Antivax, QAnon, conspiratorial movements… The world has never seemed more polarized than today and at this rate, humanity could become a veritable cacophony. Every two years, the Trend Obs study by Ipsos draws the main trends of the society of tomorrow through the recruitment of trendsetters, people aged 25 to 40 selected internationally “for their ability to feel and react more. quickly to the context than the others ”. For the 2022 edition, the trendsetters have given way to “money changers”, individuals who “wish to bring about the world to which they aspire, in connection with their convictions and their battles”, we describe at Ipsos.
Recruited in Brazil, the United States, France, Great Britain, Vietnam, Sweden and Nigeria, they are engaged in concrete dynamics of daily change. “We realized that, whatever their political obedience, whatever their type of commitment and their country of origin, one subject is close to their heart: how do we get past individualisms that oppose each other? and who are in rejection of the other, to the construction of a new collective which respects the differences ”, observes Thibaut Nguyen, director of the Trends & Futures department of Ipsos France.
Are we moving towards an increasingly fragmented future or, on the contrary, are we going to find the way to universalism? Zoom on the post-Covid-19 tribes that will populate the future with Thibaut Nguyen.
The Wakanda tribe
“The example of Wakanda [un pays africain fictif présent dans l’univers Marvel] from the movie Black panther has often returned to the discourse of “money changers”. We have to go through the stage of rallying together with people who look like us and who share our values, at least on a small scale. In Wakanda, there is the idea of a country which protects its traditions and which nevertheless knew how to be at the forefront of technology. We are not subject to toxic influences and we can develop as we choose with our values while moving towards modernity. Beyond the idea of defending identity, many “money changers” were in the process of understanding their history. We interviewed many Brazilians, some relate to more Amazonian traditions, others to the evangelical movement, very powerful there. If we do not understand our gray areas, we will not be able to welcome the other in our own gray areas. “
The pro-tech tribe
“Technology is another community leaven: ‘I’m from the Silicon Valley school’; “I belong to Elon Musk’s”; “I am one of those who thinks that we have to innovate”… The highly successful coding schools are a kind of community melting pot that integrates anyone who codes, regardless of their origin. They find a common language and a common vision. Today we can observe a diffraction of ideological currents, each one is powerful and goes up in his corner. Space X or Jeff Bezos lead the way to space. The technology is criticized on private data, but it received praise during the Covid-19 pandemic because it kept us going. There are plenty of movements and counter-movements and it’s hard to see which ones are taking over. “
The post-meToo feminist tribe
“The theme of intersectional feminism has been discussed a lot by ‘money changers’. The dark side of this communitarianism is a very rigid and very vehement intersectionality where all of a sudden, we build our identity on the wound and that leads to revenge. In the feminist movement, we find both “changers” in a perspective of understanding what has been suffered in order, then, to consider connecting to the other, and movements in denunciation and condemnation. There is a desire for universalism among the “money changers”, but there are still obstacles in society mainstream. The animated film The Mitchell against the machines on Netflix tells precisely how a dysfunctional family, whose members no longer get along, manages to bring about something else when everyone accepts the differences of the others.
In a second step, it will be necessary to find a universal rule. Some mention the Venus project, which is a kind of technological utopia. Will an artificial intelligence more evolved than human tell us what is good for us? Others cite natural intelligence as in Avatar. Others are inspired by ancient Greece and envision a college of sages or scientific experts. Once we have found the common rule, we will be able to accept the people who scare us the most. “