factors lead to the emergence of such a phenomenon as alienation of the individual both from social and natural reality, and from himself. Such self-alienation is due to the fact of the ego’s separation from spiritual dimensions and attempts to replace the spirit of man as a single whole, striving to achieve the highest perfection. In this case, there is an inevitable translation of all this into environment, as well as attempts to resolve internal conflict and escape from oneself.
At the same time, in the conditions of the dominance of the information society, there is a tendency for a person to acquire new opportunities, the neglect of which is inappropriate, but at the same time, the implementation of which cannot be fully realized due to the strengthening of the distinction between spiritual culture and life in general. In accordance with this context, it is possible to determine a special component of global crisis phenomena, integrated in the concept of “spiritual crisis”. The spiritual crisis, obviously, constitutes the content of the anthropic crisis, which can contribute to the emergence of an anthropic catastrophe, which implies the destruction of the human in man10. Thus, a spiritual crisis is understood as a system of contradictions, the aggravation of which is now observed in all spheres of human life and society, and the manifestation of which is associated with the occurrence of various transformation processes. The sociocultural aspect of the spiritual crisis is associated with the reflection of contradictory trends manifested in all the diversity of forms of spiritual culture of society.
Currently, there is often a replacement of traditional cultural forms simulacra that cause disorientation of a person in the spaces of vital existence. In addition, the fact that ideals are traditionally affirmed in culture, and the strategic directions of the common aspirations of humanity are determined, is forgotten. As a result of the process of secularization of life, its desacralization, the religious explanatory scheme in the form of dogmatic statements loses its former significance. In connection with the increase in the intellectual level of a person, the form of spiritual values and ideals that took place in former times and were filled with a religious component, a person is observed to lose his deep meanings and their erosion in cultural diversity. The current stage of development of society is characterized by the constant emergence of new models of cultural self-realization of the individual, increasingly associated with the passive perception of images of spiritual self-expression, and not with active realization best qualities person.
At the same time, if in the past there was a “plantation” of a single ideal of spirituality in some religious traditions and communities, then at the present stage it becomes obvious that none of them is able to lay claim to primacy in the sphere of spiritual quests of the world community. The individual free choice of a person is becoming increasingly important, but within the framework of modern technogenic culture, adequate conditions are not created for its comprehension. At present, modern civilization is replacing, but has not yet completely replaced, previous religious patterns as the basis of existence, since an adequate replacement for them has not yet been found. Culture as a space of self-realization turns into a space where consumption and entertainment dominate, and a choice of forms of spiritual activity is carried out, artificially implanted by the media and mass communications.
Culture does not promote the elevation of the individual, but reduces it to its own level, since it offers ready-made surrogate forms in the virtual processes of modern reality. Something similar to self-realization within a given culture determines passive adherence to fashion or demonstrative approval of “original” pseudo-cultural forms, which clearly reflect not processes associated with creation, but increased degradation, which extremely simplifies the implementation of mechanisms associated with self-discipline, responsibility and creative life self-organization . In addition, there is an increasing tendency in accordance with which a person is separated from the spiritual traditions of the past, which are dead conservative cultural structures that hinder the progressive development of a technogenic society12. Centuries-old systems of values and ideals are being destroyed, and this trend is justified by the desire for modernization. They are being replaced by a culture of mass consumption, values that, in their content, are focused on the immediate and allow one to increase capital on the spiritual, and often physical, death of the individual.
As factors that stand in the way of the manifestation of an individual’s creative potential, it should be noted the consolidation of negative trends in such areas as religion, philosophy, science, art, ideology, and education. It should be noted that there is a tendency towards an increase in the number of believing citizens, the restoration of old and the creation of new churches, the acquisition religious holidays national-state status, exerting a significant influence from world faiths on geopolitical and socio-cultural processes. But at the same time, a person’s spiritual activity has a different motivation; there is a loss of its comprehensiveness and ideological depth.
Previous religions turn out to be incapable of ensuring the spiritual security of the individual, since they cannot contribute to the structuring of consciousness and the unconscious. The process of routinization of traditional religions that do not satisfy human needs leads to the fact that traditional religiosity, represented by established religious institutions, with a developed structure and canons, synthesized with other cultural elements, is gradually replaced by various neo-religious systems and secular organizations that are associated with an appeal to spiritual dimensions of an individual.
