Bauman, Z. (2005)

Bauman, Z. (2005). Liquid life. Wiley.


 * “In a liquid modern society, individual achievements cannot be solidified into lasting possessions because, in no time, assets turn into liabilities and abilities to disabilities.”
 * Constant uncertainty. Constant getting rid of things.
 * “The need here is to run with all one’ strength just to stay in the same place and away from the rubbish bin where the hindmost are doomed to land.”
 * Everything vanishes. This gives freedom – “freedom to move, freedom to choose, freedom to stop being what one already is and freedom to become what one is not yet.” Or belong. Or cling to one identity at the bottom.
 * 7. Goal of the winners: survival and gratification: “it is gratification to survive, the purpose of survival being more gratification”.
 * 7. “The trick is to compress eternity so that it may fit, whole, into the lifespan of individual life”.
 * 10. “It is not clear which of the two factors (attractions of the ‘consumer’ pole, or repulsion from the ‘waste’ pole) is the more powerful moving force of liquid life.
 * 13. “In 1989, Richard Rorty spelled out, as desirable and fulfillable aims for the educators, the tasks of ‘stirring the kids up’ and instilling ‘doubts in the students about the students’ own self-images, about the society in which they belong’.”
 * 14. This kind of education is needed.
 * 16. Everybody must be an individual in our society but it is a crowd demand.
 * 17. Looking for our pristine self, for authenticity, is far from simple.
 * 18. Term individuality from the 17th century. 19. It did not imply uniqueness.
 * 19. Being different from others: Ricoeur’s l’ipsete. Remaining recognizable: Ricoeur’s la memete.
 * 23. Consumerism a a strategy to 24 “construct, preserve and refresh their individuality”
 * 33. The sole identity core emerging from “continuous change”: homo eligens – the man choosing.
 * 34. Ideally based on wishes and whims rather than desires.
 * 68. Fast pace breeds fear. 69. Fear is a commercial opportunity.
 * 78. Fear causes retreat. ”It is the tendency to withdraw from public spaces and to retreat into islands of sameness that turns in time into the major obstacle to living with difference – by causing the skills of dialogue and negotiation to wilt and fade. It is the exposure to difference that in time becomes the major factor in happy cohabitation...”
 * 79. Progress to civilisation is not “a one-off achievement, but a daily continuing struggle...”.
 * 80. Non-satisfaction of desires is “the fly-wheel of the consumer-targeted economy”.
 * 81.Every promise to consumers must be deceitful, or at least exaggerated.
 * 84. Consumer society as a society of redundancy and prodigal waste.
 * 86. Knowledge about what to consume needs to be constantly refreshed
 * 87. Radically cut-down patience.
 * 88. Everything, including human relations, is commodified.
 * 108. “In a liquid, fast-flowing and unpredictable setting we need firm and reliable ties of friendship and mutual trust more than ever before.” As an insurance. But we need to travel light in liquid times.
 * 125. “’Empowerment’ requires the building and rebuilding of inter-human bonds, the will and the ability to engage with others in a continuous effort to make human cohabitation into a hospitable and friendly setting for the mutually enriching cooperation of men and women struggling for self-esteem, for the development of their potential and for the proper use of their abilities. In short, one of the decisive stakes of lifelong education aimed at ‘empowerment’ is the rebuilding of the now increasingly deserted public space where men and women may engage in a continuous translation between the individual and the common, the private and the communal interests, rights and duties. ..”
 * 125. In a situation of “fragmentation and segmentation processes and increasing individual and societal diversity” “the skills we need more than any others ... are the skills of interaction with others – of conducting a dialogue, of negotiation, of gaining mutual understanding and of managing or resolving conflicts inevitable in every instance of shared life”.
 * 126. “The consumer is the enemy of the citizen.” Education in citizenship is required to continually refresh citizen skills.