The latest trends in the development of culture. Current problems of modern culture Trends in the development of modern material culture

1. The concept of “culture” is one of the most frequently used in modern humanitarian knowledge. It came to European languages ​​from Latin (cultura - cultivation, education, development, veneration). In the broadest sense, culture is what is created by man, it is the entire set of products of human activity, forms of socio-political organization of society, spiritual processes, human states and types of his activities. Thus, culture includes and unites objectified, “frozen” human activity, the results of the “cultivation” of reality and “living” - the very life of humanity, the current process of cultivation, cultivation of reality.

Culture can be defined as the level of development of man and society, reflected in the material and spiritual values ​​they create, as well as the very process of people’s creative activity.

The concept of “culture” is actively used by social sciences and humanities in the 20th century, which is accompanied by the development of a myriad of definitions of culture, of which we will pay attention to the two most laconic: culture is “second nature” (K. Marx) and culture is “not nature” (E. Markaryan). In both the first and second cases, the question of the relationship between culture and nature is raised and in some way resolved. The “first” nature is the most important condition for the emergence of the “second” nature. But, arising on the basis of nature, starting from it, culture changes it, isolating itself, gaining independence. The study of the long and gradual process of isolation of culture from nature, the growth of culture from nature allows us to deeply analyze the history of the development of society.

The specificity of the sociological approach to culture is the analysis of the relationship between culture and social development: with the stages of development of civilization, with shifts in the formational state of society, with ethnic evolution, with the development of relations between all major social actors. At the same time, not only is culture considered as a whole, as a single system, but its differentiation is explored, conditioned by the diversity of forms of social life - the cultures of various social subjects are distinguished: national cultures, class cultures, cultures of different generations, different types of settlements, etc.

Culture is a holistic phenomenon formed from the infinite variety of cultures of various social subjects included in it. At the same time, the ways of interaction, dialogue or conflict of these “subcultures” within the “big” culture are especially important for sociology. Analysis of this problem allows us to identify two vectors in the development of relations between cultures of classes, ethnic groups, generations, genders, city and rural residents: in the direction of self-isolation, isolation and in the direction of rapprochement. These trends have been traced in most detail in the study of national cultures by modern sociology, which is reflected in the design of alternative sociological directions - linear evolutionism and the cultural-historical school.

One of the central problems of cultural development - the interaction of tradition and innovation - is reflected in the interaction of urban and rural culture; the problem of elite and mass culture, considered from the point of view of sociology, is refracted in the problem of dialogue between the culture of people engaged in mental work and the culture of people engaged in physical labor; the problem of the historical development of culture, the change of styles in it is reflected in the sociological analysis of the dialogue of cultures of different generations, the process of emergence, formation of the “counterculture” of the younger generation and the gradual absorption of the most significant phenomena of this counterculture by the “big” culture, which ensures the continuity of the cultural-historical process.

At one or another stage of sociocultural development, first one or another subsystem within a culture can be updated. But sociological analysis shows that all subsystems are necessary and in this sense are equivalent for the development of culture. The role of every ethnic group, every generation, every class in culture is eternal.

It is customary to divide culture into material and spiritual, according to the two main types of labor and methods of human cultivation of reality - physical and mental.

Usually, material culture is understood as the sphere of material activity and her results (tools, housing, everyday items, clothing, means of transport and communication, etc.). The concept of “spiritual culture” is used to designate the sphere of consciousness, spiritual production (cognition, morality, education, law, science, art, literature, religion, ideology, mythology); spiritual culture can be defined as the level of development of man and society, reflected in the created by them spiritual values, as well as the process of creative activity of people. Physical effort allows the phenomenon of culture to take on flesh and materialize. Spiritual efforts determine the style of cultivating reality, developing measures and criteria for the culturality or unculturedness of human actions.

Culture cannot exist outside of society without relying on its certain economic level of development and on a system of legal norms. At the same time, its core is spiritual activity, reproduced in three main forms: science, art, morality. The entire “great” culture can be considered as a result of the development of this “core”, as the objectification of new achievements of science, art, morality and their reproducing traditional forms. It is necessary to pay special attention to the last point in order to optimize the process of foreseeing the prospects for the development of the sociocultural process. The reproduction in culture of religious, national, caste and other stereotypes of behavior, not only rational, but also irrational symbols and attributes of social activity is the empirical reality that is most difficult to take into account and is often overlooked when designing social changes. Ignoring the spiritual and cultural values ​​of social life most often ultimately determines the collapse of attempts to reform society. It was these realities that thwarted the plans of the Stolypin reform in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, the most left-radical projects for transforming society (“war communism” in Russia, Maoism in China, etc.) and others

attempts to “leap” over existing cultural and historical development paradigms. We are seeing something similar today.

In this regard, it seems appropriate to consider the basic sociological concepts of culture from the point of view of the interaction of “cultural” and “social”.

A significant role in overcoming illusions regarding the omnipotence of reason in the reproduction of the sociocultural process and in the formation of historical sociology was played by V. Dilthey, who considered the spiritual and mental integrity of being, culture as “spirit,” to be almost identical to life itself. The special “spiritual world” inherent in each culture and era determines, according to Dilthey, social activity by the totality of meaning-forming factors contained in it.

O. Spengler agrees with Dilthey on this issue, who emphasized that the “spiritual world,” being imprinted in the forms of economic, political, religious and artistic life, creates a cultural and historical era and distinguishes it as an integrity from another.

It should be noted the special merits of Russian philosophical and sociological thought in the study of culture as a social phenomenon. Neo-Kantian ideas in Russian sociology, developed by A. S. Lappo-Danilevsky, B. A. Kistyakovsky, P. I. Novgorodtsev, P. B. Struve and others, brought to the forefront of social cognition the understanding of the spiritual and ethical foundations of society that determine specificity of the social world. The position of the “national spirit” (national self-awareness or national character) as the most important factor in socio-historical development was consistently defended in Russian social thought.

The idea of ​​cultural and value-based conditioning of social processes was, in a certain sense, a “common denominator” for most Russian thinkers, and the theme of Russian socio-cultural civilizational uniqueness became one of the leading ones in the works of N. A. Berdyaev (“Soul of Russia”, etc.), I. A. Ilyin (“The Path of Spiritual Renewal”), S. L. Frank (“Russian Worldview”), N. O. Lossky (“Character of the Russian People”), I. A. Solonevich (“People’s Monarchy”) and in a number of works other major researchers.

E. Durkheim and M. Weber made their contribution to the formulation of the problem of culture as a social phenomenon.

Durkheim defined culture as “the collective or common consciousness.” The latter has, from his point of view, specific features that transform this “consciousness” into a special reality: a set of beliefs and feelings that are common mainly to the same society.

The author of understanding sociology, M. Weber, believed that it is impossible to “understand” the behavior of social subjects without comprehending the “meaning” of his behavior experienced by the subject himself. According to Weber, the primary reality of society is culture, which can manifest itself both in social structures such as family, state, and in spiritual forms - religion, art, science. Culture, unlike technological civilization, is emotional, personal, and socially orients the subject. Weber emphasized that the “intended meaning” of real behavior in the overwhelming majority of cases is vaguely or not realized at all by the actor himself.

Speaking about the concepts of culture, one cannot ignore the socio-psychological scheme of 3. Freud, according to which three levels of the psyche are distinguished: “It” - the concentration of the unconscious (instincts, drives, repressed ideas and images), striving to break out of its “basements”; “I” is the concentration of our consciousness, which carries out the functions of suppression and sublimation of the unconscious; “Super-ego” is the concentration of conscience, norms and values, “the representative of society in the psyche.” According to Freud, culture is a dynamic system that performs a kind of feedback function between the individual and society both along the line “unconscious - conscious - normative-value - social-behavioral” and in the opposite direction (adjustment of behavior - revaluation of values, revision of norms - repression of patterns and ideas into the unconscious). From Freud's point of view, the preservation of the past in mental life is the rule rather than the exception.

A unique approach to the problem of interaction between culture and society, reflecting the stylistic features of the culture of the 20th century, was developed in the theory of I. Huizinga, which considers play as the most important source and way of existence of culture. Huizinga places not only art, but also science, everyday life, jurisprudence, and military art into the “playing space.” He shows that the ability to play is deeply connected with culture, which is opposed by the denial of play, gloomy seriousness based on the lack of imagination, the idea of ​​relativity, temporality, and fragility. At the same time, true culture requires a balance of gaming and non-game principles.

Let us highlight the main functions of culture in society, which coincide with the classification of the main types and forms of human activity:

Practical-transformative - the needs of human practice bring to life certain cultural changes as a condition for the development of society;

Cognitive - studying the mechanism of interaction between culture and society with the help of all forms of cultural development and, first of all, science, accumulation and transmission of information, maintaining continuity, historical and social memory;

Value-oriented - the development of norms regulating social behavior, including political, legal, moral, aesthetic, religious ideals and behavioral stereotypes;

Communicative - exchange of information, communication, development of generally accepted attributes of behavior;

The function of socialization is the inclusion of the individual in the sociocultural process.

A constant source of development and reproduction of culture is the interaction of people, which makes it important to analyze the functional connection between personality and culture.

2. The role of the individual in the development of culture is a special, always actively discussed issue. Man is a “cell” of a cultural organism, the result of cultivation and the creator of culture. On the one hand, a person cannot bring the ultimate truth into culture, “cultivate” reality to perfection, to the absolute; on the other hand, the activity of an individual is always significant, never indifferent to culture, and can creatively develop or deform culture in all its forms.

