booklogging

Bauman,Zygmunt. 2003, Liquid Modernity. Cambridge, Polity. Original 2001. 0-745624103

I read this because it was a key text suggesting the title and
direction of Pete Ward's "liquid Church". It's a readable bit of
sociological analysis of late consumerist capitalism shading into
post-modernity. Very helpful in identifying the key effects in our
societies of the radicalized presumptions of consumer capitalism.

The argument is that individuals are now cut adrift in modern societies
to make their own arrangements and forge their own identities as
opposed to the era of heavy modernity when arrangements were in place
for people by virtue of their class or gender. Capital is now
trans-local and this has dissolved the bond between labour and capital
so that the idea of jobs for life is no longer a realistic part of a
life strategy. This leads to a foreshortening of expectations and so
erosion of delayed gratification, it also means that bonds of
commitment are devalued particularly in conjunction with consumerism
where satisfaction in the here-and-now is emphasized.

Interesting quotes.

What used to be considered a job to be performed by human reason seen
as a collective endowment and property of the human species has been
fragmented ('individualized'), assigned to individual guts and stamina,
and left to individuals' management and individually administered
resources. ... The emphasis (together with, importantly, the burden of
responsibility) has shifted decisively towards the self-assertion of
the individual. [p.29]

There is ..no shortage of those who claim to be in the know, ...
Such ... Are not, however, leaders; they are, at most, counsellors -
... The latter need to be hid and can be fired. Counsellors ... Are
wary of ever stepping beyond the closed area of the private. ... The
counsels which the counsellors supply refer to life-politics not to
Politics with a capital P; they refer to what the counselled persons
can do by themselves and for themselves ... Accepting full
responsibility for doing them properly and blaming no one for the
unpleasant consequences which could be ascribed only to their own error
or neglect. [p.64-5]

[Consumers] are also trying to find an escape from the agony called
insecurity. They want to be free from the fears of mistake, neglect or
sloppiness. They want to be, for once, sure, confident, self-assured
and trusting ... [Bauman, 2003, p.81]

People who move and act faster, who come nearest to the momentariness of the movement, are now the people who rule. [p.119]