released 2/7/2020

In his book Liquid Modernity (Polity Press, 2000), sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argued that the spirit of the (hyper) modern world is one of relentless disposability. “What was some time ago dubbed (erroneously) ‘post-modernity’ and what I’ve chosen to call, more to the point, ‘liquid modernity’, is the growing conviction that change is the only permanence, and uncertainty the only certainty. A hundred years ago ‘to be modern’ meant to chase ‘the final state of perfection’ — now it means an infinity of improvement, with no ‘final state’ in sight and none desired.” This sociological condition reinforces the philosophical and theological assumptions of modernity: that there is no transcendent order of which we are a part and no transcendent end for which we were created. In this Feature from Volume 48 of the Journal, Zygmunt Bauman (1925–2017) summarizes the outlines of his view of the liquidity of modernity.

36 minutes

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