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In The Last Thirty Years We Have Gained Enormous Amount Of Freedom (everywhere, Except Perhaps In Places Like Burma Or North Korea), But We Lost Quite A Large Amount Of Security. Because Of All Sorts Of Reasons, Because Of Globalization Which Stripped The Nation State Of A Large Part Of Its Sovereignty Away, Because Of The Dismantling Of The So-called Welfare State. As A Result, People Feel Simultaneously Much Freer And Much More Insecure.

State Governments Seek Local Remedies For The Globally Fabricated Deprivations And Miseries In Vain - Just As The Individuals-by-the-decree-of-fate (read: By The Impact Of Deregulation) Seek In Vain The Individual Solutions To The Socially Fabricated Life Problems.

It Is So True That In Liquid Modernity Freedom Was, So To Speak, Let Off The Leash, And For A Quite A Number Of Years The Freedom Of Choice Was "in Principle" Unlimited. One Result Was The Weakening Of Inter-human Bonds, Particularly Inherited Bonds, And The Counterfactual Assumption That Individuals Must And Can Fend For Themselves.

Unlike 'real Relationships', 'virtual Relationships' Are Easy To Enter And To Exit. They Look Smart And Clean, Feel Easy To Use, When Compared With The Heavy, Slow-moving, Messy Real Stuff.

Our Consumer-oriented Economy Wouldn't Survive Without Economic Growth. The Whole Mechanism Depends On Invention And Insinuation Of Novelties, Arousing New Wants, Seduction And Temptation. This Is The Problem We Face - Much More Than Recapitalizing The Banks. The Question Is: Is That Kind Of Economy Sustainable?