Modernity, freedom and this-worldly activism: Max Weber in Latin America, India and China

One crucial aspect of modernity such as identified by Max Weber was the appearance of a sort attitude oriented to this world, ascetic and bent on actively changing the circumstances of social life. This was identified later on by Parsons for instance as the activist thrust of US culture. Weber contrasted this to the pragmatic adaptation of Confucian literati and the flight from the world typical of Indic civilization. Morse in turn suggested that in ‘Iberian’ America it was a less than ascetic attitude which prevail, although he is not clear about its activist character. Also all of these authors it is only individuals, not collectivities that are at stake. This paper will argue that indeed activism is typical of modernity, that it has spread globally, that it has hybridized with other cultural formations. Whose specific nature has to be identified in the global but heterogeneous modern civilization, and that one of its main manifestation, alongside Weber’s stress on rationalization, is the this-worldly oriented struggle for freedom, which he overlooked. Contemporary Latin America, India and China will be compared with this in mind.