In a number of traditional religions, there is a fairly strong tendency towards formalism and ostentatious holiness in the sphere of keeping the commandments and following the canons of religiosity. The phenomenon of spiritual materialism, associated with a person’s turn to appropriate spiritual practices in order to consolidate egocentrism, as well as power over other members of society, is increasingly manifested. In the philosophical environment, there is an active introduction of postmodernist ideas, this direction is expanding the scope of its influence. There is a loss of fundamentality and metaphysical depth inherent in philosophical ideas, in which more and more attention is paid to such phenomena as the language game and the world of virtual reality, within the framework of which complex problems related to the meaning of existence are considered.
Within the framework of such a worldview, axiological problematics and attention to the pressing problems of man and humanity are abandoned. In addition, often disciplines in this area are not included in the system of training future specialists at a university, and if they are included, their content is devoted primarily to historical aspects and contains individual theoretical conclusions that are unambiguous. Science, which throughout the twentieth century claims the right to be called the only source true knowledge, increasingly replaces other types of spiritual culture and is transformed into technogenic scientism.
Quite often we have to mention such a phenomenon as scientific irrationalism, the form of expression of which is the a priori denial of knowledge in any form other than that recognized by modern science. All this casts doubt on the positive changes that have occurred in people’s lives thanks to scientific and technological progress. In the field of contemporary art, there is the emergence of new genres and trends, and an increase in the number of people involved in the field of artistic creativity. However, at the same time, this participation often takes on a commercial orientation associated with the dominance of the entertainment industry, based on the natural weaknesses of man. Artistic culture is currently a means of idle pastime, entertainment, and is turning into an object of capital investment, “art activity.” The artificial division of culture into such types as elite, folk, mass, as well as various subcultures and countercultures contributes to an even greater remoteness of society and the inner world of a person, provokes the loss of the canons of beauty and morality.
Currently, something like some kind of conflict is being formed that contradicts the existing generally accepted guidelines and standards for the functioning of the socio-political system. It was the official ideology that largely determined and determines the entire real organization of the life of society. In this case, we mean the ideological crisis, which consists in the fact that the realities of the twentieth century showed that all the main ideological systems and political cultures that have developed within the framework of a technogenic society are utopian. They did not contribute to the solution of not only global, but also domestic political problems, giving rise to new contradictions and exacerbating existing ones. In many countries, there is an intensification of tendencies towards the erosion of national-state interests in favor of oligarchic structures that involve society in a system of dubious political science experiments. This trend is expressed in the open political farce that takes place during the elections and the strengthening of political technologies.
The process of neuroticization of society inevitably influences each individual, in connection with which we should talk about the anthropocultural aspect of the spiritual crisis, the crisis of people’s identity, which causes problems associated with their loss of the meaning of being, lack of awareness of their purpose and the impossibility, due to the inability, of determining their place in the spaces of existence. In a society characterized by cultural diversity and pluralism, there is an aggravation of the problem of sociocultural self-identification. The implementation of the anthropocultural aspect is associated with the transformation of spiritual needs into individualism, manifested to the extreme, personal independence from everyone and everything. Within the framework of humanistic psychology, it has been repeatedly noted that a meaningful life is the most important component of human existence itself.
It makes it more intense, richer, more valuable, and from a social point of view more positive and creative. Human existence, devoid of meaning, is empty and useless. This situation is fertile ground for pathological conditions of the human psyche and physiology, and contributes to the complication of processes associated with self-identification and socialization. Many psychologists believe that the “existential vacuum” is directly related to the manifestations of suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, crime, aggression, and the desire to satisfy sexual and other pleasures. In this case, not only the person himself, but also the reality around him is deprived of life meaning. In fact, a person is now destroying his inner world, its purity and perfection, the world of his soul and spirit, and also “carries out” a total separation from the higher principles of his existence.
In modern conditions, a person is incapable of establishing normal human relations with people, which leads to the fact that in society there is an increased feeling of loneliness and a predominance of negative moods. This tendency finds expression in such social phenomena as loss of trust in previously existing public institutions, which include the state, religion, science, education, family. In addition, there is an increase in the hypertrophied system of relations, which is based on the desire for profit, competition, leadership, and entertainment.
Human life has often come to be perceived as a game in which the rules are set by the individual himself, who “realizes” his potential within the framework of fictitious problems and virtual situations. Neither Internet communication, nor the use of communication technologies and artificial trainings can replace live human communication. Under the influence of education, a person’s worldview system acquires a significant amount of knowledge, the basis of which is scientific rationalism; the individual now has access to the resources of a global information system, in relation to the information and technological structures of which it should be noted that they are neutral in terms of their relationship to the quality of information flows. Such freedom of access to information resources, due to the accelerating pace of commercialization of culture, aggravates the possibility of the threat of psychospiritual degradation.