For the sociological theory of culture, it is important to clarify the different content and individual significance levels of a person’s relationship with culture (culturality), to which certain levels of individual consciousness must correspond.

An individual’s cultural level can be high or low depending on how fully and harmoniously the subject has mastered culture in its traditional and innovative forms. Culture is a complex phenomenon; it is a complex system. Therefore, a high level of mastery of culture presupposes a systematic, rather than fragmentary, mastery of it. “By retreating from primitive elementarity,” a person becomes cultured. Therefore, in concept difficulties, as V.V. Rozanov noted, there is an external definition of culture, and its internal meaning is in the concept cult.“A cultured person is one who not only carries some kind of cult within himself, but who is also complex, that is, not simple, not monotonous in his ideas, in his feelings, in his aspirations, and finally, in his skills and the whole way of life.”

What appears, according to Rozanov, as the internal meaning of culture - a cult, or the internal and special attention of an individual to something, a preference for something over everything else - is gradually formed in the individual. It focuses on a person’s worldview, a way of seeing the semantic essence of the surrounding world and one’s own place in it. It arises under the influence of the general stylistic features of culture as a historical integrity, which determine the individual’s possible approaches to the objective world. The process of changing such approaches - discernment, contemplation, observation - was considered by S. S. Averintsev. Thus, the cultural personality of the ancient world was characterized by a spectacular approach. Contemplation becomes the dominant feature of medieval culture. Then this type of culture exhausts itself. Observation and, as a consequence of this, a practical-experimental approach to culture become a factor in the uniqueness of modern human culture. The cultural character of a person, his cult, arises under the direct influence of the sociocultural semantic field of the era, which determines the hierarchy of values ​​and objects of possible cult.

However, let us return to the “external” level of a person’s culture, directly related to the problem of complexity and multivariance of his behavior in society. Individual culture presupposes the role correlation of the individual with the culture, connecting his most important life needs with the norms and values ​​enshrined in the social institutions of society. The concept of role is one of the central ones in the empirical research of sociologists. However, the content of the role characterizes not so much the personality itself, the level of its mastery of culture, but rather the social system in which the person functions. One of the most important problems of self-realization of an individual in the sociocultural process is the problem of resolving contradictions that arise between an individual’s worldview, his basic spiritual values ​​and the requirements of his social roles, and stereotypes of behavior of an individual as a member of various social groups and processes. A cultured person finds in each case a unique way out that allows him to avoid extremes: either a complete rejection of “indulging in conventions” in order to maintain the purity of the cult, or absolute ideological relativism, which allows one to be guided only by considerations of momentary gain or convenience.

The framework of “appropriate” behavior in a particular role, in a particular social group can be perceived and considered by a cultured person not so much as a “Procrustean bed” limiting the freedom of self-realization, but as a disciplining factor that allows one to be included in the process of cultural creation not from scratch, but relying on established, established mechanisms for supporting the creative activity of the individual by society.

In the modern world, the problem of reflecting and recreating culture by an individual is also complicated because it involves mastering not only roles, but also what can be called “inter-role”, “marginal” behavior. A person increasingly finds himself not in one culture or another (national, class, generation, gender, territorial settlement group), but between cultures. Social differentiation in modern society is dynamic and rapidly transforming; Along with the globalization of social life, individualization and focus on the individual are also developing. Therefore, in an effort to be cultured, a person increasingly cannot rely on an established stereotype, take advantage of an already prescribed role, and is forced to create a relatively new pattern of behavior that corresponds to his worldview, on the one hand, and his non-trivial social status, on the other.

3. The current state of culture causes reasonable concern. One of the global problems in the development of society is the erosion of spiritual culture, which arises as a result of the total dissemination of monotonous information, isolating its consumers from the work of developing ideas about the meaning of existence in the socio-cultural process, aggravating the situation of “loss of meaning” in culture.

Overcoming the crisis and preserving culture are based on the main trends of its self-development and evolution.

Culture is an open system, i.e. . it is not completed, it continues to develop and interact with non-culture. Therefore, to begin with, let us pay attention to the external trend in the development of culture.

Culture is “not nature”; it arose and develops in interaction with nature. Their relationship was not easy. Gradually emerging from the power of natural forces, man - the creator of culture - made of his creation an instrument, an instrument for conquering and subjugating nature. However, as soon as power over earthly nature began to be concentrated in the hands of people, the most perspicacious of them came to the conclusion that, along with nature, culture, within which negative processes arose, fell into slavery to the power of human labor. Having changed the attitude towards oneself as part of nature to the attitude towards nature as a “stranger”, man found himself in a difficult situation. After all, he and his body are inseparable from nature, which has become “alien” to culture. Therefore, man forced himself to make a choice between nature and culture. Started in the 18th century. J.-J. Rousseau’s criticism of culture in some concepts was carried to the point of its complete denial, the idea of ​​“natural anti-culture” of man was put forward, and culture itself was interpreted as a means of his suppression and enslavement (F. Nietzsche). 3. Freud viewed culture as a mechanism of social suppression and sublimation of unconscious mental processes. And all this at a time when humanity was actively creating ways to suppress nature.

The confrontation between culture and nature has not disappeared today. However, there is a tendency to overcome it. The idea of ​​the noosphere - the future kingdom of Reason, Goodness, Beauty - revealed in the teachings of V.I. Vernadsky and P. Teilhard de Chardin is finding an increasingly wider response. As one of the attributes of the development of culture, the principle of conformity to nature is recognized, based on the mutually mediated ideas of culture’s responsibility to nature, on the one hand, and the relative freedom of the “second nature” from the “first”, artificial from the natural, a certain inevitable distance of sociocultural and biological processes - from another.

The main patterns of internal development of culture are closely intertwined with the external trend of cultural development, the evolution of its relations with nature.

One of the main trends in the internal development of culture is associated with a change in the balance of physical and mental expenditure of human energy in favor of the latter. Since the middle of the 20th century. Thanks to the use of scientific and technological advances, the need for hard physical labor began to sharply decrease. Human physical efforts play an increasingly smaller role in the reproduction of the sociocultural process. Culture, thus, increasingly defines itself as a product of the creativity of the human spirit, mind, soul. The value of spiritual efforts in this regard will steadily increase. And if previously natural science knowledge was often considered as a criterion for the progressiveness of culture, now its parity with humanitarian knowledge will be gradually restored.

Another internal trend in the evolution of culture is the transition from confrontation of “local”, “group”, “subjective” cultures to their dialogue. The 20th century introduced intense drama and a tragic sense of irreparable loss into the understanding of the cultural process. The idea of ​​discontinuity of culture and incomparability of cultures is most consistently embodied in the concept of O. Spengler. The perception of the cultures of individual social subjects as “sealed organisms” is based on the belief that each culture grows out of its own unique “proto-phenomenon” - a way of “experiencing life.” If in the theory of cultural-historical types and cultural circles this approach is used when analyzing relations between cultures of different ethnic groups, then in left- and right-wing radical doctrines it is used when comparing cultures of different classes (the theory of “two cultures” in a class society), and in the teaching of “new left” and then “right” - from the same positions the relations between the “new” counterculture and the “old” culture are characterized. Thus, within the framework of the sociology of economic determinism, the carriers of incompatible, mutually exclusive cultures are classes, for the “new” ones - youth and the older generation. Conflict, mutual misunderstanding and rejection of cultures are seen as an absolute inevitability.

However, the current situation in the sociocultural process demonstrates the futility and even disastrousness of the position of mutual ignorance of cultures. The need for the integrity of culture is comprehended “by contradiction” - through the awareness of the impossibility of its further existence in the form of a conglomerate of cultures.

Another important trend in the evolution of culture can be expressed as overcoming the conflict (while maintaining contradiction) between traditional culture and innovative culture. This trend is embodied in the culture of postmodernism.

No matter how conventional the designation of entire eras in the cultural life of society with the concepts of “classicism” or “modernism” is, it allows us to see how discontinuous culture is perceived in a given period.

At the beginning of the 20th century. The “modern” style established itself in culture. Modernism - the desire to reflect reality and especially culture in a new way as “not nature”, as an unnatural, artificial, pure, refined phenomenon - has permeated all spheres of spiritual life and, first of all, art and the humanities. Non-triviality, unconventionality and anti-traditionality are considered within the framework of this style as identical concepts. Gradually, what was modernism was partially included in the tradition, from which the avant-garde of culture carefully distanced itself. However, in the search for forms and meanings that are not in contact with what already existed in culture (and therefore old and unnecessary), the avant-garde led itself into the dead end of the absurd - tuneless music, non-representative painting, non-explanatory science, ideology that serves not self-preservation, but self-destruction a subject of ideology that breaks with the tradition of mythology. The natural need of the creator of culture to express the absurdity and disharmony of the world is satisfied in such a way that it leads to a deepening of the absurd.

In a culture filled with cacaphony, the need for silence is increasingly felt, which is sometimes defined as the only thing that is still missing “to replenish the golden fund of cultural values ​​of humanity.”

Gradually, “silence” leads to calm, once-burned bridges to traditional culture are restored, and values ​​acquired and developed by the cultures of previous eras reappear in a modern-enriched form. The broken connection of times is being restored, and once again it is revealed that “manuscripts do not burn.”

Contemporary postmodern culture is a culture that painfully but steadily overcomes the gap between the old and the new, the created and the created. Its fabric is saturated with “signs”, symbols of culture; it develops a “consensus” of desires to preserve tradition and keep up with the times.

