Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers? (Institute for Human Sciences Vienna Lecture Series Book 3)

zygmunt Bauman Is One Of The Most Admired Social Thinkers Of Our Time. Once A Marxist Sociologist, He Has Surrendered The Narrowness Of Both Marxism And Sociology, And Dares To Write In Language That Ordinary People Can Understand—about Problems They Feel Ill Equipped To Solve. This Book Is No Dry Treatise But Is Instead What Bauman Calls “a Report From A Battlefield,” Part Of The Struggle To Find New And Adequate Ways Of Thinking About The World In Which We Live. Rather Than Searching For Solutions To What Are Perhaps The Insoluble Problems Of The Modern World, Bauman Proposes That We Reframe The Way We Think About These Problems. In An Era Of Routine Travel, Where Most People Circulate Widely, The Inherited Beliefs That Aid Our Thinking About The World Have Become An Obstacle. bauman Seeks To Liberate Us From The Thinking That Renders Us Hopeless In The Face Of Our Own Domineering Governments And Threats From Unknown Forces Abroad. He Shows Us We Can Give Up Belief In A Hierarchical Arrangement Of States And Powers. He Challenges Members Of The “knowledge Class” To Overcome Their Estrangement From The Rest Of Society. Gracefully, Provocatively, Bauman Urges Us To Think In New Ways About A Newly Flexible, Newly Challenging Modern World. As Bauman Notes, Quoting Vaclav Havel, “hope Is Not A Prognostication.” It Is, Rather, Alongside Courage And Will, A Mundane, Common Weapon That Is Too Seldom Used. On February 15, 1851, Shadrach Minkins was serving breakfast at a coffeehouse in Boston when history caught up with him. The first runaway to be arrested in New England under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, this illiterate Black man from Virginia found himself the catalyst of one of the most dramatic episodes of rebellion and legal wrangling before the Civil War. In a remarkable effort of historical sleuthing, Gary Collison has recovered the true story of Shadrach Minkins’ life and times and perilous flight. His book restores an extraordinary chapter to our collective history and at the same time offers a rare and engrossing picture of the life of an ordinary Black man in nineteenth-century North America. As Minkins’ journey from slavery to freedom unfolds, we see what day-to-day life was like for a slave in Norfolk, Virginia, for a fugitive in Boston, and for a free Black man in Montreal. Collison recreates the drama of Minkins’s arrest and his subsequent rescue by a band of Black Bostonians, who spirited the fugitive to freedom in Canada. He shows us Boston’s Black community, moved to panic and action by the Fugitive Slave Law, and the previously unknown community established in Montreal by Minkins and other refugee Blacks from the United States. And behind the scenes, orchestrating events from the disastrous Compromise of 1850 through the arrest of Minkins and the trial of his rescuers, is Daniel Webster, who through the exigencies of his dimming political career, took the role of villain. Webster is just one of the familiar figures in this tale of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances. Others, such as Frederick Douglass, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Harriet Jacobs, and Harriet Beecher Stowe (who made use of Minkins’s Montreal community in Uncle Tom’s Cabin), also appear throughout the narrative. Minkins’ intriguing story stands as a fascinating commentary on the nation’s troubled times—on urban slavery and Boston abolitionism, on the Underground Railroad, and on one of the federal government’s last desperate attempts to hold the Union together. Zygmunt Bauman is one of the most admired social thinkers of our time.€Once a Marxist sociologist, he has surrendered the narrowness of both Marxism and sociology, and dares to write in language that ordinary people can understand & mdash;about problems they feel ill equipped to solve.€This book is no dry treatise but is instead what Bauman calls & ldquo;a report from a battlefield, & rdquo; part of the struggle to find new and adequate ways of thinking about the world in which we live. Rather than searching for solutions to what are perhaps the insoluble problems of the modern world, Bauman proposes that we reframe the way we think about these problems. In an era of routine travel, where most people circulate widely, the inherited beliefs that aid our thinking about the world have become an obstacle. Bauman seeks to liberate us from the thinking that renders us hopeless in the face of our own domineering governments and threats from unknown forces abroad.€He shows us we can give up belief in a hierarchical arrangement of states and powers. He challenges members of the & ldquo;knowledge class & rdquo; to overcome their estrangement from the rest of society. Gracefully, provocatively, Bauman urges us to think in new ways about a newly flexible, newly challenging modern world. As Bauman notes, quoting Vaclav Havel, & ldquo;hope is not a prognostication. & rdquo; It is, rather, alongside courage and will, a mundane, common weapon that is too seldom used "Zygmunt Bauman is one of the most admired social thinkers of our time. Once a Marxist sociologist, he has surrendered the narrowness of both Marxism and sociology and dares to write in language that ordinary people can understand - about problems they feel ill equipped to solve. This book is no dry treatise but is instead what Bauman calls "a report from a battlefield," part of the struggle to find new and adequate ways of thinking about the world in which we live. Rather than searching for solutions to what are perhaps the insoluble problems of the modern world, Bauman proposes that we reframe the way we think about these problems. In an era of routine travel, when most people circulate widely, the inherited beliefs that aid our thinking about the world have become an obstacle." "Bauman seeks to liberate us from the thinking that renders us hopeless in the face of our own domineering governments and threats from unknown forces abroad. He shows us we can give up belief in a hierarchical arrangement of states and powers. He challenges members of the "knowledge class" to overcome their estrangement from the rest of society. Gracefully, provocatively, Bauman urges us to think in new ways about a newly flexible, newly challenging modern world."--Jacket Contents Introduction Threats or Chances? Chapter One. What Chance of Ethics in the Globalized World of Consumers? Chapter Two. Categorial Murder, or the Legacy of the Twentieth Century and How to Remember It Chapter Three. Freedom in the Liquid-Modern Era Chapter Four. Hurried Life, or Liquid-Modern Challenges to Education Chapter Five. Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire, or the Arts between Administration and the Markets Chapter Six. Making the Planet Hospitable to Europe Notes Index Bauman urges us to think in new ways about a newly flexible, newly challenging modern world. In an era of routine travel, where most people circulate widely, the inherited beliefs that aid our thinking about the world have become an obstacle. He challenges members of the “knowledge class” to overcome their estrangement from the rest of society.