In the Face of Bureaucracy

IN THE FACE OF BUREAUCRACY

In: MINED, 2017

Thirty years of neoliberalism, free-market forces and privatization have taken their toll, as power no longer has a moral ground and individual success has become normative causing a relentless pressure to achieve and compete. The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman describes the paradox of our era pointedly as: “Never have we been so free. Never have we felt so powerless.” Our presumed freedom is bound to one dominant condition: we must be successful – that is, “make” something of ourselves.

In this article I search for an alternative, a way to step out of the neo-liberal frame. To take a different postion using sensitivity, imagination and reflection in an attempt to put the pieces together and make sense out of a fragmented, market driven reality that is desperately in need of authority founded on knowledge, insights, wisdom and righteousness to base a probable truth on. I describe the need for compassion, selfcompassion and creativity to do so.

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