The discrete charm of apartheid: the reverse side of narcissistic culture

Abstract

Since the French Revolution of 1789 the tendency for social equality had been enhanced. Egalitarian movements become dominant in the 19th -20th centuries, vividly manifesting in the revolutions in Russia, China, Mexico, and in the national liberation movements. The only important exception, the system of apartheid in South Africa, where social discrimination was based on racial segregation, opposed that tendency. In the 21st century, apartheid based on a “biological” racial attribute officially ceased to exist, but if the “race” was considered as social signs according to G. Le Bon and other social thinkers of the 19th century, then, oddly enough, apartheid not only persisted, but gradually intensified. The subdivision of people into representatives of “higher” and “lower” categories took place not only within the caste system that persisted in relatively poor India, but also in rich countries with their sophisticated legal regime, dividing people into “citizens” and “non-citizens”, “labor migrants” and holders of “residence permit”. According to the authors, apartheid has organically integrated into the narcissistic culture which is specific for postmodernism and has fixed in various rhetorical, legal, and economic practices. At the same time, apartheid remains a taboo concept, but in many segments of public life, interested actors are seeking to give it a legal form. The subject matter of apartheid is rapidly updated in the second or third decades of the 21st century. The events of the past two years have awakened the interest in the theme of apartheid, demonstrating its ability to adapt to the social changes in the environment. None of infectious disease has caused such massive social segregation as the COVID-19. In line with the development of narcissism, the inversion of racial relations are explained, when the roles and social positions of the black and white people are reversed. At the same time, the former should feel guilty for the exploitation of the former for centuries in Europe and America.