Law, economics, culture, politics, religion, the defining sentiments of our time according to Bauman.

Let me give you one example from the many available: in 2006 millions of cosmetic operations were carried out in the United States alone. The typical advertisements for a cosmetic surgery clinic (an activity that by now has given rise to a vast and highly profitable industry) are full of temptations that any woman concerned about her looks would find difficult to resist. "And so history repeats itself: the discovery of the 'non-improved' female body as 'virgin territory' not yet put to crop. Every square centimetre of a woman's body can be improved on. Life is uncertain – for a woman even more than for a man – and that insecurity is potentially an asset that no businessman worthy of the name would not invest in. Since no amount of Botox, however regularly injected, can dispel that uncertainty, businesses have every reason to hope for ongoing and growing profit flows." The art of life, so multifaceted, can be reduced (this is the message) to a single technique: expert and mindful shopping. From which not even the body can escape. Even at the cost of transforming all of us, old and young, into a race of debtors.

"If social theories or the theoreticians of sociology could be compared to kitchen utensils, Zygmunt Bauman would certainly be one of the sharpest knives". So said Citlali Rovirosa-Madrazo of the author at the end of their conversations on the great issues of modern times.