In liquid life according to Bauman, society is based on individualism and has become something temporary and unstable that lacks solid aspects. Everything we have is changeable and with an expiration date, compared to the fixed structures of the past. (Monica Redondo, 2017).

Margaret Mead in the 70’s explored the deep changes within society. In her book "Culture and Commitment: The New Relationships Between the Generations in the 1970s", Margaret Mead already announced the difficulties of a new form of relationship between young people and their ancestors, in a world where the relationship with knowledge, no longer It would be the same: "I have been young and you have never been old. But the young people of today can answer: You have never been young in the world in which I am young, and you will never be able to be. Today suddenly, because all the peoples of the world are part of an electronic-based intercommunication network young people of all countries share a type of experience that none of their elders had or will ever have. Conversely, the old generation will never see it repeated in the lives of young people their own unique experience of change, emerging and staggered. This break between generations is totally new: it is planetary and universal."

Neoliberalism prevailing in most societies based on savage capitalism, pushes people to stop feeling protected and move in contradictory terms, such as "flexy-security" and other oxymorons. Institutions are no longer a safety net benchmark for anyone.

A look at the graph on inequality and union membership in USA is a proof of this:

As long as membership within unions decrease due the individualism grow up, we obtained more inequality.

Bauman again: “In this liquid reality, the important thing is not to preserve the objects, but to constantly renew them to satisfy the consumerist spirit. Consumerism does not revolve around the satisfaction of desires, but the incitement of the desire for ever new desires”. (Monica Redondo, 2017).

So, when asking about changes in modern societies you need to pay a look to questions like, liquid society, neoliberalism, the relation between new generations and communications networks, consumerism and individualism. All these elements shows why past structures and social behaviours are not longer the same, and the consequences of all this can be seen in the current variations of “traditional cleavages”.

- Monica Redondo, Ene 10, 2017. Obtained from url: https://hipertextual.com/2017/01/5-ideas-bauman

I don't think traditional divisions are weakening in the world. But global phenomena are also a force of local phenomena that surrounds the whole world.

in some respects (cultural, political...) the traditional cleavages have weakened and no longer have a strong basis for mass identification. However, they are often endowed with crucial resources (resources of power, economic and communicative resources) that they have accumulated in deeply polarized societies.

Radical processes of individualization, liquid modernity, reflexive modernity have undermined traditional cleavages. At the same time, these processes are hindering new forms of reintegration and the construction of new cleavages (cultural, economic, political, religious) for mass identification and organization of interests. In many cases, these new cleavages (poorer part of society, unemployed, young people, students, women’s movements, global middle classes) still do not seem capable of replacing weakened traditional cleavages.

Can the crisis of the institutional political and administrative system and the mass protests open the doors to a radical change in Lebanon and Belarus? In these countries, have the new cleavages (poorer part of society, unemployed, young people, students, women’s movements, global middle classes) that are fuelling anti-government protests strong basis for mass identification and organization of interests? These new cleavages are endowed with crucial resources?

In Belarus, this cleavage has an extended social basis, in Lebanon maybe less. In countries where the basis for the rise of new cleavages are weak and fluid, there is a high risk that existing religious and political cleavages and the main dividing lines gradually prevail. In many countries, these traditional cleavages still have the social and cultural resources to bring together in collective movements the social resentment of a large part of civil society and the resources of many institutions.

News and existing cleavages? Towards a radical change in Lebanon and Belarus?

In many countries, public policy commentators believe that the worsening of the living conditions of the people with precarious work due to Covid19, could fuel violent protests, property damages. I believe that in many cases these new cleavages have a very fluid social basis, do not have a collective identity and shared values and expectations, do not form the basis for mass identification and organization of interests.

If we were to focus on the initiatives of traditional cleavages - such as left-right or populist/antipopulist - one could better understand what will happen in the following few months. In many countries, these cleavages leave little space for the emergence of protests based on new lines on social division. These traditional cleavages have the social and cultural resources to bring together in collective movements both the social resentment of the precariat and the new uncertainties of the more globalized middle class.

Yes: Of course!!