Finally, the last of the identified trends in the evolution of culture at the present stage reflects the process of change in personality as a subject of culture. The diversity of culture from the external personality becomes internal, turns into the most important characteristic of its internal life.

The creation of modern culture by an individual presupposes its distance from both attempts to abandon the desire for integrity and from a false imitation of integrity. Internal contradiction and the desire to resolve it are the natural state of the spiritual life of the individual as a subject of culture. The one-dimensional person is replaced by a person who perceives contradiction not as a tragedy, but as a stimulus for the unfolding of the creative process.

Self-test questions

1. Define culture.

2. What are the specifics of material and spiritual culture? What is the essence of the social functions of culture?

3. What is the role of culture in the formation and development of the spiritual life of society?

4. How are changes in culture and changes in the structure of society related?

5. What key points can be identified in the process of cultural diffusion? Why do we say that any cultural pattern is a product of collective creativity? Determine your opinion about the role of the individual in the development of culture.

6. What is the current state of culture? What are the main trends in its development?

Humanistic principles and ideals have become widespread in modern culture. Of course, humanism is a fairly diverse concept. The essence of modern humanism lies in its universality: it is addressed to every person, proclaiming everyone’s right to life, prosperity, and freedom. In other words, this is not elitist, but democratic humanism. Humanistic orientation of culture of the 20th century. Manifests itself in various “worlds” of modern society - economic, moral, political, artistic, etc. This trend determined, for example, the formation of political culture in advanced countries. Thus, the values ​​of modern political culture were first recorded in the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” (1789). The idea of ​​universal equality was put forward by Christianity. Christ taught: everyone is equal before God, for every person, regardless of his social status, has an immortal soul. However, the Christian idea of ​​equality is rather mystical in nature. After all, people are equal not in real life, but in the afterlife. On earth, everyone must humbly bear his cross, like Christ, since the existing inequalities in social, class life, and property differences are predetermined by God. Another important result of the development of culture perceived in our century is the orientation towards scientific and rational knowledge of the world and the associated sociocultural system - science. Back in the 19th century. the first signs appear that science has become global, uniting the efforts of scientists from different countries. The internationalization of scientific relations arose and further developed. Expanding the scope of application of science at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. led to the transformation of the lives of tens of millions of people living in the newly industrialized countries and their unification into a new economic system. The technogenic attitude towards nature as a means of satisfying not spiritual, but purely technical needs became widespread in the first half of the 20th century. one of the leading trends in the development of culture. An optimistic worldview, conditioned by the successes of scientific thought, embodied in global industry and technology, transforming the face of the planet, served as the basis for the emergence of the characteristic human nature of the 20th century. sensations of the cosmic nature of one’s existence. Cosmism is a unique, interesting phenomenon of modern culture. In the works of famous cosmists V.I. Vernadsky, A.L. Chizhevsky, Teilhard de Chardin, fundamentally new problems of the cosmic role of humanity, the unity of man and space, and moral and ethical responsibility during the space expansion of humanity were posed. These ideas arose primarily on domestic soil, because Russian culture is characterized by the idea of ​​a person as an active, seeking individual and at the same time rooted in the universal, as a whole. With the greatest scientific evidence and philosophical validity, these ideas were developed by the outstanding Russian thinker, natural scientist, who stood at the origins of modern geochemistry and biogeochemistry - V.L. Vernadsky. The main work of V.I. Vernadsky - “Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon” - is distinguished by its encyclopedic generalization and synthetic approach to the evolution of the Earth as a single geological biogenic social and cultural process. Realizing the paths of evolution and world culture, the thinker comes to the conclusion that human activity is not some kind of deviation in evolutionary development. Under the influence of united humanity, the biosphere will naturally move into a qualitatively new state - the noosphere (from the word “noos” - mind). Man and his mind are not just the end result of evolution, but at the same time the beginning of a new movement, creating a sphere of reason, which will be the determining force of evolutionary development in the future. The emergence of the noosphere is associated primarily with the real process of expansion of the mind and consciousness into the evolutionary process. Man has completely captured the biosphere for life. The face of the Earth, this first cosmic body owned by humanity, has been completely transformed. All natural elements: water, earth, air are captured by man. The most important basis for the emergence of the noosphere is the unification of humanity. For B.I. Vernadsky's equality, brotherhood, unity of all people is, first of all, not a moral and cultural requirement, a beautiful wish, but a natural fact. A universal human culture emerges; modern means of transportation and information transmission bring people closer together; Scientific and technical thought is increasingly internationalized. Despite wars and ethnic conflicts, humanity will inevitably come to unity. The main reason for the creation of the noosphere is science, which is becoming a powerful geological and cosmic force. The triumph of life and the wonderful harmonious future of people are associated with this process. The evolution of living matter, its complication and strengthening of the powers of reason in the Universe are inevitable processes. In the culture of the 20th century. a contradiction developed, manifested in the opposition of two attitudes: scientistic and antiscientist. Scientism is based on the idea of ​​scientific knowledge as the highest cultural value. Science as an absolute standard is capable of solving all problems, scientists believe, facing humanity - economic, political, moral, etc. The concept of “scientism” comes from the Latin word “scientia” - knowledge, science. Scientists argued: everything is subject to science. But not everything in the world is science. For example, there is the sphere of art, faith, human feelings and relationships. Antiscientism appeared as a reaction to the exaggeration of the role of science. It is characterized by belittling the importance of scientific knowledge and blaming science for causing possible crises: economic, environmental, national. His statement: “Science is the plague of the 20th century.” However, the culture of the 20th century. reflected the crisis into which technogenic civilization was slowly entering. Modern production, which gave birth to a new type of civilization, industrial society, led to the actual dominance of impersonal economic technological and political structures over living human activity, the individual “I” of genuine culture. The method of organizing social life, which L. Mumford reflected in the image of a giant mega-machine, received its logical conclusion in the second half of the 20th century. A person with his inherent individuality and creative potential turns out to be a standard part of the social machine, a functional appendage of the technological process. The individual passively accepts the forms of life imposed on him by society and ceases to live an original free life. “Flight from freedom” leads to the tragedy of personal existence and gives rise to subjectless sociocultural forms. “The consequences of this mechanization stem from the absolute superiority of mechanical predestination, calculability and reliability. Everything connected with emotional experiences and faith is allowed only on the condition that it is useful for the goals set for the machine. Man himself becomes one of the types of raw materials subject to targeted processing. Therefore, the one who was previously the substance of the whole and its meaning - man - now becomes a means." In this situation, the direction of social cognition of the era of industrialism looks quite natural, excluding the uniqueness of the human “I”, the cultural context in the development of society; engineering thinking with its standards, technologies, measurements becomes exemplary in social cognition. In the 20th century The crisis phenomena of the technogenic civilization that arose on the ruins of the Middle Ages were fully revealed. The culture of this civilization was formed on the basis of a special relationship between man and nature; man sought to break out of dependence on nature, and its highest values ​​recognized the dominance of man over nature, progress, renewal, and the increase in technological and scientific knowledge. The development of technology and technology as a tool for human domination over nature have become the main goals of social development. As a result, a situation arose in which the constant increase in material wealth based on the renewal of technology turned man into a simple instrument of effective economic activity. The type of scientific and technical culture that initially developed in Europe and then spread throughout the world gave a lot to man for the development of his freedom. But at the same time it has flaws. Technogenic civilization is based on such a relationship between man and nature, in which nature is the object of human activity, the object of exploitation, and unlimited exploitation. It is characterized by a type of development that can be expressed in one word: more. The goal is to accumulate more and more material goods, wealth and, on this basis, solve all human problems, including social, cultural and others. Technogenic civilization is characterized by the idea that nature is inexhaustible precisely as an object of its exploitation by man. Understanding the depth of the economic crisis puts an end to this idea. Hence the ideological and scientific-theoretical movement of recent decades, which posed the problem of creating a new ecological culture. The environmental crisis outlines the boundaries of the existing type of economic development. We are talking about the need for new relationships with nature and between people. A. Peccei. The “human revolution” does not consist in the rejection of scientific and technological progress that threatens life on Earth, but in a radical revolution in the entire system of “man-society” relations. Society is being transformed radically. Freedom and independence of the individual turns out to be the principle of development of the emerging civilization and culture. In the sociocultural realities of the late 20th century. the contours of the future domination of man and his culture over existence are outlined. The essence of the new culture grows out of the destruction of the systems characteristic of classical industrial society, which outwardly determine the life of the individual. A person ceases to be an element of technological, economic or political systems, where his activity is strictly determined by qualities external to his personal culture. This rigid, deterministic scheme is not just weakening, a fundamentally new situation is emerging, meaning that socio-economic development depends on the state of the spiritual world of the individual, on his development and sociocultural aspirations. The classic of modern Western futurology, Alvin Toffler, summarizing the development of human society in the 20th century, showed that knowledge in modern society is turning into real wealth and into that explosive force that will produce a shift in power. The new economic world is based on human knowledge and abilities, on the worldview of freedom and the idea of ​​creative self-development. One of the methodological approaches that conceptually comprehends the ongoing changes is the theory of the Japanese sociologist E. Masuda. In 1945, He proposed an idea that seemed fantastic to many - the theory of the “information society.” This is a society united by a single information network, thanks to which it will be possible for humanity to develop common goals, and for humans to demonstrate their creative capabilities. The introduction of new information technologies and, above all, computer technology and telecommunications systems have shown that the concept of the information society is by no means utopian. A new information culture, new ways of obtaining information, production and scientific activities are emerging. Based on automated access to communication systems, an individual or group of individuals can obtain the information necessary to solve professional or personal problems. There is a process of automation and robotization of production and management. More than 50% of the working population works in the field of information activities. The concept of the “information society” determined the ways of forming the “material body” of culture in the 20th century.

