Modernity and the Holocaust

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Since the turn of the millennium, his books have tried to avoid the confusion surrounding the term "postmodernity" by using the metaphors of "liquid" and "solid" modernity. In his books on modern consumerism, Bauman still writes of the same uncertainties that he portrayed in his writings on "solid" modernity; but in these books he writes of fears becoming more diffuse and harder to pin down. Indeed, they are, to use the title of one of his books, "liquid fears" – fears about paedophilia, for instance, which are amorphous and have no easily identifiable reference. [35] Modernity and the Holocaust and Concentrationary Memories’ – Prof. Max Silverman (University of Leeds) The modern thinker of the 18th century Europe thus believed that anything and everything could be subjected to the study of reason. Art, customs, morals, traditions etc. hence could all be submitted to the study and rational understanding. It was felt that the ‘truth’ of these reveled discoveries could be applied in political and social spheres to ‘fix’ the problems of society and improve upon the general conditions of mankind. However the era of Enlightenment and its resulting outcomes did hold an arguably central failure. The Enlightenment in great part, failed to hold the capacity to deal with general human differences and diversity in terms of culture, tradition and ethnicities. The grave consequence of this failure can clearly be seen in Europe’s relationship with non-European peoples and cultures in the period that came during and after the Enlightenment era. This period was the epoch of cultural in-sensitivity, colonization and racism etc. And these can attributed in great part, to the universalist frameworks of inquiry of that time. The intellectual thought of 18th century Europe was arguably steeped in abstract conceptions of a standardized and inflexible human nature and majestic narratives of a progressive history of human civilization. The legacy of Enlightenment thus is plagued by an epistemological inadequacy of presumptions which fostered a manner of thinking that would for two centuries, serve to legitimize European global domination, racism and destruction. Zygmunt Bauman przepisuje z Wikipedii albo wielka nauka i małe machlojki". Kompromitacje. UK. April 2014 . Retrieved 13 November 2015– via blogspot. He bravely and convincingly leaves Zionist revisionists such as Daniel Goldhagen and entire disciplines of academia (sociology, psychology) in the dust, and condemns them for the reluctance, deliberate or otherwise, to confront the Holocaust as the ultimate example of modernity's strength and the dominance of the modern state.

In a 2011 interview in the Polish weekly Polityka, Bauman criticised Zionism and Israel, saying Israel was not interested in peace and that it was "taking advantage of the Holocaust to legitimize unconscionable acts". He compared the Israeli West Bank barrier to the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto, where thousands of Jews died in the Holocaust. The Israeli ambassador to Poland, Zvi Bar, called Bauman's comments "half truths" and "groundless generalizations." [13] In modernity, people tend to become something less than the morally-autonomous individuals that they consider themselves to be. In a thoroughly bureaucratized society, morality is not so much eradicated as channeled into new forms and molded to the benefit of the bureaucracy. Being a moral person thus can be redefined to mean "doing a good job," earning the loyalty and respect of your peers, and living up to the duties that your superiors and institutions expect of you. Some people in Germany felt uneasy about the Holocaust when they thought about it too deeply. But this unease was typically assuaged by the fact that society as a whole was constantly reassuring them that they were doing the right thing. a b c Postone, Moishe (1992). "Review of Modernity and the Holocaust". American Journal of Sociology. 97 (5): 1521–1523. doi: 10.1086/229934. ISSN 0002-9602. JSTOR 2781448. S2CID 146976361. the overall non-violent character of modern civilization is an illusion. More exactly, it is an integral part of its self-apology and self-apotheosis...It is not true that our civilization exterminates violence... If modernity is indeed antithetical to the wild passions of barbarism, it is not at all antithetical to efficient, dispassionate destruction, slaughter, and torture... terrorism and torture are no longer instruments of passions; they have become instruments of political rationality." Our academic experts are ready and waiting to assist with any writing project you may have. From simple essay plans, through to full dissertations, you can guarantee we have a service perfectly matched to your needs. View our services

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Towards a Critical Sociology: An Essay on Common-Sense and Emancipation. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7100-8306-8 Best, Shaun (May 2014). "Agency and Structure in Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust". Irish Journal of Sociology. 22 (1): 67–87. doi: 10.7227/IJS.22.1.5. ISSN 0791-6035. S2CID 144636976. Academic Staff " Sociology and Social Policy " University of Leeds". University of Leeds. 19 December 2016 . Retrieved 9 March 2017. At no point of its long and tortuous execution did the Holocaust come in conflict with the principles of rationality...The most shattering lesson deriving from the analysis of the "twisted road to Auschwitz' is that - in the last resort - the choice of physical extermination...was a product of routine bureaucratic procedures: means-ends calculus, budget balancing, universal rule application...The Nazi revolution was an exercise in social engineering on a grandiose scale. Bishara, Azmi (Nov 8, 2019). "Modernity and the Mechanisms of Moral Neutralisation". Arab Center Washington DC . Retrieved 2023-03-13.

Living on Borrowed Time: Conversations with Citlali Rovirosa-Madrazo. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 978-0-7456-4738-8 Janina and Zygmunt Bauman as a Case Study of Inspiring Collaboration: From Ethnography to Theory’ - Prof. Izabela Wagner-Saffray (University of Warsaw & Institut Convergences Migrations, Paris) Zagadnienia centralizmu demokratycznego w pracach Lenina [Questions of Democratic Centralism in Lenin's Works]. Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza.From the Enlightenment on, the modern world was distinguished by its activist, engineering attitude toward nature and toward itself." Science was a power "allowing its holder to improve on reality, to reshape it according to human plans and designs, and to assist it in its drive to self-perfection...Human existence and cohabitation became objects of planning and administration; like garden vegetation or a living organism, they could not be left to their own devices, lest should they be infested by weeds or overwhelmed by cancerous tissues...the murder of Jews was an exercise in the rational management of society."

Junkers, Gabriele (2013). "The Empty Couch: The Taboo of Ageing and Retirement in Psychoanalysis". Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-59861-3 . Retrieved 24 April 2020.

Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Poul Poder (eds.), The Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman: Challenges and Critique. London: Ashgate; ISBN 0-7546-7060-0.