Postmodernism
and What Lies Beyond It
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 8/19/18
If
the ancient Greeks were man thinking and the Romans were man doing, then we
Americans are far more Roman than Greek.
A frontier people, we started out by clearing a path and using the wood
to build minimal shelters. The name of
the game wasn’t “What is man?” or “What is truth?” It was “Where shall we find our supper?”
But
Americans are Greek as well. We’re
capable of questioning and pursuing thought about non-material things. Freedom and representative democracy are
non-material concepts and we prize them highly.
Let us embrace, then, the term “Greco-Roman” and acknowledge that both
of those ancient traditions have not simply influenced, but shaped us.
Also
participant in our formation and in the continuance of what we call American
values, the Judeo-Christian ethic has landed more deeply into the American
psyche than has all the thought of Greece and Rome combined. If the foundational American ethic didn’t
come from Moses and Jesus, from whom did it come?
The Roman in us doesn’t
care much for philosophy. It wants to get
outside and build something. But the
Greek in us does, and the Greeks were right: all that we think and say has
philosophical underpinnings.
One
of the most puzzling and depressing philosophical terms used today is the term
“postmodernism.” Ever wondered what
happened to church steeples or why school buildings are so flat and lacking in
personality? Why our dress no longer
bespeaks respect or pride? Why
self-esteem replaced self-denial? Philosophy
did it. Philosophy precedes and surrounds
everything we adopt or do. Current
beliefs and the practices that flow from them and influence politics, education,
religion and even architecture can no longer be called modern. They are postmodern. The modern 20th century, America’s
century, is gone.
According
to most historians, the early modern world began with the Industrial Revolution. Machines and automation changed us, but not
our basic beliefs about God and man.
Fast cars, fast living, and television didn’t diminish faith. Not until
the late 20th century, that is.
So different is our nation from 1960 that a new label is necessary. That label is postmodernism.
At
the heart of postmodernism lie abandonment, deconstruction, and death:
abandonment of stability and social structures such as the nuclear family and deconstruction
of definitions such as those of truth, marriage, and even gender. In churches we’ve seen the death of
icons. Who needs to see crosses anymore? Give us drums. In schools, joy is absent. Success is shown by data. All things are measurable. Test those kids! Forget the joy. In architecture, it’s functionality only and
the absence of ornament. Give us stark,
angular buildings and outrageous design.
Our
literature is postmodern as well. It has turned inward and introspective. If Ernest Hemingway’s characters were
troubled, at least they were trying to figure the world out. Contemporary, postmodern authors and movie
makers present characters who are beyond redemption and hope. Instead of heroes, we’re given anti-heroes.
In
postmodernism, everything is relative.
All things are based on perception.
Instead of truth, it’s “my truth” and “your truth.” Instead of male and female, it’s “whatever
gender you identify with.” (I learned
this personally by visiting the local Target store to ask about their bathroom
use policy.) The question is no longer
“Where does the truth lie?” It’s “How do
you feel?”
As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Abolition of Man, “We make men
without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.” Enthroning multiculturalism, we are deserting
faith in ideas, values, and norms of our own Western culture, that is, Greco-Roman
and Judeo-Christian culture. Instead of
progressing toward once universal goals such as justice, knowledge, and freedom,
we now advance “inclusion,” arguing that all ideas are created equal.
Even the word “media”
has fallen to postmodernism. It actually
means “between us,” implying the objective connecting of the public to
something else. The media itself is now
the something else. CNN doesn’t give the
news. Its reporters and commentators are the news.
Christopher Butler of
Oxford University believes postmodernism is dying. Men without chests can simply grow tired and
weary, longing once again for an age that had a spiritual element and meaning. We should hope Butler is right. America’s half-century of postmodernism has
produced more suicides than any other period on record.
Man can stand the loss
of almost anything except the loss of meaning.
Perhaps beyond postmodernism lies hope and beauty that all of us are
still capable of recognizing and desiring.
Just
some thoughts. With our kids and
grandkids in mind.
Roger Hines
8/14/18
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