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 rationality of the ruled is always the weapon of the rulers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The governed often provide rationale for the authority of those in power.
This quote by Zygmunt Bauman suggests that the logic and reasoning of the general populace can serve to bolster and justify the control exercised by those in power. It implies that the justifications people make can be co-opted by rulers to maintain authority, highlighting the complex relationship between authority and the governed, and raises questions about the nature of consent and compliance in society.
Themes
RationalityPowerAuthoritySocietyGovernance
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a political science lecture discussing the dynamics of power and governance.
More from Zygmunt Bauman
All quotes βCivilisation, 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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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.
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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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