Entzauberung der Welt

The Disenchantment of the World

Max Weber was the foremost sociologist at the turn of the 20th century. He devised the term Entzauberung der Welt or the Disenchantment of the World. The best way that I can explain it is in relation to children's bubbles. Or maybe it would be better to use comfort-zone. A person has a bubble shaped comfort-zone that they like to keep intact. When another person comes into that comfort-zone the bubble has pressure put on it and in some cases the bubble can burst. A person whose comfort bubble has burst may have an outburst and start yelling at whomever was agitating their space. Or maybe they just need to go find some time alone for awhile giving time for the bubble to grow again. Now people are quite more resilient than a child's toy bubble so the bursting is only temporary eventually growing back.

What does this look like in society? If you imagine a society as an organism it has it's own beliefs: cosmology, religion, culture, values, morals. The acceptable behavior that has run through the roots of the society is ingrained in each member from generation to generation as people must conform to the society to be a successful part. As another society's bubble comes in contact with the initial society the boundaries are forced to bend and shift . These boundaries are the answers to the questions of the universe. Why is the sky blue, why does the earth turn, why do we eat with forks and knives or why do we shake hands. Many times members of societies never have to think about why these things are and just accept them as way of life, but as other societies with other ways of life are introduced people are forced to question things that were previously written in stone, engraved in their roots. After the industrial revolution and as a result of the mass exodus from rural to urban cities, many various cultures ended up in close proximity with one another. Urban areas like London and New York are great examples of cites that force people into Entzauberung die Welt.