Zygmunt Bauman Analysis

Solomon Radasky was born in Warsaw, Poland, on May 17, 1910. He worked in the Praga district of Warsaw with the family business of making fur coats. He had 2 brothers, 3 sisters, and a mother and father who lived in the same area as Solomon. He remembers that whenever a Jewish holiday came in his town, the stores closed for the day and everyone celebrated the Jewish holiday. In his early 30’s, the Nazis began to force many Jewish families, along with the Radasky family, into the newly established ghettos.

In William Zinsser's essay "Simplicity" he discusses and emphasizes the importance of meaningful writing. Moreover, Zinsser refers to American writing as "clutter" writing, due to "unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon." In addition, Zinsser believes that ample wording may confuse the reader, and cause them to lose their ability to focus. Furthermore, causing the reader to become uninterested and unable to comprehend what they are reading. Similarly, Zinsser mentions that if the reader fails to read the entire article, essay, magazine, or book, that it is the authors own fault, not the readers. Because, of the unorganized structure and cluttered terminology of the author. Nonetheless, writing is not

Emmanuel Levinas was a Jewish philosopher born in Lithuania in 1906. In 1931, he moved to and lived in France for the rest of his life. He was enlisted in the war against Germany, was captured, and became a prisoner of war. At the same time, most of his family who still resided in Eastern Europe were killed in the Holocaust. In his works, Levinas attempts to disprove theodicies (371). In his essay, "Useless Suffering," Emmanuel Levinas argues that evil and suffering are in fact useless, by demonstrating that nothing, including theodicies, bring justice to the lives of the people who suffered in the Holocaust.

"I define modernism as any attempt by modern men and women to become subjects as well as objects of modernisation, to get a grip on the modern world and make themselves at home in it." (Berman, 1988). It can be seen that both Theodor Adorno and Antonio Gramsci are major thinkers and contributors to the twentieth century. Both Adorno and Gramsci had many ideas by which could be associated with the social world in which we live in today. Even though both Adorno and Gramsci had good points and ideologies which still apply to the modern world, it is clear that Adorno had more to say about the social world we live in today.

Romero intentionally targets consumer culture and capitalist economics by setting the majority of Dawn of the Dead in a shopping mall, using both the unusual setting and the symbolic zombies to offer a mordacious critique of contemporary 1970s American society (Bishop 2010: 234). Romero consciously draws the audience’s attention towards the relationship between zombies and consumerism (Bishop 2010: 234). The insatiable need to purchase, own, and consume has become so deeply ingrained in twentieth-century Americans that their reanimated corpses are relentlessly driven by the same instincts and needs. The metaphor is simple: Americans in the 1970s have become a kind of zombie already, slaves to the master of consumerism, and mindlessly migrating

In “Subculture: the Unnatural Break” (the sixth chapter from his book Subculture: the Meaning of Style), Dick Hebdige claims that subcultures represent a rupture between the processes that lead from reality to media representation, challenging therefore the codes of language and discourse and losing their disruptive power once they get assimilated. The reaction to the punk subculture in Great Britain in the seventies is used to prove Hebdige’s thesis.

“Homeland is something one becomes aware of only through its loss, Gunter Grass.” In Peter Gay’s memoir, My German Question, he articulates what it was like living in Germany with the presence of the Nazis or in his own experience the lack there of. Peter lived in a family that didn’t directly practice Judaism and most German families didn’t perceive them as Jews until the Nazis defined what a Jew was to the public. The persecution of other Jewish families in Germany where far worse than what Peter experienced growing up. There was a major contrast between how Gay’s family was treated and how other Jews who actively practiced the religion in Germany were treated which played a contributing factor for why the family stayed so long before they left.

In December of 1938, months before Nazi Germany fully invaded Czechoslovakia a British banker named Nicholas Winton was quickly changing his winter vacation plans (USHMM, 2017). Instead, he decided to help in Prague, Czechoslovakia at a British-operated Jewish refugee center. After the infamous pogrom known as Kirstallnacht, new laws were enacted allowing Jews to enter Britain (Eurnekian, 2015). Through Nicholas ' consistent and selfless personality, he took advantage of this situation in Czechoslovakia. He helped in a refugee center, raised money in Britain and transported Jewish children to safety which made him an inspiration to thousands.