The 20th century is the most dynamic in the history of human civilization, which could not but affect the entire character of its culture

General characteristics of the 20th century.: the triumph of science, human intelligence, the era of social storms, upheavals, paradoxes. Modern society, while forming high ideals of love for people, equality, freedom, democracy, has simultaneously given rise to a simplified understanding of these values, which is why the processes occurring in modern culture are so diverse.

Since the 20th century - a century of rapidly changing social systems, dynamic cultural processes, it is very risky to give unambiguous assessments of the development of culture of this period and only a few characteristic features can be identified.

In the history of culture of the 20th century. Three periods can be distinguished:

1. beginning of the 20th century - 1917 (acute dynamics of socio-political processes, diversity of artistic forms, styles, philosophical concepts);

2. 20-30 years (radical restructuring, some stabilization of cultural dynamics, the formation of a new form of culture - socialist),

3. post-war 40s. - the entire second half of the 20th century. (the time of the formation of regional cultures, the rise of national self-awareness, the emergence of international movements, the rapid development of technology, the emergence of new advanced technologies, the active development of territories, the fusion of science with production, a change in scientific paradigms, the formation of a new worldview). Culture is a system, everything in it is interconnected and mutually determined.

Spiritual and material culture of the 20th century. - this is a continuation of the socio-cultural processes of the 19th century, which did not live up to the hopes of mankind and gave rise to a new crisis and upheavals: the contradictions that had accumulated within society could not be resolved by the course of natural historical changes. At the end of the 19th century. irreversible changes have occurred regarding a new understanding of man, his relationship to the world, and a new language of art. An example of such a new attitude was given by French painting, which became not only actively temperamental, but colored by the subjective experiences of a person: impressionism appears, the main goal of which is to capture a moment of life.

A breakthrough beyond the boundaries of conventional art that developed in the 19th century also occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Fundamental changes are taking place: culture is becoming international, integrating the spiritual values ​​of almost all ethnic regional types and from this becoming even more diverse. This diversity could not but affect art, literature, philosophy, i.e., culture as a whole, which reflected both cultural decline and degradation of technogenic civilization at the turn of the last two centuries of the 2nd millennium, and a metaphysical approach to solving global problems, an attempt to understand the new the role of man in the world. In cultural studies, art history and science, this cultural process at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. was called "decadence", and art and literature - decadent. The main property and feature of decadence is confusion in the face of a dramatically changing world: society turned out to be unable to rationally and scientifically explain the changes that were taking place in politics and economics, new social relations, and a new picture of the world. A contradictory consciousness has emerged that has affected the most important element of the worldview - the question of patterns in natural and social reality. That is why there is a surge of irrationalism and mysticism, and new religious movements are emerging. At the beginning of the 20th century. Philosophical, artistic and literary thought were closely connected (especially in Russia). This is explained by the fact that the development of both philosophy and artistic culture was based on a crisis of social consciousness. Decadence arose on this theoretical basis.

The art of decadence is a reflection of all social and ideological contradictions. In 1909, Futurism appeared, its “Godfather” was an Italian writer F. Marinetti. Later, a new society of expressionists, the “Blue Rider,” appeared, adherents of Dadaism, Audiism, etc. appeared. In 1915, the “wild” Fauvists made themselves known in Paris, and in the same year, the “Bridge” appeared in Dresden, a group of united expressionist artists. Three years later, “The Bridge,” Cubism was formed. In Russia, innovative processes in culture are similar to Western European ones: they created in a lyrical spirit M. Nesterov, I. Levitan, wrote in the spirit of impressionism K. Korovin. A figurative-romantic method is being formed M. Vrubel, complex symbolism V. Borisova-Musatova. The newly appeared magazine "World of Art" focused on detachment from real life impressions, illusoryness, and masquerade, which was unconventional for Russia. And finally, the exhibition “Jack of Diamonds”, held in Moscow, defined a new direction in the development of art. Similar processes took place in literature, theater, and music.

Culture in the 20th century developed in several parallel directions. At the same time, not a single series of stylistic evolution of art and literature exhausts their entire development and does not cover it as a whole; only in interaction do they form the integral history of the culture of the 20th century.

In contrast to movements in the culture of the 19th century that were approximately the same in ideological and stylistic principles. - romanticism, academicism, realism, the artistic culture of the 20th century, breaking up into a number of movements, represents a different attitude of artistic creativity to reality. The variety of styles and methods in the culture of the 20th century, moving away from the classical techniques of artistic creativity, was called modernism. Translated from French, modernism means “new, modern.” In general, this is a set of aesthetic schools and movements of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, characterized by a break with traditional realistic movements. Modernism united various creative understandings of the features of the time of decadence: a sense of disharmony in the world, the instability of human existence, rebellion against rationalistic art and the growing role of abstract thinking, transcendentalism and mysticism, the desire for innovation at any cost
In its extreme manifestations in art, literature, and theater, modernism renounces the meaningfulness and visual originality of images, harmony, and naturalness. The essence of the modernist movement is the dehumanization of man, as he wrote about in “Philosophy of Culture” X. Ortega y Gasset. Often modernism operates within the framework of realistic reflection, but in a unique form. In addition, one should distinguish between modernism as a method and modernism as a movement. If modernism in the broad sense implies all the diversity of non-realistic trends in artistic culture, then modernism in the narrow sense is an artistic system that has a certain unity, integrity, and common artistic techniques

Close to the concept of “modernism” is another concept - “avant-garde” (French vanguard), which unites the most radical variety of modernism.

Modernism is a characteristic feature of the aesthetics of the 20th century, independent of social strata, countries and peoples. In its best examples, the art of modernism enriches world culture through new means of expression.

Along with modernism, in parallel with it, realism existed and continued to develop. At the turn of the century, it underwent multifaceted changes, manifesting itself in different ways, but most clearly as neorealism, especially in cinema ( L. Visconti, M. Antonioni, R. Rossellini, St. Kramer, A. Kurosawa, A. Vaida). Neorealism fulfilled the task of a truthful reflection of social existence, the struggle for social justice and human dignity. The principle of neorealism has found its expression in art ( R. Guttuso, E. Wyeth), and in literature ( A. Miller, E. Hemingway, A. Zegers, E.M. Remarque). Writers and artists worked from the perspective of neorealism: J. Amado, G. Marques, D. Siqueiros.

Decadent literature of the turn of the century is also represented by symbolism, the formation of which is associated with names A. Rimbaud, P. Verlaine, O. Wilde.

In the literary process of the 20th century. changes occurred due to socio-economic and political reasons. Among the main features of the literature of this time we can highlight: politicization, strengthening the connection of literary trends with various political movements; strengthening mutual influence and interpenetration of national literatures, internationalization; denial of literary traditions; intellectualization, the influence of philosophical ideas, the desire for scientific and philosophical analysis; fusion and mixing of genres, variety of forms and styles; desire for the essay genre.

In the history of literature of the 20th century. It is customary to distinguish two major periods:

1)1917-1945
2) after 1945

Literature in the 20th century. developed in line with two main directions - realism and modernism
Realism allowed for bold experiments, the use of new artistic techniques with one goal: a deeper comprehension of reality ( B. Brecht, W. Faulkner, T. Mann)

Modernism in literature is most clearly represented by creativity D. Joyce and F. Kafka, which are characterized by the idea of ​​the world as an absurd beginning, hostile to man, disbelief in man, rejection of the idea of ​​progress in all its forms, pessimism.

Of the leading literary movements of the mid-20th century. should be called existentialism, which as a literary movement arose in France ( J. P. Sartre, A. Camus)

The features of this direction are: the approval of “pure” unmotivated action; affirmation of individualism; a reflection of a person’s loneliness in an absurd world hostile to him.

Avant-garde literature was a product of the emerging era of social change and cataclysm. It was based on a categorical rejection of reality, the denial of bourgeois values ​​and the energetic breaking of traditions. To fully characterize avant-garde literature, one should dwell on such movements as expressionism, futurism and surrealism

The aesthetics of expressionism is characterized by the priority of expression over image; the artist’s screaming “I” comes to the fore, which displaces the object of the image.

The futurists completely rejected all previous art; they proclaimed vulgarity, the unspiritual ideal of a technocratic society, and naivety. The aesthetic principles of the Futurists were based on the breaking of syntax, the denial of logic, word creation, free associations, and the rejection of punctuation.

Surrealism is associated with the work of the French poet G. Appolinaire, who first used this term. The leading aesthetic principle of surrealism was automatic writing, based on the theory 3. Freud. Automatic writing - creativity without mind control, recording free associations, dreams, dreams. A favorite technique of the surrealists is the “stunning image”, consisting of disparate elements. Avant-garde continued to exist in the second half of the 20th century.

In general, for literature of the 20th century. characterized by stylistic and genre diversity, non-standard literary movements that are in complex relationships.

In the art of the 20th century. There were changes in the traditional approach to reflecting reality. They manifested themselves: in a noticeable increase in the desire for generalization of the image; disappearance of detail; increasing interest in simplifications or exaggerations of individual details; shifting the author’s focus towards the inner life of the image; a shift towards transformations in the appearance of an object due to the individual vision of the artist

The art of painting was distinguished by extreme complexity, inconsistency, diversity, the desire to modify and transform traditions, a protest against academicism and the search for new forms. As a result, a crisis has matured within art itself, associated, on the one hand, with complex relationships in the artistic environment, and on the other, with difficulties in understanding innovations by the general public, who have not been able to move away from the usual academic ideals. It is not surprising that any art exhibition was accompanied by heated discussions and criticism.