In addition, in connection with the liberalization and commercialization of life, the emergence of corresponding image standards leads to the fact that individuals often have to pay more attention to such factors as material well-being, success in professional field, the acquisition of social status in general. Particular attention is paid to such benefits as external freedom and financial self-sufficiency, independence from instability in various spheres of society. Divine higher powers, at best, appear in some abstract forms, and at worst, there is a loss of their significance in the consciousness of an egocentrically and pragmatically oriented person18. The individual is in search of a more harmonious existence, but here there is a substitution of spiritual needs and higher spiritual experiences with the bright virtual reality of culture inherent in modern technogenic society; they are replaced by alcohol and drugs, meaningless extreme sports, and participation in mass shows.
The individual gradually loses his unconditional love for beauty, perfection, and harmony. As a result, health problems are worsening modern man, which are characterized by the presence of not only a psychophysical, but also a spiritual component19. A person’s desire to get rid of various diseases leads him to search for the optimal way of being. The modernization of such an area as medicine currently does not contribute to achieving a healthy state of the body in the full sense; there is the emergence of more and more new pathologies, orienting a person to an active search for the true origins of the current situation.
In this regard, it should be noted that ideas about reality, modeled on the basis of the principle of scientism, which claim the right to be called the epistemological basis of worldview, often demonstrate their unproductiveness. Currently, the picture of the world of an individual is moving further and further away from socio-natural reality, from basic values and meanings. In addition, at the present stage there is a global attack on the consciousness of the individual from the media. This stage is characterized by the emergence of increasingly sophisticated means of influencing all subconscious levels, which have a manipulative effect on the entire human psyche, the emergence of such a phenomenon as “mass stress”.
Such trends are realized under the conditions of the need for deep human awareness and extreme active participation in ongoing processes. In this regard, there is an increase in the number of people who are involved in the course of so-called spiritual processes, sometimes having rather dubious content. Overcoming the current crisis situation does not mean savoring future threats, but finding a way to avoid them. Among them, it is advisable to identify the following position.
In accordance with it, further development is expected human mind, such areas as education, science, technology, a radical renewal of the organization of life. It is advisable to create sociocultural mechanisms for comprehensive assessment and overcoming the current situation. Such mechanisms must be holistic, and the level of their unity must be characterized by the superiority of the unity of all structures. It must be stated that today creative potential cannot be realized largely due to the strengthening negative trends in the spiritual environment of culture, which is observed at both the individual and collective levels.
The presence of these trends leads to disorientation of the individual in the context of modern culture, and also acts as a barrier to determining the strategic orientations of the new existence. There are tendencies associated with the spiritual degradation of society as a whole, the corruption of society and the individual, since in such cases life guidelines move from the highest ideals to the lowest, to the realization of a bodily-material or even perverted existence, characterized by the flourishing of all kinds of vices and the establishment of the cult of materiality.
Spirituality in the sphere of culture is a certain ideal of desired existence, which cannot be fully achievable, but at the same time forces one to make efforts to overcome those situations that result in the degradation of the individual, the loss of its most significant characteristics. Along with the forms of its expression within the cultural space, there is the simultaneous existence of a variety of phenomena, some of which, although similar to the results of full-fledged creative activity in the field of spirituality, cannot be considered as such due to various circumstances. Together they form a sphere of pseudo-spirituality in culture.
In this case, pseudo-spirituality can be interpreted as a limited, insufficient, inferior, formal realization of the human spirit in different spheres of culture and life, which does not contribute to the expression of one’s spiritual potential in the necessary form. Phenomena that can be called pseudo-spiritual are outwardly similar to the best manifestations human spirit in its perfection and integrity and are reduced or inferior similarities that distort the key characteristics of spirituality. At a certain stage of the formation of the inner world of the individual, all the necessary conditions for the transformation of the primary spiritual state of a person into more developed personality structures occur. This situation is a reflection of the fact that the human spirit is not something absolute, but relative, in need of filling with life, which, in the case of free choice, first inevitably leads to the generation of fairly free interpretations of the content of spiritual integrity.
