Socjalizm. Utopia w działaniu

by Zygmunt Bauman

Życie nowoczesne, czyli obsesyjne przerabianie wszystkiego na nowe, lepsze wersje, jest nie do pomyślenia bez utopii. A jednak wraz z XX wiekiem coś się w myśleniu utopijnym skończyło.

Każda reklama nowego kosmetyku czy nowej recepty na odchudzanie maluje obraz utopijnego szczęścia!

Nadzieje na lepsze życie wiążemy nie ze zmianą świata, ale własnego ciała, najbliższego jego otoczenia i zawartości utkanej przez nas „sieci” znajomości i kontaktów... Wizja socjalistyczna jest bodaj jedyną, która odważa się wykraczać poza horyzont codziennej rutyny. Jest jedyną niemal szansą dotarcia do źródeł społecznie wytwarzanych niedomagań, bolączek i etycznej ułomności ludzkiego współbytowania...

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Utopia

199 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Zygmunt Bauman was a world-renowned Polish sociologist and philosopher, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds. He was one of the world's most eminent social theorists, writing on issues as diverse as modernity and the Holocaust, postmodern consumerism and liquid modernity and one of the creators of the concept of “postmodernism”.

Reviews

[ehk2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is written in 1976, before the collapse of 'real socialism's in the East and the retreat of social democratic welfare-state policies in the West. Yet, it has not lost its critical edge and relevance -to the contrary, for people trying to find ways of opposing the oppressive 'realism' of current politics, Bauman's this relatively little read book is more of a necessity now.

[Wiktor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is not a simple book. As an amateur of political philosophy dissertations, you can get lost in the nontrivial way in which Bauman presents his ideas. Having a general grasp of political views as such, it is not difficult to agree that socialism was (and still is) the only formed and verbalized alternative to capitalism.

Socialism cannot stop at simply criticizing the current system. It cannot only offer corrections to what currently is - it must be an evolution, but also a profound paradigm shift. It must break with the capital as the only option for the perspective of human life. One must mind history - socialism must not lead us astray, as the Soviets or other supposed emancipators of the society have done before.

The author's bitter message about the extinction of solidarity among people, about the privatization of our very being, resonates like never before. Until we start to think and act so that we accomplish ourselves through society and not in spite of it, we will have to participate in a race at the end of which there are only loneliness and misery. The freedom of the few, but not of all of us.

[Dosia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mnóstwo odniesień do tytułów, których jeszcze nie czytałam; monstrualna erudycja. Aż żałuję, że nie robiłam notatek. Będę musiała kiedyś wrócić do tego tekstu.