Feeling Disappointed
When I began looking over Zygmunt Buaman’s Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age, I opened the pages with great anticipation. By the time I had finished, I found myself disappointed. Bauman offered some insightful thoughts on some key issues, but I felt he missed the mark on some others.
Bauman did a good job identifying the disparity between the rich and the poor. He points out “At the turn of the twenty-first century, the richest 5 per cent of people receive one-third of total global income, as much as the poorest 80 per cent.”[1] Most people who are in the wealthiest 5% do not even realize how wealthy they (we) truly are. We also do not realize how poor the rest of the world is. It is interesting to note that “the sole index treated routinely as a measure of well-being, and the criterion of the success or failure of the authorities charged with monitoring and protecting the nation’s capacity to stand up to challenges, as well as the nation’s ability to resolve the problems it collectively confronts, is the average income or average wealth of its members, not the extent of inequality in income or wealth distribution.”[2] It is easy to call ourselves “middle class” or “working class” and deny that we are in fact the wealthiest people on the planet. Not only are we the wealthiest, but we are in such a minority that the numbers are staggering. We fail also to recognize that much of our wealth is a result of where we were born. The term “collateral damage” is a good term to expose a key truth about out wealth; much of which comes at the expense and detriment of others.
What Bauman failed to fully address was the reality that not all poverty is created equal. The concept of “choices” or “options” helps me as I think about poverty. Many people are born into systems or circumstances in which they have few if any options to make a better life. In these situations, an individual can do little if anything to change their situation; help must come from the outside. In other situations, options exist for people to become more economically stable. A question that is seldom asked is whether there is the potential within a democratic, capitalistic society to help give more people more options? I will be the first to admit that capitalism has produced many great evils, but is that a fault of the system or of people who use the system? Would any system run by self-seeking human beings do any better? Bauman suggest, “The ‘social state’ is no longer viable; only a ‘social planet’ can take over the functions that social states tried, with mixed success, to perform.[3] I would argue that this would still result in the same inequalities because sinful humans would still be in charge.
Bauman also seems to view the past as being nobler than it may have been. He cites the fact that Henry Ford could not outsource labor in those days like we can now. As a result, jobs stayed within the community rather than being outsourced to exploit a third world nation.[4] What he failed to mention was that Ford “insourced” many Arabs from the Middle East to fill jobs. He was openly anti-Semitic and did not want to hire local Jews. Nor was it mentioned that major U.S. car manufactures purchased public transportation works to limit their effectiveness and create a greater need for individuals to own cars. I would venture to say that in all times and in all places people have exploited others for personal gain.
I would also challenge the blanket statements regarding gated communities.[5] I would agree that there are gated communities designed to create a sense of elitism and separation between those who are wealthy and “important” and everybody else. I have, however, been in many places around the world in which gated communities are being formed within existing neighborhoods to create greater safety; many of these are poor neighborhoods. For those who would universally criticize gated communities, I would ask those same people if they lock their doors at night or lock their car. The reality of living in a sinful world causes us be less than trusting at times.
My final criticism of Bauman is in his representation of God; “God offered his people a covenant: you listen to me and obey, and I’ll make you happy.”[6] He fails to take in the totality of scripture. He holds a very high view of the potential of sociology, “the ‘Managerial Revolution mark two’, just one aspect of the ‘Great Transformation mark two’, in fact assigns to sociology a public role of unprecedented significance and offers us (though unintentionally and inadvertently) a constituency of an unprecedented size. There has been, I would argue, no other moment in history when so many people have needed so much of such vital goods for sociology to deliver.[7] While sociology can and should better inform us of the current state of the world’s population, the best solutions will never be found with purely human wisdom.
[1] Zygmunt Bauman, Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2011), Kindle, loc. 987.
[2] Ibid., Loc. 85.
[3] Ibid., Loc. 531.
[4] Ibid., Loc. 870
[5] Ibid., Loc. 1213-1300.
[6] Ibid., Loc. 2093.
[7] Ibid., Loc. 3321.
About the Author
Brian Yost
Brian is a husband and father of three. He works with Free Methodist World Missions and is currently serving in Latin America.6 responses to “Feeling Disappointed”
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Hi Brian,
I beleive that no matter what we do to make inequalities better when it comes to the rich and the poor we will always have the poor with us. I liked Bauman’s idea about “Collateral Damage” which is really a military term. Like when a person kills their own comrad on accident in the middle of a war. I think Bauman got it right the disparity of rich and poor definetly helps to accidentley or unaccidently hurt the very people on our team. I dont think that he is too far fetched about what society should do. Like society should be concerned about itself and that means those who are less fortunate because of where they come from or what race they are. I know that being born a poor person is just like being born a rich one, neithter one has nothing to do with who had them. Yet the principle that i think is important is that people should not be marginalized because of their like of status or sociological background. As Christians we should know that God makes it plain through Christ, we were all too poor to save ourselves. So Christ humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death on the cross because we could not do it oursleves. We should adopt that spirit when we deal with others in society who are not as privledge as we!!! Blessings
It seems like many of us have a similar take away after reading Bauman. He brings up some good truths and helps me identify my real place but his answers come up lacking. Sociology helps with awareness and some initial steps but will always leave us short.
Great thinking Brian. Love the way you articulated, “A question that is seldom asked is whether there is the potential within a democratic, capitalistic society to help give more people more options? I will be the first to admit that capitalism has produced many great evils, but is that a fault of the system or of people who use the system? Would any system run by self-seeking human beings do any better?” I felt that several times in my reading as, yes things are abysmal, but I can think of no better alternatives with humanity at the helm. I actually believe on there surface communism, democratic/capitalism, and socialism could all fundamentally work well in the “Kingdom”. Outside of the Kingdom, humanity is corrupt and pollutes and corrupts any and all man imagined ways towards becoming the world and humanity God has intended. Thanks for articulating a great point clearly!
Your words, Brian, made me realize that we can never truly have the full picture because we speak as a frog in the hot water – Bauman, while critiquing western society’s adoration of materialism and globalization, has the luxury of getting his ideas across because of those very things.
As well, he speaks in blanket statements because he doesn’t know about developing worlds’ needs (i.e. gated communities), having not heard voices from those regions.
It serves as a poignant reminder that we ALWAYS need other voices in our lives, if we’re going to get a wider more fuller understanding of the world.
I wonder though, if on some level, globalization doesn’t really help elevate, rather it simply highlights existing differences all the while pronouncing “winners” and “losers” based on arbitrary measures. There is an assumption that a house with a shingled roof and plywood floors is “better” than a thatched roof and earthen floor. Why is it better? Who gets to decide that?
One of the unintended consequences of globalization is that now, those with thatched roofs and earthen floors are enlightened to the reality of shingles and plywood and the comparisons naturally begin. Now, the only real measurable differences between those two modes of shelter is that the one costs way more than the other and since equity is the goal of good-hearted people then…. well you know where this ends. Globalism sets up uneven comparisons if left unattended…
J
Brian, I agree with your observations. I’m especially appreciative of ‘all poverty is not the same’. I’m certainly no expert on the Thai societal reality but the way American’s perceive poverty and the way our society treats poverty is radically different. It seems in some third world cultures, that nation may in fact orient itself (it’s systems, cost of living, etc) towards said poverty. Whereas in America we orient ourselves toward the middle class. All poverty is not the same…