The process of spiritual development of an individual, which reveals spirituality as the formation of a personality as a spiritual being, cannot be reduced to individual aspects of the development of an individual and is often presented as the determining beginning of personality formation. Spiritual development is the comprehension and spiritualization of the space of a person’s existence on the basis of an understanding of values, higher meanings and the meaning of life, when a person follows his highest interests and at the same time the highest interests of others who have a common goal and guidelines. The deformation associated with the spiritual sphere of the individual is mainly caused by improper upbringing, the consequence of which is the underdevelopment of the human spirit and the dissatisfaction of spiritual needs.
The individual’s thinking, under the influence of upbringing, creates stable information systems that develop relatively autonomous programs that have a positive or negative impact on the individual22. At the first stages of their formation, guidelines for their general development and direction were laid, which lead to the deviation of the individual from the main path of his development - unity with being on the basis of principles and laws associated with psycho-spiritual being, altruism, love, morality, responsibility. They are replaced by other strategic guidelines - material wealth, career success, the presence of a narrow family circle. A certain danger also lies in the manic desire to achieve spiritual values and ideals. The consequence of achieving this goal at any cost will be even greater self-isolation of the “ego”, a strengthening of the sense of one’s own rightness, a disdainful attitude towards others who begin to act as imperfect, superfluous, interfering with the individual on his “spiritual” path. This contributes to feelings of dissatisfaction with oneself, irritation, resentment, envy and others.
Currently, a person strives to realize his natural talents and turns his abilities into goods, without taking into account their moral component. Great importance in the transformation process spiritual world acquire the active influence of the media on the consciousness and subconscious, the modernization of methods of penetration into the deep levels of the human psyche. Currently, we should talk about the formation of a system for protecting the inner world of a person.
On the path to the development of personal spirituality, various contradictions arise within the framework of the real picture of the world, society, the individual and their scientistic, religious-dogmatic, ideological-political, artistic and aesthetic versions, which often leads to serious misconceptions that disorient the individual and turn him into a helpless puppet information technology. There is a loss of faith in its highest meaning and its replacement by lack of faith and fanaticism. As a result, in the phenomenon of pseudo-spirituality, there is often a substitution of the highest spiritual principle of a person with the spiritual level of his organization, coupled with a passion for spiritual surrogates. Ego consciousness pays special attention to various mental or sociocultural phenomena and forms mechanisms of hooks, as a result of the functioning of which the individual is chained to the “cage” of possible conditioning.
This dependence interferes with the process of spiritual development, which proceeds at an increasingly slower pace compared to psychosomatic and intellectual development, which leads to the spiritual underdevelopment of individuals associated with insufficient awareness of the specific situation and the whole meaning of the spiritual problems of the individual. Phenomena that can be called pseudo-spiritual are outwardly similar to examples of spirituality and are sometimes interpreted as the free creative self-expression of an individual, but are in no way connected with spirituality and distort its deep essential characteristics. In pseudo-spirituality there is no sincerity associated with the expression of feelings, there is no intensity of spiritual confrontation and spiritual tension. However, the desire to demonstrate one’s spiritual identity and spiritual zeal is clearly evident. It should be noted that spirituality often ends where claims against it appear, certain attitudes begin to be aggressively asserted, and certain “spiritual” qualities are ostentatiously demonstrated.
In the sphere of religious and non-confessional mysticism and esotericism, their identification is observed with the practices of occultism and spiritualism, which reflect the desire to escape from real reality into the world of pseudo-esoteric reality, which has no value and significance. In this pseudo-mysticism, spiritual versatility often comes down to being in some “extraordinary”, borderline states of consciousness, which presupposes the presence of an artificial influence on the inner world, obsession with an idea and the absolutization of the technological side of spiritual practice.
At the same time, its general spiritual and moral component and the original sociocultural context are not taken into account. In the media, instead of spirituality, there is a replication of pseudo-occult surrogates, propaganda of primitive mysticism and spiritualism, extrasensory, ufological phenomena. Pseudo-spirituality also reflects a glamorous lifestyle, when, under the guise of “refined taste,” one advertises one’s exclusivity, while dubious innovations are presented as aesthetic canons.
Based on the above, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1.The information society is characterized by a significant spread of negative human activities, in particular terrorism, vandalism, and murder. This is largely due to the growth of alienation and transformations of the value system. In modern society, the ideal is an independent, individual focused on achieving a career and success measured by the amount of money. The feeling of loneliness, isolation and uselessness, the desire to prove one’s own worth, the desire for self-realization in any way, including through negative activities, become increasingly apparent. A significant increase in the negative consequences of human activity within the information society is associated with the emergence of new types of weapons. Negative activities become universal and pose a threat to human existence.
