Structural Change and the Erosion of Social Change on the Margins Society Part1

Since the early Eighties living conditions in the advanced industrial societies have undergone radical change. What we usually call "globalization" is a social phenomenon with many facets. In it we observe that ever more people are ruled by individualization. For them the experience of community and feeling at one with the family or the neighborhood or with colleagues in the work-place simply does not matter. What does matter are conditions in the global financial markets of capitalism, meaning they must be on call all day and night and do whatever it is they do to well-nigh perfection - that is, if they don't want to find themselves out of a job. With conditions like this, many today have no clear perspective on where they're headed. For them Now is all there is. The outcome of this "dwindling present", as it has been called, is that they have become lonely and in their loneliness atrophy inwardly, becoming sick as a result. A counter-movement like the ecological demand for "sustainability" (in the foods we eat, the goods we buy, the lives we lead, the friends we keep) is a sign that the eroding of social solidarity has now been seen for what it is: a threat to our psychological and physical health.