Zygmunt Bauman, one of the most admired social thinkers of our time, seeks to liberate us from the thinking that renders us hopeless in the face of our own domineering governments and threats from unknown forces abroad. He shows us we can give up belief in a hierarchical arrangement of states and powers. He challenges members of the 'knowledge class' to overcome their estrangement from the rest of society. Gracefully, provocatively, Bauman urges us to think in new ways about a newly flexible, newly challenging modern world. As Bauman notes, quoting Vaclav Havel, 'hope is not a prognostication'. It is, alongside courage and will, a mundane, common weapon that is too seldom used.