The Historical Past as a Factor of Sociocultural Transformations of Postmodernity

Abstract

The content of the reflexive process over the historical past is substantiated in the article. The character of influence on this process in the conditions of social development in the 21st century is studied. The reasons of eventually accumulated mistrust to credibility of knowledge about the past are considered; at the same time within the postmodern tradition it led to reinterpreting the historical past by postmodernists who deny its sanctity and self-sufficiency. The category of "modernity" that is a complex temporally dispersed category which can combine the past, present and future. In the article the idea that the strategies of implementing global social project not only determine the focus and content of "progressive" and in fact technogenic and utilitarian social development but also act as a catalyst to rethink social and individual values, ideals and principles is highlighted. In this connection traditionalistic historical consciousness is going through a period of underlying culture and value transformations. Transformations of historical consciousness affect such an important component of collective goal-setting as attitude to the "past" as to a certain image, a picture of a bygone reality. In the modern world the fashion for the "tradition" and the "archaic" becomes noticeable and certain communities try to archaize their political, economic and sociocultural practice. As a result "modernity" as a centered European project of 17-19 centuries (project "Modern") transforms into "postmodernity" that is not only mosaic-like "postmodernism" but also "ultramodernism" which combines the "past", "present" and "future" and where diverse political and social practices coexist in a market that is more and more unified by the globalization processes. In these conditions a rising factor of social uncertainty complicates planning and forecasting on the state of future society.