Abstract

Past, present, and future are understood as enmeshed, despite being often considered linear. Prior experiences mould present perception, opening possibilities for the future and nourishing appraisals. Sociocultural meanings support this phenomenon turning the gaze upon diverse facts depending on the different positions in social life. In the case of Chile, some scholars traditionally describe anticipations as predominantly doomed by the past. This scenario constitutes the background of the present study, which explores future appraisals by young Chilean men from two “maximally different” life conditions (business students and incarcerated people). Utilising semi-structured interviews and a phenomenologically inspired analysis, we found that amidst covid-19 participants refer to similar pessimistic future appraisals for their country, but on the contrary, remarkably converge on optimistic future appraisals for their personal lives. Regardless of their highly dissimilar personal stories. The conclusions point to the stark experience of individuals "freed" from social structure, nurtured by the recent neoliberal Chilean history.