1. Recent work has given us new descriptions of “positive barbarism” (Maria Boletsi, Barbarism and its Discontents. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013), “gentle barbarism” (Jean-Pierre Le Goff, “Modernization and Gentle Barbarism” Diogenes, No. 195, 49 (3), 2002),
2. and “weak barbarism” (Radu Vasile Chialda, “Weak Barbarism” Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 8 (1), 2011, 223–35). Chialda argues that “weak barbarism” has emerged in an era of “weak thought” (Vattimo). It describes not only aspects of external barbarism but also what he calls “interior barbarism”; it focuses on the “uncivilized character of human individuals” and it stresses the distinction between “weak barbarism” and “strong barbarism” (225). See my book Weakness: A Literary and Philosophical History for more discussion of weak thought. I will discuss these forms of barbarism in more detail in the next chapter.
3. Individualization has emerged as a central concept in recent times. Zygmunt Bauman argues that individualization describes the process whereby human identity is being transformed from a “given” into a “task” [Bauman, Zygmunt. Intimations of Postmodernity. London: Routledge, 2002] and that it is the individual who is variously charged with the responsibility for “performing that task and for the consequences of their performance” (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, xv) [Individualization. London: Sage, 2002].