Community graveyard

Disclaimer is the trend of the time. The opinion-forming elite shake their heads when the people leaders are set to take care of, demands. We must play with the future, and the future requires us to be submissive, the answer reads. That these people find themselves in giving up power is one thing now. A whole other thing, is that even the most upstanding heads seem to take this truth for good and wise speech. At best, they utter somewhat grim criticism, suggesting that the people must recapture the lost by fighting for power's premises, although being painfully aware of such a strategy will only carry the closed circles forward.

Being intellectual means pointing to other development opportunities, something that Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman does to some extent in the book "Missing Community". He is best known for "Modernity and the Holocaust" (1997, Norwegian edition) and appeared in Norwegian again in 1998 with "Globalization and its human consequences". Now he is up to date with "Missing Community," which is specially written for Cappelen's unpopular writings. So a small event.

countercurrent

In the book, Bauman goes counter-current, thus defying something as old-fashioned as sense of community. It is an allure of an old bitter man over the text, but it does little when Bauman strikes at the same time with vitality and a willingness to take analytical consequences of his motherly thoughts. The strict sociologist must repeatedly give in favor of the socially engaged debater. It is a victory, not least for the reader, who encounters a book with hints of tight and poetic prose, bold arguments and surprising conclusions, with references drawn from both books and the "real" world.

Zygmunt Bauman appears in "Missing Community" as an intellectual "all-rounder".

Bauman begins quite simply. With the tantalus myth. Tantalus, son of Zeus and Pluto, flirted with the gods and acquired knowledge mortals should not have insight into. In his arrogance he wanted to own something that could only be enjoyed as a gift. The punishment came quickly. Tantalos had to stand in water to his throat, but when he bowed his head to quench his thirst, the water slipped away. The same thing happened to the fruit clusters above his head as he reached for them to satisfy his hunger. The message, Bauman writes, is that if you dare to take matters into your own hands, you will never be able to recreate the bliss you could only enjoy in your innocence. The goal will always slip away as you reach for it. A lost innocence can never be recovered. This is also the case with the community, Bauman believes. The community can only be either silent – or dead. The community, which is basically something naturlig, does not tolerate scrutiny, deliberation and critical questions. "A community that must" bear witness "(or rather bear witness to itself), is a contradiction in terms." Nevertheless, we have a modern notion of homogeneous community, whether it is called village, samfunnet or the nation state. But these are "artificial" communities and uniformity can only be maintained by shutting out foreign elements. The community has thus broken down, and then it is Bauman's turn to the historian Eric Hobsbawm's statement: "As the community breaks down, the identity is invented." Bauman says it more poetically and believes identity is only one surrogate for community: "Identity sprouts on the grave of the community, but flourishes thanks to the hope of the resurrection of the dead." Identity means to be unique, to stand out, to be different. The problem, of course, is that the pursuit of identity only leads to further division and separation, and makes even fictitious communities impossible.

The flexible elite

Assurances that one does not interfere.

We are forced to apply biographical solutions to systemic contradictions. We must look for individual ways to save common problems. This has led to many people seeking a cure for insecurity by securing their own bodies, assets, homes and neighborhoods. We develop a suspicion of the surroundings, and especially the strangers among us. We entrench ourselves inside and are reluctant to communicate with someone who further complicates the picture. And so on.

As is well known, security is the necessary condition for dialogue between cultures, and when insecurity increases, one can only conclude that it will probably be a while before global capital is joined by global culture.

Bauman says it simply again: “We misses community because we lack security. " The quote is easy to agree with, and from there you can discuss how optimistic or pessimistic you should be. Bauman is a pessimist on behalf of the system and structures that cause us insecurity, but he seems to be optimistic that something has to happen. And as so often with Bauman, change must come from below. In "Missing Fellowship", Bauman spends a lot of space describing misery, so solutions to the problem must be found as a counterpoint to what Bauman believes are the most important features of the dominant forces.

According to research Bauman describes in the book, there are usually two main reasons why people feel insecure today: Fear of losing their job, and fear of being exposed to violence (and general crime).

For a start, one must focus on and acknowledge the sources of insecurity. A fair distribution of resources is needed to rebuild communities on shattered remains, Bauman believes, and this rebuilt community can have no other goal than a universal human community. The "us against them" war is won by none other than the forces of globalization, Bauman believes. We all become easy victims.

How global are we?

"It may be timely to recall that as of 1999, only five percent of the world's population has flown. Bauman, on the other hand, writes very closely to the point of view of those who take flights almost all the time, ie the elite in the richest countries ».

Diling for the rest of the world is a political choice, most recently at the Labor Party's national meeting. And who is the world after?

Unlike other sociologists mentioned, Bauman is quite basic and banal. He talks about security as a prerequisite for happiness, and who would not be happy? Despite the fact that he tries to make it go that way the global elite only becomes happy from insecurity, then it is here possible to find a kind of common culturally base. Yes, even one economic starting point for dialogue. The global elite has something to sell. In a situation where the resources are to be distributed fairly, it is conceivable that someone is interested in buying. After all, it is conceivable that even the forces of globalization will eventually lose in a "Us against them" war.

Zygmunt Bauman«Missing community», Cappelen, 2000.