In the process, we lose sight of a fundamental truth: we have gradually all become neo-liberal, in both thought and deed.

identity is always a construct that derives from an interaction between the identity holder and the wider environment.

In 1834, under the influence of the Malthusians, Britain introduced a new Poor Law that defined poverty as a moral shortcoming.

There’s nothing wrong with flat screens as such, nor with the media. The problem lies in the messages that they convey and, more broadly, in the dominance of free-market processes. The explicit message is: everyone can be perfect; everyone can have anything they want. But there’s also an implicit caveat: as long as you try hard enough. And that tie

Depending on what you were told when you were assembling your identity, you are either certain of yourself, confident in your dealings with others, and sure of your own superiority; or, conversely, you are timid, ashamed of yourself, and shrink from interaction with others, convinced that they think you worthless. To use psychiatric jargon, people

When all is said and done, norms and values are our way of dealing with our bodies and those of others. They define us, and consequently form an integral part of our identity. Changes in the ethical sphere spark changes in the sphere of identity and vice versa, always reflecting changes in the wider environment from which individuals derive their i

Efficiency is the new norm, material profit the new goal, and greed the new virtue.

A paper reality is being created that has less and less to do with actual reality.

The obligation to both succeed and enjoy has turned postmodern consumers into clones of each other’s exclusiveness, without the advantage of mutual solidarity. Hence the strange combination of excessive individualism and a collective consumerism in which we all cherish the illusion that we are unique.