Il pensiero apocalittico tra teorie e riflessioni

Abstract

In 1964 Umberto Eco with a very happy intuition public Apocalyptic and Integrated, which constitutes one of the milestones of the reflection on the relationship between so-called elitist culture and mass culture. Mass culture is sometimes accused of a cultural impoverishment, of a general decay of forms of knowledge, at other times seen as a new form of knowledge and cultural value. The apocalyptic are those who show a certain fear or ferocious attitude, hostile towards the “low culture”, often supported by manipulation hypotheses, the integrated ones are those whose attitude is less critical, less conflictual, aimed at understanding its weight, value and nature of this transformation. The new technologies bring back an ancient discourse that feeds on new questions. Lev Manovich in his Software Culture already emphasized how software today represents our interface with the external environment, in relationships, as well as with the collective and individual imagination. A complex reality, that of electronic media, at times elusive, for this reason a text capable of reflecting on the thinking of some illustrious exponents, such as Remo Bodei (recently passed away), Nicholas Carr, Manfred Spitzer, Tomas Maldonado, dedicating a particular study to the works of these four scholars.