Decades ago, the individual’s vital narratives resembled a funicular. According to the idea of progress, which is the pillar of modernity, even from the bottom up, there were improvements in our lives, so that tomorrow was always better than today. Employment is perhaps one of the most representative cases. Many began as low wages and pawns, with the passage of time they obtained higher wages and better jobs, and thereby also guaranteed decent retirement pensions. Therefore, past lives always went up, without curves, linearly and at slow speeds. In addition, even from below, it was known that the ascending path was secured. Therefore, in the form of funiculars and the rail of this used to be the employment and the family mentioned.

Today, in this transition from classical modernity to liquid modernity that Bauman mentions, the changes are evident and the carousel lives prevail in the face of the funicular lives. There are big fluctuations in our lives, both in terms of employment and in terms of the family. Big variations can occur from one day to the next, and as a result, multiple incidents and biographical trajectories of different and fast speeds are what prevail today. Even if it is taken to extremes, we often see those who become unemployed from one day to the next, despite having good jobs and wages or experiencing profound changes in their family situation. It was precisely the fragmented vital narratives that were unthinkable in other times.

Which one is better? Where there used to be security and certainty, there are now more freedoms, opportunities and emotions. Before, everything was clear from birth and our biography was written before. If so, a worker’s child would be a worker and if he progressed in education he would have had opportunities to thrive in society. Today, on the other hand, things are less defined, we are now programmers of our lives at all times, due to both our influence and external – and uncontrollable – factors. So now there are more emotions and possibilities – for good or for bad.

The ideal social and cultural context for carousel lives of emotions and opportunities is not an industrial society, but a society based on consumerism and hedonism, and this is precisely the postmodern scenario that we can see today.