There are other ways of finding satisfaction, recipes for human happiness, enjoyment, dignified and meaningful, gratifying life, than increased consumption that increases production.
Zygmunt BaumanRead
The carrying power of a bridge is not the average strength of the pillars, but the strength of the weakest pillar. I have always believed that you do not measure the health of a society by GNP but by the condition of its worst off.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The strength of a society is gauged by how it treats its most vulnerable members.
This quote emphasizes the importance of addressing the needs and conditions of the most disadvantaged individuals in a society. Just as a bridge is only as strong as its weakest pillar, a society's well-being should be measured by the welfare of its most marginalized members, rather than relying solely on overall economic indicators like GNP.
Themes
SocietyStrengthWeaknessPovertyWelfareEquity
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on social justice, this quote can illustrate the importance of equity in society.
More from Zygmunt Bauman
All quotes →Civilisation, the orderly world in which we live, is frail. We are skating on thin ice. There is a fear of a collective disaster. Terrorism, genocide, flu, tsunamis.
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In a liquid modern life there are no permanent bonds, and any that we take up for a time must be tied loosely so that they can be untied again, as quickly and as effortlessly as possible, when circumstances change - as they surely will in our liquid modern society, over and over again.
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We belong to talking, not what talking is about... Stop talking - and you are out. Silence equals exclusion.
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As far as love is concerned, possession, power, fusion and disenchantment are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
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We live in a world of communication - everyone gets information about everyone else. There is universal comparison and you don't just compare yourself with the people next door, you compare yourself to people all over the world and with what is being presented as the decent, proper and dignified life. It's the crime of humiliation.
Zygmunt BaumanRead
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