2. The spread of negative actions in the information society is influenced by the anonymity of social connections. The use of complex equipment and technology contributes to the creation of huge teams, within which interpersonal relationships can only be called pseudo-collectivism. In large associations, many individuals lose themselves; they are unable to adapt to such relationships. Constant rivalry leads to the practical impossibility of providing mutual understanding and support. The disunity of people leads to internal discord of the personality itself, its fragmentation, disharmony, and a feeling of loss of one’s own “I” and freedom. The situation is aggravated by the family crisis characteristic of the information society.
3. The use of new technologies contributes to a significant expansion of human capabilities, developing in him ingenuity, resourcefulness, and stubbornness to achieve goals. A person can consciously commit negative actions, without feeling the need for moral approval from others, without fear of censure from society. The use of modern telecommunication networks can also take place to achieve the goal associated with the physical destruction of an individual through a computer. The computer can be used as a tool in the implementation of negative activities.
4. Culture as a space for self-realization turns into a space where consumption and entertainment dominate, and a choice of forms of spiritual activity is carried out, artificially implanted by the media. Culture does not promote the elevation of the individual, but reduces it to its own level, since it offers ready-made surrogate forms in the virtual processes of modern reality. Despite the fact that man has largely subjugated nature, he cannot properly manage the world he has formed. Freedom is not only a blessing, but also a burden that often turns out to be unbearable for people. A free person must look for ways to develop himself; therefore, in the event of an unsuccessful set of circumstances, he has only himself to blame. Man must again answer the question about the meaning of existence, including his own.
5. Today, a person’s spiritual activity has a different motivation; there is a loss of its comprehensiveness and ideological depth. Previous religions turn out to be incapable of ensuring the spiritual security of a person, since they cannot contribute to the structuring of consciousness and the unconscious. The process of routinization of traditional religions that do not satisfy human needs leads to the fact that traditional religiosity, represented by established religious institutions, with a developed structure and canons, synthesized with other cultural elements, is gradually replaced by various neo-religious systems and secular organizations that are associated with an appeal to spiritual dimensions of an individual.
Bagautdinov Airat Maratovich
MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
BELGOROD LAW INSTITUTE
on the topic: “Spiritual life of society”
Prepared by:
doctor philosophical sciences,
Professor Naumenko S.P.
Belgorod – 2008
Plan
Introductory part
1. The concept, essence and content of the spiritual life of society
2. Basic elements of the spiritual life of society
3. Dialectics of the spiritual life of society
Final part (summarizing)
The most important philosophical issues concerning the relationship between the World and Man include the inner spiritual life of a person, those basic values that underlie his existence. A person not only cognizes the world as an existing thing, trying to reveal its objective logic, but also evaluates reality, trying to understand the meaning of his own existence, experiencing the world as due and undue, good and harmful, beautiful and ugly, fair and unfair, etc.
Universal values act as criteria for the degree of both spiritual development and social progress of humanity. The values that ensure human life include health, a certain level of material security, social relations that ensure the realization of the individual and freedom of choice, family, law, etc.
Values traditionally classified as spiritual - aesthetic, moral, religious, legal and general cultural (educational) - are usually considered as parts that make up a single whole, called spiritual culture, which will be the subject of our further analysis.
Since the spiritual life of mankind occurs and is based on material life, its structure is in many ways similar: spiritual need, spiritual interest, spiritual activity, spiritual benefits (values) created by this activity, satisfaction of spiritual needs, etc. In addition , the presence of spiritual activity and its products necessarily gives rise to a special kind of social relations (aesthetic, religious, moral, etc.).
However, the external similarity of the organization of the material and spiritual aspects of human life should not obscure the fundamental differences that exist between them. For example, our spiritual needs, unlike material ones, are not given biologically, they are not given (at least fundamentally) to a person from birth. This does not at all deprive them of objectivity, only this objectivity is of a different kind - purely social. The individual’s need to master the sign-symbolic world of culture has for him the character of an objective necessity - otherwise you will not become a person. But this need does not arise “by itself,” in a natural way. It must be formed and developed by the social environment of the individual in the long process of his upbringing and education.
As for the spiritual values themselves, around which people’s relationships in the spiritual sphere develop, this term usually indicates the socio-cultural significance of various spiritual formations (ideas, norms, images, dogmas, etc.). Moreover, in people’s value perceptions it is certainly true; there is a certain prescriptive-evaluative element.