Art of the 20th century developed in several directions, but no one style followed from another, no one method was the cause of the emergence of new ones. But the main thing is: none of the directions of stylistic evolution covers the entire development of art as a whole. To understand the integrity, it is necessary to consider the totality of all existing methods and styles: only in interaction do they form the history of art of the 20th century.

The fate of the most striking artistic styles turned out to be different: some (cubism, Dadaism) shone brightly, but did not receive development, others (realism) underwent numerous modifications and, being modernized, “survived” until the end of the 20th century.

By the turn of the century, realism ceased to be a single system, but functioned in different forms. Sometimes this movement took different forms, but the goal was the same. Impressionism (P. Cezanne, W. van Gogh, P. Gauguin, O. Renoir) changes style characteristics. During this period, an intensive rethinking of the tasks of art began, a movement “into the depths” of a person’s personality in order to reveal all his potential capabilities. This became the subject of heated debate about the fate of art and culture.
All forms and all trends in the art of decadence, rebelling against traditions, were called modernist. What is their essence? Firstly, in a subjectivist vision of the world, secondly, in switching attention to the aesthetic existence of the work of art itself, its coloristic and plastic design, thirdly, in declaring the unconditional role of imagination and fantasy in the creation of a work. As a result, there is a contrast between the artistic world and the real world. Modernism developed in several stages and manifested itself in many movements. Starting from the 60s, modernism entered the stage of postmodernism. It is not easy to understand the labyrinths of modernist movements. It is advisable to consider its most striking manifestations: abstractionism and avant-gardeism.

Abstractionism, an extreme form of modernism, arose as a challenge to society and as a consistent destruction of the real image that reflects the world by familiar means. We can say that abstractionism arose on the ruins of cubism, futurism and a number of other modernist movements that had reached their decline. V. Kandinsky, K. Malevich, P. Klee, V. Tatlin, M. Larionov, R. Delaunay, P. Mondrian and others stood at the origins of abstract art.

They, affirming the importance of the subconscious, viewed the creative process as immersion in the world of intuitive movements of the soul, the automatic transmission of their feelings. They proceeded from the fact that the connection between art and forms of life has already exhausted itself and man is not capable of understanding the world, much less capable of embodying it in plastic images due to the diversity of the new world. The means of displaying a vague subconscious image can be anything: from classical paints and canvas to stone, wire, garbage, pipes, etc. The main thing in abstract art is a combination of colors, lines, spots, strokes, divorced from natural and social reality. This is a non-objective and formless art.

In abstract art, the figurative basis that constitutes the essence of artistic creativity is excluded.

Early (1920 - 1930) abstractionism became widespread in architecture and applied art. Its breeding ground was the sentiments of the bourgeois intelligentsia.

Late (post-war years) abstractionism is represented by three streams:

1) expressive painting and graphics (free, spontaneous combination of lines and spots),
2) surrealism (gravitation towards mystery, magic, nightmarish psychological visions, delusional associations, absurd combination of various objects and images), which is most fully represented in creativity S. Dali and R. Mogritta,
3) abstract-geometric, technical art (purely decorative solutions, abstract sculpture from various types of metal using modern means of processing). Abstractionism was most fully developed in the USA.

Abstractionism was replaced by avant-gardeism. A bright surge of this trend of modernism occurred at the end of the 60s. Avant-garde lies at the heart of the ideas of the hippie counterculture, expressing protest against everything in the world, protest for the sake of protest. Avant-garde is a surrogate for art, to which beauty, the concept of beauty, and harmony are alien. Representatives of avant-garde art create between art and non-art.

The result is:

· op art (optical art) - ornamental and geometric compositions;

· spatial art; earth art; the art of new figurativeness;

· pop art (popular art).

Of the listed types of avant-gardeism, the most famous is popular, or pop Art. Artists who create in this style use in their work real objects, advertising, photography, any other images taken from their natural environment, and create arbitrary combinations of them, trying to find a relationship, or without any relationship. The result is a so-called artifact (an artificially arranged composition, structure), and not a work of art. This composition should evoke certain associations and experiences that arise in addition to the artistic impression.

Pop art emerged as a kind of reaction to the phenomenon of abstract art, opposing its extreme abstraction. A prominent representative of pop art is K. Rauschenberg, American artist.

Pop art manifested itself as the aggression of mass culture, revealed everything that it carried, turning art into a spectacle, reflecting irreconcilability with modernity. In the Soviet Union, avant-gardeism also manifested itself as a protest against officialdom in culture, against social realism, but as “catacomb”, that is, illegal, modern art. Realism as an artistic phenomenon in art combines two principles - ideological and methodological. Realism in 20th century culture is the continuing influence of 19th century culture. Along with the direct tradition inherited from this century, two new trends in realism are emerging.

Pictorial realism - gravitates towards an emotional, impulsive interpretation of the image, as if under the influence of the ideas of impressionism,

Socialist realism - focuses on solving social problems.

In the works of the first, the world is presented naturalistically, impulsively, emotionally, and vividly. Artists of this movement were primarily interested not in events and actions, but in the state of the environment, uniting objects and figures into a pictorial whole that did not require a strict construction of space. This type of realism tends to be multicolored, richly colorful, broad strokes, graphic lines and silhouettes.

The style of the artists of this school can be said to be a synthesis of impressionism and modernism. A significant place in their work was occupied by the people as the bearer of sustainable beauty. Folk motifs in their works appear in a colorful, festive form ( A. Zorn, A. Arkhipov, K. Yuon). In line with pictorial realism, plein air, landscape-lyrical painting, in which the character and state of nature were interfaced with the moods and feelings of man, reached a special rise ( I Grabar, K. Yuon). They worked in the genre of theatrical portraits M. Vrubel, P. Kustodiev, V. Serov.

Social realism is a form of realism that focuses on the reflection of social reality, promoting socialist ideas in the forms of an artistic ideal. Socialist realism is characterized by allegorical, symbolic compositions glorifying freedom and labor. Concepts and judgments about life are expressed in this art indirectly in the artistic theme of the work, which contains a conceivable, desired world. The democratic beliefs or sentiments of socialist realist artists, their humanistic views, feelings of the drama of life are reflected in their work (early Picasso, A Matisse, M Saryan, P Kuznetsov).

Both events and characters are depicted as they are, without a touch of romance or beautiful fiction ( N. Kasatkin, E Munk, A Arkhipov) In the art of socialist realism, the theme of awakening the people, awakening their consciousness consistently developed.

One of the varieties of realism is neorealism, whose representatives were P. Picasso, F Leger, A Fou-geron, A Tsitsinato.

Particular attention should be paid to the Mexican school of neorealism - the muralists, the essence of which was to decorate public buildings with cycles of frescoes from the history of the country, the life of the people, their struggle. Monumentalists recreated the art of the Aztecs, Mayans, and turned to the monumental art of the Renaissance. The main character of these frescoes is the people. Philosophically generalizing social phenomena and historical events, penetrating into their deep meaning, the artists of this school laid the foundations of democratic national art ( D. Rivera, D. Siqueiros, X. Orozco, R. Guttuso).

In the 80s new forms of realism arose, called “angry realism”, hyperrealism, or photo-documentary painting, naive realism, folk realism, etc. This suggests the conclusion that the term “realism” can be applied in a conditional form to that conglomerate of realistic schools and movements. But, nevertheless, realistic art is now very widely developed.
The main trends in the development of modern culture include the process of forming the integrity of the world. The integrity of the world is the interconnection and interdependence of people and nations. It appeared as a result of the development of production on a global scale and the emergence of global problems. The integrity of the world served as the basis for the formation of modern humanity and a single universal human culture.

Humanistic principles and ideals have become widespread in modern culture. The essence of modern humanism lies in its universality: it is addressed to every person, proclaims the rights of everyone. In other words, we are talking about democratic humanism.

The humanistic orientation of the culture of the 20th century manifests itself in various spheres - economic, moral, political, artistic, etc. this trend determined, for example, the formation of political culture in advanced countries

Another important result of the development of culture, perceived in our century, is the orientation towards scientific and rational knowledge of the world and the socio-cultural system associated with it - science. The global scientific integrity that emerged in the 20th century marked the beginning of the economic unification of the world. The internationalization of industrial and economic relations is growing. One of the expressions of this process has become transnational corporations with their uniform forms of organizational culture operating in dozens of countries and on various continents. The increasing internationalization of life in the modern world is evidenced by the all-encompassing nature of the scientific and technological revolution and the fundamentally new role of the media and communications.

The technogenic attitude towards nature as a means of satisfying technical needs has become one of the leading trends in the development of culture in the 20th century.

Also, one can observe the tendency of the formation of a single planetary civilization, which is based on the ever-increasing intensity of various kinds of connections: communication, political, economic. As a result, a new systemic quality emerges - world civilization, the interconnection of different countries and peoples increases, crisis and anti-cultural phenomena in one sector are reflected in other regions. At the same time, a more intense global interconnection arises when cultural patterns, scientific achievements, works of art, new forms of social and political life are transmitted and assimilated in a fairly short time throughout the entire civilizational space.

