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
In 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.
Interpretation
In a rapidly changing world, relationships and commitments must be flexible to adapt to new circumstances.
Zygmunt Bauman discusses the nature of relationships in our modern society, describing them as 'liquid' due to their transient and adaptable nature. In a world where change is constant, forming permanent bonds becomes unrealistic; instead, we must accept that our connections may need to be loose and easily adjustable, allowing us to navigate the fluctuations of life without being overly constrained by our commitments.
In practice
In a speech about the evolving nature of work and collaboration.
There are other ways of finding satisfaction, recipes for human happiness, enjoyment, dignified and meaningful, gratifying life, than increased consumption that increases production.
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.
We belong to talking, not what talking is about... Stop talking - and you are out. Silence equals exclusion.
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.
As far as love is concerned, possession, power, fusion and disenchantment are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
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.
I asked for very little from life, and even this little was denied me. A nearby field, a ray of sunlight, a little bit of calm along with a bit of bread, not to feel oppressed by the knowledge that I exist, not to demand anything from others, and not to have others demand anything from me - this was denied me, like the spare change we might deny a beggar not because we're mean-hearted but because we don't feel like unbuttoning our coat.
Six is a number perfect in itself, and not because God created the world in six days; rather the contrary is true. God created the world in six days because this number is perfect, and it would remain perfect, even if the work of the six days did not exist.
Government is a necessary evil
The hypocrite who always plays one and the same part ceases at last to be a hypocrite.
Things are no longer what they seem to be. My telephones are haunted, and animals whisper at me from unseen places.
Nobody is a villain in their own story. We're all the heroes of our own stories.
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