There are other ways of finding satisfaction, recipes for human happiness, enjoyment, dignified and meaningful, gratifying life, than increased consumption that increases production.
Zygmunt BaumanRead
Civilisation, the orderly world in which we live, is frail. We are skating on thin ice. There is a fear of a collective disaster. Terrorism, genocide, flu, tsunamis.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Civilization is delicate, and its stability is threatened by various global crises.
Zygmunt Bauman highlights the fragility of civilization, emphasizing that our orderly existence is constantly at risk due to potential disasters such as terrorism, genocide, and natural calamities. The metaphor of skating on thin ice serves to underline the precarious nature of modern society, where an unforeseen event could lead to collective chaos and suffering.
Themes
CivilizationFragilityDisasterSocietyFear
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about global security, one might quote Bauman to emphasize the need for preparedness against collective threats.
More from Zygmunt Bauman
All quotes βIn a liquid modern life there are no permanent bonds, and any that we take up for a time must be tied loosely so that they can be untied again, as quickly and as effortlessly as possible, when circumstances change - as they surely will in our liquid modern society, over and over again.
Zygmunt BaumanRead
We belong to talking, not what talking is about... Stop talking - and you are out. Silence equals exclusion.
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The carrying power of a bridge is not the average strength of the pillars, but the strength of the weakest pillar. I have always believed that you do not measure the health of a society by GNP but by the condition of its worst off.
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As far as love is concerned, possession, power, fusion and disenchantment are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Zygmunt BaumanRead
We live in a world of communication - everyone gets information about everyone else. There is universal comparison and you don't just compare yourself with the people next door, you compare yourself to people all over the world and with what is being presented as the decent, proper and dignified life. It's the crime of humiliation.
Zygmunt BaumanRead
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