One of the methodological approaches that conceptually comprehends the ongoing changes was the idea of ​​the Japanese sociologist E. Masuda. In 1945, he proposed the theory of the "information society". This is a society united by a single information network. A new information culture is emerging, new ways of obtaining information, production and scientific activities. The concept of the “information society” determined the ways of forming the “material body” of culture.

Cultural modernization.

In the second half of the century, developed countries increasingly abandoned assembly lines, standard consumption went out of fashion, individuality and the difference of people became popular, and political pluralism and cultural diversity were considered the preferred values. The economy has moved from serial, continuous production to small-scale and individual production; small businesses and venture capital firms have flourished in the vicinity of large transnational corporations; enterprises and institutions have moved from cumbersome bureaucratic structures to flexible matrix organizations.

The era of unmanned production has arrived. The main characters were “white collar workers” - workers employed in automated production, scientific and applied development, as well as in the information sector. A special form of employed people has emerged - “computer home workers”, who press the keys of ultra-precise machines and operate with huge flows of information.

Thus, the first and second half of the 20th century are two qualitatively different sociocultural eras. In the first half there were two world wars, in the second - none. The nuclear danger looming over the entire planet made us feel the fragility of human existence and led to the formation of a hitherto unseen type of worldview, which is called planetary thinking. It is based on completely objective processes - the transition of the most developed countries in the 70s from the era of industrial society to the post-industrial era, which is also called the “cybernetic” and “information society”. Personal computers, automatic word processing, cable television, video discs and recording devices have moved from scientific laboratories into everyday life.

Every year, information in the world doubles and triples, and new information channels appear.

The 20th century is called the most dynamic in the history of mankind. The processes of renewal, or modernization, have affected all countries of the world and each person individually. Scientists came up with the theory of modernization, and artists came up with a new style of art called modernism.

Considering the cultural situation of the first half of the 20th century, which developed under the sign of modernism, it can be noted that art historians understand it in two ways - in a broad and narrow sense. In the first, it denotes the entire set of artistic movements, schools and trends of the early 20th century, which expressed a departure from the cultural values ​​of the 18th-19th centuries and proclaimed new approaches and values. Fauvism, expressionism, cubism, futurism, abstractionism, dadaism, surrealism - this is a far from complete list of areas of artistic search at the beginning of the 20th century.

In a narrow sense, modern designates only one direction in art. In this case, its name is placed in quotation marks. "Modern" (fr. moderne- the latest, modern, art nouveau, art nouveau) - a stylistic direction in European and American art of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The new direction spread throughout Europe and primarily affected architecture and decorative arts. Representatives of "modern" used new technical and constructive means, free planning, and unique architectural decor to create unusual, distinctly individualized buildings ( X. Van der Velde in Belgium, I. Olbrich in Austria, A. Gaudi in Spain, C.R. Mackintosh in Scotland, F.O. Shekhtel in Russia). In Italy it was called the floral style, or "liberty", in Great Britain - the "modern" style, in Spain - modernism, in Belgium - the Velde style, in Austria - secession, in Germany - art nouveau. The Art Nouveau style arose as a reaction to eclecticism and the lifeless copying of historical styles of the past. Art Nouveau is characterized by flexible, flowing lines and stylized floral patterns. The eccentric decorative style was used to decorate large stores, which at this time began to be built in the large cities of Europe and America, and world exhibitions, thus symbolizing the prosperity and power of trade.

When they talk about the broad meaning of modernism, they also use the term “avant-garde.” In other words, the mentioned movements can be called either modernist or avant-garde. Avant-garde (avant-garde) - a collective name for those artistic trends that are more radical than the art style "modern". This term, unlike modernism, has one meaning.

Modernism (avant-garde) is associated with the departure of culture from realism, with the proclamation of the independence of art from reality. The performances of modernist artists often took the form of an anarchic aesthetic rebellion against established traditions and canons in art. Avant-garde meant those who were ahead of everyone, that is, those who experimented with artistic material, creating new, unique style, language, and content in the visual arts. Revolutions and wars into which the whole world is drawn do not prevent experiments and the search for new things. There is a revision of previous ideas about beauty, color and space. Paris is becoming a place of pilgrimage for artists from all over the world. The taste for sharp, destructive deformation turned out to be the banner of the new century.

Development of world culture in the 20th century. is a complex and contradictory process. It was influenced by a number of factors:

Two world wars and several local ones;

Dividing the world into two camps;

The establishment and fall of fascist regimes in a number of countries;

Revolutionary pro-communist movement;

Collapse of the socialist system, etc.

All this made its own adjustments to the world cultural and historical process. In the 20th century, out of four types of cultural activities

1. religious;

2. actually cultural:

a) theoretical-scientific,

b) aesthetic and artistic,

c) technical and industrial;

3. political;

4. socio-economic.

The socio-economic sphere has received the greatest development. At this time it was stormy process of industrialization of culture, which manifested itself both in the development of science and technology, and in the emergence of technical branches of culture, as well as in the industrial production of works of literature and art.

The scientific and technological revolution has entered a new stage of its development. Today, the problems of automation and computerization of production are being solved. But the scientific and technological revolution had not only positive, but also negative consequences. It led to the formulation of the question of human survival, which was reflected in artistic creativity.

The industrialization of culture led to the movement of the center of world cultural progress to the most economically developed country - the United States. Using its industrial power, the United States gradually expanded its influence in the world. American stereotypes of thinking and cultural values ​​are being imposed. This was especially clearly reflected in the development of world cinema and music. The expansion of the United States created the preconditions for establishing a monopoly in the field of culture. This forced many European and Eastern countries to intensify efforts to preserve their cultural and national traditions. However, this problem still remains unresolved. This seems problematic, especially with modern means of communication.

Exacerbation of social contradictions in the 20th century. contributed politicization of culture. This was expressed in its ideologization, in the political content of works of literature and art, in their transformation into means of propaganda, in the use of scientific and technological achievements for military-political purposes, as well as in the personal participation of cultural figures in socio-political movements. All this led, to a certain extent, to the dehumanization of world art.

The list of factors determining the shape of the culture of the future can be continued, however, the most significant, in our opinion, seem to be:

1) the accelerating development of the scientific and technological revolution;

2) the growth of interdependence of humanity and the formation of a common cultural fund of civilization;

3) the emergence and aggravation of global problems;

4) fundamental changes in the consciousness of humanity and the formation of a new view of the world;

5) globalization of religions, the beginning of the transition of interfaith relations to the level of mystical unity;

6) entry of humanity into the information stage of development.

The modern sociocultural situation in our country is incredibly complex and contradictory. On the one hand, crisis phenomena in the political, economic and social spheres of life could not but affect the state of culture. On the other hand, culture often asserts itself as an independent force, which in some cases has a decisive impact on the entire atmosphere in society.

Changes in Russian society have given rise to both positive and negative phenomena in the field of culture. It should be noted that the inconsistency of changes in culture sometimes manifests itself more acutely, more painfully and carries greater consequences than in politics, economics or social relations.

The modern sociocultural situation in Russia is primarily characterized by unprecedented degree of freedom. This is manifested in the ability to turn to a variety of ways of expression in creativity, a variety of subjects, which was previously very difficult under conditions of totalitarian control over culture.

It should be noted that along with this, the names of authors and their works, which were erased from the history of art and literature, the memory of which was destroyed in the process of falsification of history, were returned to the people and their culture.

We have the right to say that people’s hopes for spiritual renewal and cultural emancipation have come true. However, this process does not occur painlessly. Another, very contradictory trend has emerged that characterizes the current sociocultural situation: the return to the people of some names of cultural figures is accompanied by the simultaneous removal from cultural use of others that do not “fit” into the process of democratic transformations. Thus, the creative heritage of M. Gorky, V. Mayakovsky, M. Sholokhov is criticized, i.e. the largest representatives of Russian culture of the Soviet period. Just as in the 30s the Bolsheviks excommunicated the symbolists, futurists, and acmeists from culture, so today representatives of socialist realism are ostracized. In such conditions, it is difficult to talk about the freedom of expression of the artist, his right to express any aesthetic tastes.

The modern sociocultural situation has another important feature: the base of artistic creativity is expanding, new organizational forms appear, new theaters, ensembles, associations of scientists and researchers emerge. This makes it possible to identify potential talents and bring them into the orbit of culture. What was previously prohibited by the regime was legalized. Rock culture, various groups, associations, movements, trends came out of the shadows.

The entire social life of mass culture came to the fore. Those social groups that were themselves brought up on mass culture and that were not recognized by official circles of society entered the arena of cultural activity. The role of the mass media in the current situation comes down primarily to the consumption and development of free time, entertainment and entertainment.

It's going intense the process of reorientation of mass cultural activity from public to home forms. The space of modern apartments is filled with cultural objects and is increasingly becoming competitive with public institutions. In this regard, attendance at various cultural institutions is sharply decreasing.

In modern conditions, for a huge mass of people, there are many new sociocultural problems. Social insecurity of a person, an atmosphere of emotional tension in society, alienation from the usual cultural environment deprive one of internal stability and psychological security. This has given rise to a new phenomenon in our society, which can be characterized as a religious awakening or spiritual revolution. This means unprecedented conversion to religion as the only means of salvation from all adversity.

Along with the appeal to traditional religions, a wave of neo-mysticism and various religious and mystical movements is spreading in society. They often mix a variety of elements inherent in Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, as well as borrowed from the occult, theosophy and other mystical doctrines. Some of these movements are antisocial and criminal in nature.