Spiritual values (scientific, aesthetic, religious) express the social nature of man himself, as well as the conditions of his existence. This is a unique form of reflection by public consciousness of objective trends in the development of society. In the concepts of the beautiful and the ugly, good and evil, justice, truth, etc., humanity expresses its attitude to existing reality and contrasts it with a certain ideal state of society that must be established. Any ideal is always, as it were, “raised” above reality, containing within itself a goal, desire, hope, in general, something that should be, and not something that exists. This is what gives it the appearance of an ideal entity, seemingly completely independent of anything.
Under spiritual production usually understand the production of consciousness in a special social form, carried out by specialized groups of people professionally engaged in qualified mental work. The result of spiritual production is at least three “products”:
Ideas, theories, images, spiritual values;
Spiritual social connections of individuals;
Man himself, since he, among other things, is a spiritual being.
Structurally, spiritual production is divided into three main types of mastery of reality: scientific, aesthetic, religious.
What is the specificity of spiritual production, its difference from material production? First of all, its final product is ideal formations possessing a number of remarkable properties. And, perhaps, the most important of them is the universal nature of their consumption. There is no such spiritual value that would not ideally be the property of everyone! The five loaves spoken of in the Gospel still cannot feed a thousand people, but five ideas or masterpieces of art can Material goods limited. How more people claims to them, the less each person has to share. With spiritual goods, everything is different - they do not decrease from consumption, and even vice versa: the more people master spiritual values, the greater the likelihood of their increase.
In other words, spiritual activity is valuable in itself; it has significance, often regardless of the result. This almost never happens in material production. Material production for the sake of production itself, a plan for the sake of a plan, of course, is absurdity. But art for art’s sake is not at all as stupid as it might seem at first glance. This kind of phenomenon of self-sufficiency of activity is not so rare: various games, collecting, sports, love, finally. Of course, the relative self-sufficiency of such activity does not negate its result.
List of used literature
1. Antonov E.A., Voronina M.V. Philosophy: Textbook. – Belgorod, 2000. – Topic 19.
2. Weber M. Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism // Izbr. works. – M., 1988.
3. Kirilenko G.G. Philosophical Dictionary: Student's Handbook. – M., 2002.
4. Crisis society. Our society in three dimensions. – M., 1994.
5. Self-awareness of European culture of the 20th century. – M., 1991.
6. Spirkin A.G. Philosophy: Textbook. – M., 2001. – Chapter 18.
7. Fedotova V.G. Practical and spiritual mastery of reality. – M., 1992.
8. *Philosophy: Textbook for universities / Ed. V.N. Lavrinenko, V.P. Ratnikova. – M., 2001. – Section IV, chapter 21, 23.
9. Frank S.L. Spiritual foundations of society. - M., 1992.
Literature:
Main
1. *Antonov E.A., Voronina M.V. Philosophy: Textbook. – Belgorod, 2000. – Topic 19.
2. *Kirilenko G.G. Philosophical Dictionary: Student's Handbook. – M., 2002.
3. *Spirkin A.G. Philosophy: Textbook. – M., 2001. – Chapter 18.
4. *Philosophy: Textbook for universities / Ed. V.N. Lavrinenko, V.P. Ratnikova. – M., 2001. – Section IV, chapter 21, 23.
Additional
1. Weber M. Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism // Izbr. works. – M., 1988.
2. Crisis society. Our society in three dimensions. – M., 1994.
3. Self-awareness of European culture of the 20th century. – M., 1991.
4. Fedotova V.G. Practical and spiritual mastery of reality. – M., 1992.
5. Frank S.L. Spiritual foundations of society. – M., 1992.
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Some general laws of systems development can also be applied to society. When we talk about systems, we mean a whole that is made up of parts and is a unity. This unity, which is very important, is not limited to its constituent elements.
Society is also a system; it is an organized collection of people. We are all part of it, so many of us wonder how it develops. The laws of its development can be discovered by considering the sources of progress. In society, three spheres of reality, “worlds” that are not reducible to each other, interact with each other. This is, firstly, the world of things and nature, which exists independently of the consciousness and will of man, that is, it is objective and subject to various physical laws. Secondly, this is a world in which objects and things have a social existence, since they are products of human activity and labor. The third world represents human subjectivity, spiritual ideas and entities relatively independent from the objective world. They have the greatest degree of freedom.
