Modernity as a Challenge: A Reset of Values

Abstract

The article discusses topical problems of social development, in which context modernity evolves as a challenge, and the emergence of new forms is accompanied by a reset of values. The post-Soviet society turns to national foundations, traditions, historical experience, ideals, and values tested in national culture. The Western-type consumer society, which is now dominant in the world, was previously perceived as promising, and its ideals and values were presented as a role model, but nowadays, in public opinion, that society is not considered as a non-alternative model. The problems that arise during the implementation of the value orientations of the consumer society are becoming increasingly obvious. The universality of such a model of development for modernity is called into question, and evidence of its historical limitations appears. In addition, that type of organization of socio-economic and cultural life is not organic and does not imply continuity in the reset of values. Under the current conditions of global instability, connections and interactions emerge that form some new integrity. From a methodological point of view, it is important to analyze the mechanism and motives for choosing the future and the role of culture in that process. Obviously, in every time there is a need to define what modernity is and what is the role of values reset for that. Modernity does not arise as a completed project, but as a process of updating social reality, as a system of individual views on society and relations to the world; in emerging modernity, there is a growing diversity of values. The catalysts for transformations on the way to a new modernity are values that bring changes in life meanings under the influence of social life. Constantly emerging new risks and challenges demand the reset of values, which are tested on various levels of national culture and only after that become ideals for imitation and mass reproduction.