1) "Modernity is no longer preoccupied with the supernatural, but rather delights in the natural, the this-wordly and the secular."
2) "There is a growing belief in the power of individual minds, guided by methods of observation, experience and reflection to attain the truths needed for the guidance of life."
3) "The future rather than the past dominates the imagination. The Golden Age lies ahead of us not behind us." And "Man is capable, if he will exercise the required courage, intelligence and effort, of shaping his own fate."
4) "The patient and experimental study of nature, bearing fruit in inventions which control nature and subdue her forces to social use, is the method by which progress is made."
Much has been written about the demise of modernity, but I am confident that each of us can easily list off people we know of, hear about, or work with everyday, still firmly standing on Dewey's system of modern progress.
When I thought about it a little further I came to think that the people that seem most firmly confident in the precepts of modernity are our leaders. Business leaders, political leaders, and often even our spiritual leaders have their faith completely camped in all the hopes that modernity promised.
If this is true, what does it say about a post-modern era? Can people living in an era still being "ruled" by ideals of modernity, truly be living in a post modern age?
As a simple example, does the rebuilding effort in New Orleans fit better into the concept of a post modern society, or one that is committed, right or wrong, to all that Modernity stands for?
Maybe we are living in a dream world where post-modern thinking dominates our thoughts, but we wake up to reality every morning where we go back to feeding the corporate machine's relentless demands of bigger, faster, cheaper, better.
Quotes and references from "Truth is stranger than it used to be" by J. Richard Middleton and Brian J. Walsh 1995
No comments:
Post a Comment