Nature as a source of social development
The first source of social development is found in the natural world. The laws of social development in the past were often formulated based on it. It is the basis for the existence of society, which, interacting with it, improves. We should not forget that it was the laws of the development of nature that led to the emergence of man. The largest civilizations, characteristically, arose in the beds of large rivers, and the most successful development of the capitalist formation in the world took place in states with a temperate climate.
It should be noted that the current stage of interaction between society and nature is marked by the concept of His main reason became the attitude of people to conquer nature, as well as ignoring the limits of its resistance to anthropogenic influences. People turn a blind eye to the basic laws of development, forget about everything in pursuit of short-term gain and do not take into account the consequences. The behavior and consciousness of billions of inhabitants of the Earth must be changed so that nature can continue to provide us with the necessary resources.
The role of technology in the development of society
The next source is technological determinants, that is, the role of technology, as well as the process of division of labor in the social structure. They also provide social development. Laws today are often formulated using the role of technology as a basis. This is not surprising - it is now actively being improved. However, according to T. Adorno, the question of the priority of technology and economics is the question of what came first: the egg or the chicken. The same can be attributed to the type and nature of human labor, which largely determine the system of social relations. All this has become especially obvious today, when the contours of the main contradiction in this case arise between the humane goals of their existence pursued by man and the potentially threatening world of information technology. Its active development causes many problems.
The laws of social development are therefore beginning to be revised, the emphasis is on which we will now talk about.
The spiritual sphere as a source of social progress
Marx believed, leaving aside the “primary” (initial) stage, as well as the “secondary forms” of the community that grew on its form, that in relation to the era of class society and civilization, ancient, feudal, Asian and bourgeois (modern) modes of production can be called progressive eras of social economic formation. In the social science of the USSR, a simplified formula of the process was used historical development, implying the transition of primitive society first to slave-owning, then to feudal, then to capitalist and, finally, to socialist.
The concept of "local civilizations"
The concept of “local civilizations”, which was created through the efforts of A. D. Toynbee, O. Spengler and N. A. Danilevsky, enjoys the greatest recognition in the philosophical thought of the 19-20 centuries. According to it, all peoples are divided into civilized and primitive, and the former are also divided into cultural and historical types. The phenomenon formulated as "Challenge-and-Response" is of particular interest here. It consists in the fact that calm development is suddenly replaced by a critical situation, which, in turn, encourages the growth of a particular culture. The authors of this concept made an attempt to overcome Eurocentrism in the understanding of civilization.
Systematic approach
In the last quarter of the 20th century, an approach was developed according to which the world is a system in which the laws of human and social development operate. This is due to the fact that in given time the process was gaining strength. In the global conglomerate, one can distinguish a “periphery” and a “core”, forming as a whole a “world-system” that exists according to the laws of superformation. The main product of today's type of production has become information and everything connected with it. And this, in turn, changes the idea that the historical process is of a linear type.
Laws of economic development
These are constantly recurring, significant, stable connections between economic phenomena and processes. For example, the law of demand expresses the inverse relationship that exists between changes in the price of a certain product and the demand that arises for it. Like other laws of social life, economic ones operate regardless of the desires and will of people. Among them we can distinguish universal (general) and specific.
General ones are those that operate throughout human history. They functioned back in the primitive cave and continue to be relevant in the modern company, and will also operate in the future. Among them are the following laws of economic development:
Increased needs;
Progressive economic development;
Increased opportunity costs;
Growing division of labor.
The development of society inevitably leads to a gradual increase in needs. This means that over time, people have a growing understanding of the set of goods that they regard as “normal.” On the other hand, the standard of each type of good that is consumed increases. Primitive people, for example, wanted, first of all, to have a lot of food. Today, people, as a rule, no longer care about not dying from its lack. He strives to ensure that his food is varied and tasty.
On the other hand, as purely material needs are satisfied, the role of social and spiritual ones increases. For example, in modern developed countries, when choosing a job, young people are increasingly concerned not so much with earning more (which allows them to dress and eat elegantly), but with ensuring that their work has creative nature, gave the opportunity for self-realization.
People, trying to satisfy new needs, improve production. They increase the range, quality and quantity of goods produced in the economy, and also increase the efficiency of use of various natural resources. These processes can be called economic progress. If the existence of progress in art or morals is disputed, then economic life it is undeniable. This can be achieved through the division of labor. If people specialize in the production of some specific goods, then overall productivity will noticeably increase. However, in order for each person to have a full set of goods that he needs, it is necessary to organize a constant exchange between members of society.
