Saturday, July 23, 2016

Zygmunt Bauman on liquid fear.

We are walking as if on a minefield. We are aware that the field is full of explosives, but we can't tell where there will be an explosion and when. There are no solid structures around us on which we can rely, in which we can invest our hopes and expectations. Even the most powerful governments, very often, cannot deliver on their promise. They don't have enough power to do so.
-- Zygmunt Bauman, philosopher

The answer is negotiating these fears ... and fear seemingly precludes any interest in negotiating.

In other words, welcome to Facebook's towering silos.

Zygmunt Bauman: Behind the world's 'crisis of humanity' (Al Jazeera)

Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman frames the upheaval across the globe as symptomatic of the diffusion of fear ...

 ... "Liquid fear," Bauman explains, "means fear flowing on our own court, not staying in one place but diffuse. And the trouble with liquid fear, unlike the concrete specific danger which you know and are familiar with is that you don't know where from it will strike.

Thanks to Professor Vessels for the link.

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