Globalization and a New Expression of the Authoritarian Personality: Bullying among Youth

After 2000, western societies faced the processes of globalization – single market, adoption of the English language as a vehicle for global communications, growth of international finance, relocation of factories and production, European unification – with a growing sense of vulnerability. The effects of these dynamics were magnified by terrorism, which also became global, and the economic crisis of 2008. The scenario described by Zygmut Bauman of a liquid society, unable to create bonds, values, "solid" life paths, capable of giving meaning to people's lives, seemed initially pessimistic but, at a distance of about 10 years, dealing with the consequences of those challenges, it wasn't. The changes inherent in the processes that occurred since 2000 – even if started earlier – triggered uncertainties that were poorly managed, resulting in the renewed development of an authoritarian personality widespread at the social level. We are witnessing the strengthening of right-wing and extreme-right political groups that succeeded in achieving the government of countries on the Western chessboard, which use this sense of vulnerability in an instrumental way to obtain consent. Rather than demonstrating firsthand how to make the necessary sacrifices to overcome a difficult situation and stimulate the reaction capabilities of the government joined with the citizens, they create a contraposition between an imaginary “us” vs “them,” and provide a scapegoat (well expressed by the Frankfurt School) on whom these problems and frustrations can be dumped, with the illusion of solving short-term problems. In this dynamic we are witnessing the growing social phenomenon of bullying.