Redistribution and decentralized exchange
K. Polanyi, an American economist, identified 2 methods of coordinating actions between production participants. The first is redistribution, that is, exchange, centralized redistribution. The second is the market, that is, decentralized exchange. In pre-capitalist societies, redistributive product exchange prevailed, that is, natural exchange, carried out without the use of money.
At the same time, the state forcibly confiscated part of the products produced by its subjects from them for further redistribution. This method was typical not only for societies of the Middle Ages and antiquity, but also for the economies of socialist countries.
Even during the primitive system, market commodity exchange arose. In pre-capitalist societies, however, it was mainly a secondary element. Only in a capitalist society does the market become the main method of coordination. At the same time, the state actively encourages its development by creating various laws, for example, the “Law on the Development of Entrepreneurship.” Money relations are actively used. In this case, commodity exchange is carried out horizontally, between producers who have equal rights. Each of them has complete freedom of choice in finding transaction partners. The Small Business Development Law provides support for small firms that find it difficult to function in the context of growing competition.
SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETY
Man creates cultural values and organizes their movement through cultural channels, preserves and distributes them. The process of development of spiritual culture is associated, first of all, with the accumulation of meanings and values and the manipulation of them. This is a holistic process of assimilation, preservation and transmission of the achievements of previous generations, their transformation in the present and transmission as a starting point for the development of the culture of subsequent eras. Two ways of increasing cultural wealth can be identified: continuity in culture and creative breakthroughs, innovation. Let's look at them in more detail.
Continuity is associated with the preservation and transmission of values from one generation to another. In this way, both intermediate products of spiritual production and its final results can be transmitted. Probably, each of you can give many examples when the discovery and achievement of one scientist was picked up and developed by his colleagues, contemporaries and descendants - in this case we are talking about the preservation and transfer of intermediate results of activity. Elements of cultural heritage are also social norms, such as customs, rituals, ceremonies; with their help, it is reproduced by the next generations of a certain ethnic group, for example, a wedding ceremony. But completed works can also be inherited (for example, a painting or literary work). We get pleasure from reading a novel or a poem, looking at paintings in an art gallery.
But culture also develops due to the addition of new Values. Any historical era, regardless of the material and other conditions of people’s existence, gives rise to innovating creators who make scientific discoveries, inventions that create masterpieces of art. Their achievements are not always appreciated by their contemporaries, but many of these works are preserved and passed on to future generations. One can recall, for example, Nicolaus Copernicus and other scientists who asserted
Those who gave the truth of the heliocentric system, or geniuses engineering developments Leonardo da Vinci, many centuries ahead of his time.
SUB-CULTURE AND COUNTER-CULTURE
The culture of any historical era has enduring value and originality, but it is heterogeneous, just as the society that creates it is heterogeneous in its composition. Within a specific culture, we can distinguish, for example, urban and rural, elite and mass, adult and children's layers. So any era appears before our eyes as a complex spectrum of cultural trends and values, styles, traditions and other manifestations of the human spirit. These “cultures within a culture,” created by representatives of individual social groups, are usually called subcultures.
Why are subcultures identified? Some layers of culture are more consistent than others with the development trends of individual social groups. They adapt and become fixed in the special behavioral traits of representatives of these groups, their language, and consciousness. In the 10th grade course, you became acquainted with the concepts of “mentality”, “mentality”, reflecting a specific mindset, way of thinking, worldview inherent in representatives of certain social groups.
Let us illustrate with a concrete example the process of subculture formation. It is known that in Western European society, right up to the Renaissance, children were perceived as smaller copies of adults; they were even sewn similar clothes. Society did not yet understand that the world of childhood is seriously different from the world of adults. Gradually, awareness of this phenomenon came - a special subculture of childhood began to take shape, which, however, did not deny the parallel existing culture of adults. The modern subculture of childhood is heterogeneous - for example, the subculture of teenagers stands out. Consequently, we can say that in the process of social development there is a fragmentation (in other cases, erosion) of individual subcultures.
But in the history of culture there are also situations when local cultural values come out beyond the boundaries of their social environment, claiming some universality. In this case, we can talk not about a subculture, but about the emergence counterculture. Modern cultural scientists consider this concept in at least two meanings. Firstly, to designate sociocultural systems that oppose the dominant culture, striving
