Fear: the new malaise of mankind

Abstract

Uncertainty, insecurity and vulnerability have become commonplace in contemporary societies. This article aims an interdisciplinary reflection on the social and political construction of fear in liquid modernity. Zygmunt Bauman, Leonidas Donskis, Martha Nussbaum, Hannah Arendt, Ulrich Beck, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Bernard Henri-Levy and Umberto Eco are some of the authors that we will put into dialogue to better understand the multiple narratives of fear in an era deeply marked by destruction social certainties, the worsening of social inequalities, the logic of predatory capitalism, the resurgence of nationalisms of exclusion, as well as ethnic-cultural particularisms, which move from xenophobic and racist discourses and, finally, new risks , such as ecological degradation and the pandemic COVID19, which currently plagues contemporary societies and domesticates social behaviors.