It should be noted that the normal existence of culture is possible only with the harmony of social, political and economic conditions, each of which is equally important. Material factor always, and today especially, has been and remains decisive. The sociocultural situation in this regard is critical. The residual principle of cultural financing has produced negative results in the recent past. In connection with the transition to the market, this already crisis socio-cultural situation has become critical. Funding for culture primarily from the state budget has been replaced by local funding. As a result, there has been a widespread reduction in allocations for culture; the network of cultural institutions, printed publications, etc. is being reduced. In such conditions, talking about fulfilling the strategic task of the spiritual revival of the Fatherland becomes very problematic.

The modern sociocultural situation is characterized shortage and further outflow of qualified personnel from the cultural sector. Their reason lies in a decline in living standards, economic and political instability, and uncertainty about the future. One of the most important aspects of this problem is the so-called "brain drain"- a wave of emigration of scientists, which is becoming widespread.

Research conducted by the Russian Academy of Sciences in its institutes showed that 13% of scientists are ready to go abroad at the first opportunity, about 40% do not exclude this option. It should be especially noted that the most active, educated and young people are planning to leave. 2/3 of potential emigrants are under 40 years old, 25% are not even 30 years old, only 7% are over 50 years old.

Most young scientists under the age of 30 are focused on leaving. Moreover, the most qualified specialists are leaving. Here's just one example: at the Minnesota Institute of Theoretical Physics, five out of six professorships are occupied by emigrants from Russia.

As a result of the departure of scientists from the country, the scientific, technical, cultural and spiritual potential is being destroyed. Particularly alarming is the fact that children, the intellectual future of science, are being taken away.

Commercialization of culture led to the creation of an atmosphere of competition in which, as we know, the strongest wins. We are talking not only about competition within the country, but also outside it. Domestic culture, unprotected financially and economically, is giving way to Western culture, based on a powerful monetary and technical basis. Our art, ballet, opera, painting, although occupying one of the leading places in the world, cannot compete in the Western market. As a result, the dialogue of cultures is gradually turning into a monologue: Western mass culture has poured into the country. Today the danger of the loss of the national spirit of culture and its unbridled Americanization is becoming real. The reaction of both the Russian people themselves and their cultural figures to this phenomenon is different. Some see this as “entry into world culture” and “incorporation into universal human values,” while others consider it a “national tragedy.”

The danger of the Americanization of Russian national culture, the formation of a market personality, is poorly understood by the Russian public and is deliberately ignored by opponents of Russian national culture. At the same time, in the West, in almost all European countries, for decades there have been effective laws preventing the penetration of American spiritual products into the national market. Thus, in France, back in the mid-60s, a law was passed defining quotas for the screening of American films in both private and public cinemas. Excess of the number of American films over national ones (according to the law, the ratio should be 49: 51) is punishable by a fine and loss of license. A whole system of protectionist measures has been developed in Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, etc.

Any people, any nation can exist and develop only when they preserve their national-cultural identity, when, being in constant interaction with other peoples and nations, exchanging cultural values ​​with them, they nevertheless do not lose the originality of their culture. In history one can find numerous examples of how states disappeared, whose people forgot their language and culture. A similar danger awaits the Russian nation today, because the price for Western technology may turn out to be too high. It is extremely difficult to regain lost positions in world culture, and to come to terms with the loss means to find yourself on the edge of an abyss in cultural and historical development.

With all the very complex interweavings of different artistic movements in the art of the 20th century. two main trends are clearly visible: the search for new realistic forms and a departure from the principles of the realistic system that has been inherent in European art since the Renaissance. The second trend belongs to modernist art, which each time comes out from the position of opening new paths and therefore is called avant-garde these days.

3.1 Realism

Despite the widespread advance of modernism and mass culture, realistic trends still developed in the 20th century. They were based on well-known principles of real reflection of life, disclosure of universal and social problems.

At the beginning of the century, realism received its most striking manifestation in US fiction. This is explained by the fact that the literary work of the United States in the previous century was characterized by some lag: the late flowering of the romantic school and the later, in comparison with Western European countries, the establishment of realism. In the accelerated development of realism in the 20th century. great credit goes to Theodore Dreiser. His novels “Sister Carey,” “The Financier,” and “American Tragedy” revealed the most important social problems of American society at the turn of the century. Dreiser paved the way for a whole galaxy of talented realist writers of later times: Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway.

Separately, the name of Margaret Mitchell should be mentioned, who for a long time was not accepted as a writer by US literary circles. However, by mid-century, her novel Gone with the Wind, published in 1936, had gained widespread popularity. This work reflects problems that have not lost their significance to this day. The novel is about the American Civil War in 1861-1865, about the problems of “survival,” which is especially clearly reflected in the image of the main character Scarlet, about cynical enrichment, expressed in the activities of Rhett Butler. This character argued that “big money can be made in two cases: when creating a new state and when it collapses. During creation this process is slower, during destruction it is faster.”

Realistic tendencies also appeared in US cinema, which, using the industrial power of the country, took a leading place in the world. In the first half of the century, the development of American cinema was associated with the work of the great screenwriter, actor and director Charles Spencer Chaplin. His films showed signs of democracy to the greatest extent. At the beginning of the Second World War, Chaplin directed the pamphlet film “The Great Dictator,” in which the main character’s resemblance to Hitler was beyond doubt. An interesting fact is that this film, which is a parody of Hitler, was banned from showing in the USSR by Stalin personally.

In the second half of the century, US film production has reached such proportions that it is quite difficult to give preference to anyone. However, realistic tendencies remained to a greater extent in the work of director and producer Francis Ford Coppola. His most famous film, The Godfather, intertwined different threads: a naturalistic depiction of cruelty and violence, poeticization of the mafia, criticism of corruption, and the connection of the underworld with politics. No less famous is his film “Apocalypse Now,” which revealed the tragedy of the Vietnam War.

It should be noted that realistic art, having encountered at the beginning of the 20th century. with new facts and processes of life unknown to the realism of the previous century, it changed its visual language and the nature of the analytical study of man.

In 1905, at an exhibition in Paris, artists Henri Mathis, Andre Derain and others exhibited their works, which, due to the sharp contrast of colors and simplified forms, critics called works of “wild” - les fauves, and the whole movement was called “Fauvism”.

The Fauvists, with their understanding of the relationship between spots of pure color, a laconic design reduced to an outline, and simple, childish linear writing, had great opportunities for solving decorative problems. The most talented of the Fauves was Henri Mathis. He went through a fascination with impressionism, but in his search he came to the simplicity and flatness of forms.

In realistic literature, a change in the nature of the analytical study of man was manifested in the work of Stefan Zweig, who, under the influence of the theory of Sigmund Freud, in his works “Mary Steward” and “Impatience of the Heart” tried to shift social conflicts and processes into the plane of psychological experiences and clashes of heroes.

In cinema, the transformation of realistic art was reflected in the movement of neorealism, which became most widespread in Italy. The films of Fellini, Montaldo, Pietri, Rosi, Damiani and other directors revealed problems that worried not only Italy, but also other countries: social conflicts, corruption, mafia, crime, the dominance of American capital.

3.2. Modernism

To sum up, it should be said that changes are currently taking place in art with far-reaching consequences. Analyzing them, the greatest Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset pays special attention to the following:

Tendency towards dehumanization;

Tendency to avoid living forms;

The desire to ensure that a work of art is only a work of art;

The desire to understand art as a game and nothing more;

Gravity towards deep irony;

The tendency to avoid any falsehood and, in this regard, careful performance skills;

The tendency to avoid transcendence, i.e. do not go beyond the limits of experience and knowledge.

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The phenomenon of sociology of culture from the point of view of its elements and mechanisms.

Functions of social culture.

The concept of culture, its types, forms and varieties.

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1). Culture is a diverse and multifaceted concept; there are up to a hundred definitions of culture.

For sociology, this term has a special meaning, laid down by Emile Durkheim, who viewed culture as a system of ideals, values, norms, and patterns of behavior that regulate relations between people.

Social culture is the meanings that people attribute to various signs, objects or phenomena (a temple or a ship, a painting by S. Dali or a slogan, a symbol of the state), but they acquire meaning when they mean something to people.

Culture is a set of norms and values, ideals and life ideas that perform the functions of orientation in a given specific society, a system of relations between people and between man and nature.

The purpose of sociological research of culture is to identify producers of cultural values, channels and means of its dissemination, to assess the influence of ideas on social actions, on the formation or disintegration of groups or movements.

Culture can be divided according to certain characteristics into different types:

1. According to the subject - the bearer of culture, it is divided into public culture, national, class, group, personal.

2. According to the functional role, it can be general (for example, in the general education system), and special or professional.

3. According to its genesis, culture is a folk culture and an elite one.

4. By type – divided into material and spiritual.

5. By nature it can be divided into religious culture and secular culture.

In addition, culture has its own patterns of development and continuity; it can have a temporal and spatial continuation. The development of culture is uneven and does not coincide with the development of the economy of society, its decline or prosperity. On the contrary, often in moments of shocks and cataclysms, revolutionary situations, there is a rise in spiritual culture (in our Russian culture this is the so-called Silver Age). Sometimes the flowering of culture occurs under a reactionary system in the form of a protest against the existing reality - the golden 19th century in Russian culture. And it happens when the flowering of culture coincides in time with the rise of production and a qualitative leap in economics and politics - the Renaissance in Europe, which gave the world unsurpassed examples of human genius.

In the entire history of the development of human culture, four qualitative leaps can be distinguished:

1). The appearance of writing, first in the form of cuneiform, then the appearance of coded in the form of symbols, letters, writing.