In the article, “The Addictive Virus,” the authors commence the introduction by applying the ethical appeal, when discussing about their occupation and accomplishments to the audience. In addition, the writers reinforce their argument with brief descriptions of shoppers that purchased numerous items to fill the void that clouds their judgement. Not only that, the authors established a definition for “affluenza virus,” which requested the audience to accept a definition that may be different from their own perspective (Stipulation). Lastly, the writers incorporate Dr. Ronald Faber to elaborate on the social and psychological origins of “pathological buying.”

In Eric D. Weitz’s article, “The Modernity of Genocides: War, Race, and Revolution in the 20th century,” the author investigates the connection between modernity and genocide to understand why genocides became more frequent, and more systematic, in the 20th century. Weitz remarks that there appeared a synthesis between the European revolutionary movements and race thinking, a pseudoscience that had become hegemonic in the period. This synthesis, Weitz argues, was unique to the 20th century in that the political chaos that allowed for the seizure of power by popular revolutions coincided with the dominance of racial thinking that infected the platforms of these political groups. By these racially twisted platforms, the revolutionary

Very few books in the history of economic thought still render an accurate portrayal of society today. Written 115 years ago, Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Social Class (1899) describes a materialistic society obsessed with reputation and social status, echoing a portrayal of the modern capitalistic consumer culture that defines us today. As Roger Mason (1998), professor of consumer theory states: “Consuming for status has, in fact, become a defining element of the new consumer societies” (p.vii). In his treatise, Veblen’s discusses such a society, in order to portray the ‘leisure class’, the 19th century society that characterized the upper class that formed as a consequence of the Second Industrial Revolution. Such a society uses the consumption of goods and leisure as means of climbing up the social ladder. Veblen calls such types of consumption ‘conspicuous consumption’ and ‘conspicuous leisure’.

Noam Chomsky said one day “all over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.” Seeing how consumerism has taken an important part in the society and how it has affected members of the society in many ways.

The Meeting Between Abraham and Melchizedek, by Rubens is a preparatory oil sketches from the 1620s until 1633. The story behind the composition is Melchizedek, King of Salem, met Abraham who was offering him wine and bread. He was on his way back from defeating Chedorlaomer. This was a four-stage process for Ruben. The first stage was named, The Fitzwilliam bozzetto: Rubens, The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, made in 1622-25. It was 6 1/8 by 6 1/8 inches. The second stage was named The Prado modello: Rubens, The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek, made in 1625. This stage was 25 5/8 by 26 ¾ inches; a little bit more than four times as big as the first. The third stage which is my favorite

We all dream of a more simple life, one without the need for large amounts of money, or top of the line technology. In the TV series “Futurama” written and produced by David X. Cohen (Producer of the simpsons) we see Dr. John A. Zoidberg (better known as Zoidberg) who lives this more simple, yet elegant lifestyle. Even in the year 3000 he proves that no matter when you are the transcendentalist life is possible. Zoidberg is a Decapodian, a lobsterish alien from Decapod 10; he is the staff doctor at the delivery company at planet express, and lives in their dumpster. Zoidberg lives his transcendentalist life style with a few bold characteristics such as his lack of material possessions, his doctorates degree in art history or his care for his

Manhattan Transfer describes a panoramic view of life in New York City between 1890 and 1925. It contained fragments of popular songs, news headlines, and stream of consciousness monologues from a horde of unrelated characters. Dos Passos felt that his novels should paint a picture of society as it was, to expose human difficulties by showing them realistically. Following the directions of an author he admired, Walt Whitman, Dos Passos who sought to use a “moral microscope” upon humanity. He became a leading modernist with his novel, an astonishingly original novel. Influenced by modernism more than by any literary precedent it is a montage of many fictional lives linked to the central stories of an idealistic reporter and a calculating actress.