An Analysis Of The Allegory Of Zygmunt Bauman

Zygmunt Bauman unpacks the social roots and consequences of the globalising process in present-day human condition while busting some popular myths and perceptions of ‘globalisation’ as an intractable and immutable shibboleth, believed to affect everyone in the same measure and manner (perceived unity of effects). He invokes the concept of time-space compression for the multi-faced transformation of the dharply differentiated and differentiating uses of various related parameters. Thus, globalisation is as divisive as it is unitive of the existential conditions of entire populations and myriad segments. Moreover, the causes of division are identical to those promoting uniformity across the globe. Along with the emerging planetary dimensions

Without any alternative images of the good life/utopia or own political agenda, the vagabonds’ sole aim is to be allowed to become tourists. In a restless world, the only acceptable human form of restlessness is tourism. The vagabond and tourist are both consumers, but the former is a flawed one. Their relationship to the world is primarily aesthetic.
Their ‘savouring’ attitude towards the world unites them, rendering them alike. The tourists try hard to forget and repress this similarity. The vagabonds desire a share in the perceived lifestyles of tourists but cannot really afford the kind of sophisticated choices in which consumers are expected to excel. Thus, their potential to be consumers is limited by their scarce resources, making their position in society precarious as they fail to lubricate the wheels of the consumer society or contribute to economic prosperity.
Tourists visualise a utopian world without vagabonds. Much of their efforts in society in the form of their obsession with ‘law and order’, criminalisation of poverty and recurrent spongers-bashing. This politics reflect their ongoing effort to life social reality against all odds to the level of that utopia. However, the catch is that the lives of tourists would not be half as enjoyable as if there no vagabonds were present to display the alternative to that