2). The invention of printing by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century, the emergence of matrices or type, the first printing houses that made books accessible to a wide range of readers.

3). The advent of television and sound cinema, a real revolution in the field of culture.

4). The achievement of the twentieth century is the introduction of personal computers and the global Internet.

Even in ancient times, it was noticed that the human eye has a property of storing a trace of what it saw on the retina and connecting fast-moving pictures into a single row. In the 19th century, thaumatropes and stratoscopes were invented - assays with moving pictures, then photography was invented. Finally, in 1895, the cinematography of the French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere appeared.

Culture, as already mentioned, can be popular and mass, public and elite. Sociologists G. Le Bon and G. Tarde wrote that culture means nothing to the masses, means something to the public, and is of great value to the elite.

Mass culture has emerged since the 20s of the twentieth century in connection with depersonalization and loss of a sense of responsibility in society. It actually opposes genuine folk culture, which embodies all the best that has been created by humanity and is created for the sake of consumption. Its main function is entertainment; it has been known since ancient times that the plebs demand bread and circuses. Often mass culture is based on the social order of specific groups of the population, which benefit from fooling people and the formation of consumer goods in the cultural field. Mass culture in bourgeois society becomes a special type of business; a striking example of this is the culture of Hollywood, which has conquered the whole world. American films create the image of a lone hero (S. Stallone, A. Schwarzenegger, S. Seagal), who can win alone against everyone in the fight for justice, while demonstrating bulging muscles. Action films, erotica, pornography, horror films, Disney cartoons have taken over the world.

In popular culture, kitsch is created - a cliche, bad taste, which creates in a person the illusion of happiness and pleasure and has nothing to do with the real satisfaction that a person experiences when communicating with genuine works of art. Books are being written - bestsellers, the purpose of which is to make a big profit. It is not true talent or high art that is valued, but monetary income.

Genuine folk culture has glorious traditions and enduring values. We admire churches and ancient icons, paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, sculptures by Michelangelo, and listen to the poems of Yesenin and Petrarch. For example, the culture of Japan with its developed folk traditions is original and interesting. There, porcelain is made from black glaze in 4,000-year-old kilns. The Japanese create dolls dressed in multi-layered paper outfits. Moreover, there is a puppet theater - bunrab, where magnificent large puppets with movable faces and body parts are controlled by three people. The Japanese forge polished, multi-layered sabers with ornaments and decorations in a forge in Gasano. They love to play kato - Japanese harps, like hundreds of years ago.

Artistic culture consists not only of folk and mass culture, but also elite culture. Elite - culture for the elite, people prepared for a subtle perception of works of art. These are feature films by Fellini and Tarkovsky, paintings by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, music by Alfred Schnittke. Innovation and an unusual way of looking at things are often found in this area. Ordinary people sometimes consider this unnecessary and incomprehensible, but freedom and human individuality are limitless. In the Western world, there is room for imagination. Exhibitions of crumpled metal, toilets, concrete, ballet of nude dancers, etc. innovations are nothing new there. It should also be noted that there are positive aspects in the field of sports, for example, the invention of new types of sports (snowboarding), the emergence of a mass of new entertainments such as jumping from a bridge on a suspended belt, when the fear of death tickles a person’s nerves, parachute jumping from the mountains, etc. The eternal search and desire for novelty and thrills is a distinctive feature of a person in the free world.

In relation to the dominant culture, subculture and counterculture are distinguished - the culture of individuals and groups. The subculture differs from generally accepted norms and values ​​in society; it is often reformist in nature and its bearers are young people. Young people thus express a protest against existing cultural stereotypes and outdated guidelines; they offer their own vision of the world. A striking example is pop culture, rock concerts. Sometimes, a cultural trend that appears in the form of protest gains popularity and establishes itself as the dominant culture, conquering the world. This was the case with jazz, the Beatles, and singer Elvis Presley.

If a conflict with the dominant culture is brewing, then we can talk about the emergence of a counterculture, offering alternative lifestyles, anti-traditional forms of creativity, and an opposite view of things. It is a protest against the existing culture and the proposal of opposing values ​​and norms. This movement swept the Western world in the 60s of the twentieth century. This is observed today in our country, when apathy reigns and the culture of language has declined. There has been a separation of national cultures, and the role of religion has been inflated and exaggerated.

If, according to international standards for the intellectualization of youth, the USSR in the 50s of the twentieth century occupied 3rd place in the world after the USA and Canada, then in 1985 we dropped to 50th place.

In our culture, the principle of mankrutism reigned - forgetting the past, one’s history, and this is unacceptable.

Cultural values ​​are created both vertically and horizontally (folk and elite - vertically, and national, regional, local - horizontally). Without Euclidean geometry there would be no Lobachevsky geometry, without Newton there would be no Einstein’s theory of relativity, etc. Cultural folk traditions live and are preserved, contrary to the will of religions and sovereigns. For example, the pagan Maslenitsa, which went through difficult times after the adoption of Christianity in Rus', but remains today a favorite holiday of the people.

A society can have an open and closed culture, a conservative and statistical culture, a stable and dynamically developing one, it all depends on the specifics of the country, on the position of the state on this issue. For a long time, the USSR was behind the “iron curtain” from the world and, of course, domestic culture suffered from isolation. Ancient China also lived a lot of time behind a stone wall so as not to give away its secrets, but the secret of making silk still penetrated into Europe (as L.N. Gumilev wittily wrote, Europe needed silk to get rid of lice sliding off slippery fabric) .

2). Culture has six main functions:

1. human creative – the development of human creative potential in all forms of life, man creates culture and culture creates man, a two-way process takes place;

2. epistemological (cognitive) – culture is a means of knowledge and self-knowledge of a society, a group of people or an individual;

3. informational – this is the broadcast of social experience using the media, which provides a connection between times and generations;

4. communicative (means of communication) – it ensures the adequacy of mutual understanding between people;

5. value-orientation – culture sets a certain scale of values ​​in which a person exists and is oriented towards;

6. managerial (normative and regulatory) – culture acts as a means of social control over human behavior.

3). Sociologists approach the phenomenon of culture from different points of view:

1. the subject point of view views culture as a static entity;

2. the value point of view pays great attention to creativity;

3. the activity point of view introduces dynamics;

4. The symbolic point of view states that culture consists of symbols;

5. the game point of view views culture as a game where it is customary to play by its own rules;

6. textual point of view focuses on language.

Culture has its own universal mechanisms:

Elements that signify the value-symbolic content (texts, standards, stamps);

Elements associated with specific forms of communicative activity (traditions, norms, rituals, rituals that are broadcast and transformed by performers, for example, the image of O. Bender performed by A. Mironov for many seems to be the real O. Bender);

Mechanisms of structural and organizational space (schools, religions);

And levels (mass, traditional, folk, national).

The basic elements of culture include habits, customs, traditions, mores, laws, and values. They prescribe to members of society what to do and how to act. Manners, etiquette, code are also included in the normative system of culture. For example, a duel can be attributed to etiquette; it arose in knightly times and translated from French means “duel.”

Custom is a traditionally established order of behavior, fixed by collective habits, socially approved patterns of behavior that should be followed. For example, giving way to a woman, solemnly celebrating the New Year. Mores are customs that acquire moral significance, or the most sacred customs. It is immoral to offend the weak, to insult an old person. A law is a normative act adopted by the highest body of state power; it requires unquestioning obedience. There are 2 types of laws: common law and protection of the most precious values ​​(life, property, state secrets).

Human culture is inseparable from traditions. Tradition (transmission, legend) is a mechanism for the reproduction and transmission from generation to generation of cultural norms and traits: customs, manners, laws, morals, language. Tradition shows the vertical axis of time, what happened in the past and what will happen in the future.

Language is the primordial matter of culture; in language we transmit information and behavior patterns; thanks to language, the process of socialization occurs. It arose at the dawn of human history, and today plays an important role in determining a person’s social status. The forms of language are varied: literary, colloquial, vernacular, dialects. There are also “professional” languages, corporate jargon, argot (secret language), the jargon of the underclass and thieves' jargon. Thus, determining the cultural and speech status of a person is an important task for a sociologist.

4). What awaits people in the 21st century?

The famous futurist D. Nasbit believes that the “calling card” of the 21st century will be the development of a diversity of cultures of human self-expression - creativity, religions, arts.

In our time, the question of translator cultures has also become acute, as America represents for the whole world, striving to plant the standards of American culture everywhere. American sociologist
K. Baldwing even coined the term “superculture” - the culture of skyscrapers, airports, universities. It is characterized by a global scope.

The possible options are assimilation (absorption of one culture by another), accommodation (forced acquisition of the language of another culture), cultural selection (selective acquisition of the values ​​of another culture). The perception of another culture, as M. Mead, a well-known representative of the scientific world, sociologist, historian, psychologist and ethnographer, found out, occurs only when both cultures had a common prototype.

The interactions of cultures in our time, according to H. Ortega y Gasset, can be: neutral, alternative or countercultural, that is, competitive or adversarial.

For modern Russia, the question of the future is connected with the question of the formation of a humanistic society, for which the main thing will be not material, but spiritual values. The representative of humanism in our country was Academician A.D. Sakharov. Russia has lost its Marxist-Leninist ideology, and an ideological vacuum reigns in society. But I want to believe that the country will become the spiritual center of humanistic civilization, combining the pragmatism of the West and the originality of the East, and perhaps the miracle of the unity of all humanity will happen.