French sociologist Alain Touraine, born in 1952, is among the few prominent Western thinkers to contemplate the golden generation of sociology. He is best known for his criticism of ancient sociology. In his book "The End of Societies", he sees that various social institutions such as family, school, and welfare systems have lost their meaning in the era of globalization .
In a telephone interview with the Spanish newspaper "Albayes", Turin made his opinion on the Corona virus crisis, and commented on the prescriptions of the current situation by France, Spain and America, as a state of war, saying that war is going on between people or at least two countries, and the army invades the lands of another country. On the other hand, what we are currently living in is confronting humans with a non-human enemy, stressing that he does not criticize the use of the term war, but what is happening now is war without fighters.
A strange scientist
and on the human level, Turin considered that we live in a world that lacks effective actors, and he said that he had never seen an American president as strange as Donald Trump, nor a figure who is not bound by the rules nor his presidential role in this way, and considered that it is not an accident that you lose The United States is the world leader. In Europe, we note the absence of the most powerful countries. No one is at the top of the pyramid of power.
Regarding the parties below this pyramid, Turin considered that we are witnessing the fall of the labor movement, which was the basis of the industrial society. This means that there are currently no social, political, global, national or class actors. For this reason, everything that goes against the concept of war contradicts, especially given the existence of a biological machine on the part of other people and groups without ideas, guidance, program, strategies, or language.
When asked about whether he had experienced a similar experience in his life, Turin answered that he felt the same feeling during the crisis of 1929, he was born shortly before this date, when everything disappeared and no one was left, neither on the left nor the governments. However, the void quickly filled up the Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler, who took over as Chancellor of Germany in 1933.
Turin added that what most amazed him during this period, as a sociologist and historian of the present, was that he did not feel this void for a very long time, adding, "There is a shortage of actors and ideas. There is not even a treatment or vaccine. The world does not have weapons, and everyone is locked up alone. ".
The memories of my ninetieth sociologist
and his memories of World War II, when he was 14 years old in 1940, Turin said that for a French boy of his age at the time, nothing was more vulgar than the Franco-German War, the two countries had faced several times. Indeed, the French military administration affected his youth. Today, however, a contrary matter occurs, as the world lives in a vacuum, without discussion, action or understanding.
Turin reported that the world has reached this stage, after the West controlled it for nearly five hundred years, and that countries today believe that they have lived for the last fifty years in a world led by the United States of America.
"Maybe we will live today in a Chinese world, but that is not certain, for America is drowning and China is in a contradictory situation that cannot go on forever, because it wants to practice the Maoist totalitarianism to manage the global capitalist system. Thus, we find ourselves in a brutal transition that has not taken place." Prepare it or think about it in advance. "
He added that the current situation does not raise his own fears, because his life usually revolves around staying at home to work, as well as he feels a kind of protection under conditions of living that he shares with others.
Nationalism and Fascism
In his comment on the possibility of the return of nationalism and populism, Turin pointed out two fundamental decisions before Europe, namely liberation by women, and this means the fall of the mind as the center of personality, and the restoration of feelings and communication, then determining the position on receiving immigrants, considering that at the present time, he will determine The position of the two countries on migrants is doomed.
Turin considered that even with its economic repercussions, new social habits based on divergence and the emergence of new priorities, the Coruna virus will not change all the data, so there will be other future disasters.
He thinks that we are entering a new kind of "community of services between people" as economists have pointed out, predicting that this crisis will push the category of caregivers to the top, as they cannot continue to receive low salaries. At the same time, in light of this crisis, chances are that an economic shock will lead to reactions that fascinated by Turin.
Turin is a contemporary sociologist who is critical of traditional sociology and positivist school, focuses on the study of social movements, and is known for his humanist tendency and warning against the dangers of wars and brute modernity.