Zygmunt Bauman quotes - page 2

Zygmunt Bauman was a Polish-British sociologist and philosopher, renowned for his analysis of modernity and postmodernity. His concept of "liquid modernity" transformed the way we think about contemporary society and identity. He became one of the most influential thinkers in social theory and cultural criticism. Here are 39 of his quotes:

Human attention tends to be focused on the satisfactions relationships are hoped to bring, precisely because somehow they have not been truly satisfactory. And if they do satisfy, the price of this satisfaction has often been found to be unacceptable. (Zygmunt Bauman)

Unlike 'real relationships', 'virtual relationships' are easy to enter and to exit. They look smart and clean, feel easy to use, when compared with the heavy, slow-moving, messy real stuff.

Zygmunt Bauman

Relationships, like cars, should undergo regular services to make sure they are still roadworthy.

Zygmunt Bauman

Happiness needs one-upmanship.

Zygmunt Bauman

I was leftwing, I am leftwing, and I will die leftwing.

Zygmunt Bauman

In a consumer society, people wallow in things, fascinating, enjoyable things. If you define your value by the things you acquire and surround yourself with, being excluded is humiliating.

Zygmunt Bauman

We belong to talking, not what talking is about... Stop talking - and you are out. Silence equals exclusion.

Zygmunt Bauman

In our world of rampant 'individualisation', relationships are mixed blessings. They vacillate between a sweet dream and a nightmare, and there is no telling when one turns into the other.

Zygmunt Bauman

In a world of global dependencies with no corresponding global polity and few tools of global justice, the rich of the world are free to pursue their own interests while paying no attention to the rest.

Zygmunt Bauman

We live in a globalising world. That means that all of us, consciously or not, depend on each other. Whatever we do or refrain from doing affects the lives of people who live in places we'll never visit.

Zygmunt Bauman

Partnerships are increasingly seen through the prism of promises and expectations, and as a kind of product for consumers: satisfaction on the spot, and if not fully satisfied, return the product to the shop or replace it with a new and improved one! You don't, after all, stick to your car, or computer, or iPod, when better ones appear. (Zygmunt Bauman)

We already have - thanks to technology, development, skills, the efficiency of our work - enough resources to satisfy all human needs. But we don't have enough resources, and we are unlikely ever to have, to satisfy human greed.

Zygmunt Bauman

Capitalism proceeds through creative destruction. What is created is capitalism in a 'new and improved' form - and what is destroyed is self-sustaining capacity, livelihood and dignity of its innumerable and multiplied 'host organisms' into which all of us are drawn/seduced one way or another.

Zygmunt Bauman

I suspect that one of capitalism's crucial assets derives from the fact that the imagination of economists, including its critics, lags well behind its own inventiveness, the arbitrariness of its undertaking and the ruthlessness of the way in which it proceeds.

Zygmunt Bauman

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Zygmunt Bauman

Zygmunt Bauman - Image

Photo: Forumlitfest, CC BY-SA 3.0

Occupation: Polish Philosopher
Born: November 19, 1925
Died: January 9, 2017
Quotes count: 39
Wikipedia: Zygmunt Bauman

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