Modernism

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Modernism

Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life.

James Joyce's Ulysses is the classic example of modernism in the novel. Ulysses (1922) has been called "a demonstration and summation of the entire Modernist movement" and rightfully so. It was designed to break down the standards of morality and virtue by shocking the sensibilities. It advocated and assert the moral primacy of pleasure and suggests standards of morality are merely an instrument of oppression with no social value.

A notable characteristic of modernism is said to be self-consciousness concerning artistic and social traditions, which often led to experimentation with form, along with the use of techniques that drew attention to the processes and materials used in creating works of art. But it is always seeking to destruct reality as merely relative to feelings and fancies.

The values of “modernism” are often incoherent, even opportunistic heterodoxy which was an often unwarranted deviation from accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs. This was often coupled with an avoidance of the disciplines associated with tradition. This would lead to sexual revolutions which would undermine the family where social bonds of a free society is born.

In its positive sense, “modernism” suggests that it signals a revolutionary break from established orthodoxies, a celebration of the present, and an experimental investigation into the future. As a negative value, “modernism” has connoted an incoherent, even opportunistic heterodoxy, an avoidance of the discipline of tradition.

Rejecting reality

Modernism explicitly rejected the ideology of realism and made use of the works of the past by the employment of reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody. Modernism also rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and many modernists also rejected religious belief.

Any break from established orthodoxies might have to assume that established orthodoxy was not already a corruption as we see in a comparison of early Christianity and that presented by Constantine. Understanding the Christian conflict with Imperial Cult of Rome and Rome's conflict with the Republic and persecution of the early Church and how Nero continued to undermine that Libera Res Publica as did Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar.

Undermining civilization is always easier when it has already undermined itself by creeping avenues of decay found in a departure from social virtues.

Any celebration of the present can be an exercise in vanity without a competent understanding of the past for without the sacrifices and struggle of the past there would be no present.

And without a clear and objective understanding of both all experimental investigation into the future will likely end in disaster through the decay of the social bonds of society as a whole through the degeneration of the individual who becomes accustomed to living at the expense of others.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism sees itself as an intellectual discourse characterized by skepticism. It opposes the "grand narratives" of modernism challenging the worldviews associated with the Enlightenment. Postmodernism pushes relativism and seeing all ideology as meaningless while promoting obscurantism.

Postmodernists are "skeptical of explanations which claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, or races" Using their skepticism to make all truth relative to, if not subordinate to, their doubt which was generally an unwillingness to see. They want to relegate "reality" to nothing more than a mental construct.

Postmodernism in their vanity what to assert the opinion that all interpretations are contingent on the perspective from which they are made, which of course is merely their opinion. They close their eyes and minds to the possibility of unmediated reality or objectively-rational knowledge. This of course is why even the idea of God, Divine will and natural law need to go.

The modernist and postmodernists are the enemy of scholastic philosophy and theology. They habitually resist the teachings of the magisterium of the of the Roman Catholic Church. They may claim a moral quality of curiosity it is commonly surpassed by their arrogance, ignorance, and entertaining of falsehood. Modernists deceive the blind believers again through obscurantism one of the most common tactics of false religion.

People have designated postmodernism as a product of the fear of nuclear Armageddon and equated it with an "implosion of meaning" as "meaningless" adding nothing to analytical or empirical knowledge.

According to even Chomsky who usually identifies himself as an anarcho-syndicalist or a libertarian socialist sees Postmodernists are incapable of responding to the simplest of enquiries like "what are the principles of their theories, on what evidence are they based, what do they explain that wasn't already obvious, etc.?...If [these requests] can't be met, then I'd suggest recourse to Hume's advice in similar circumstances: 'to the flames'."

William Craig wrote:

• "The idea that we live in a postmodern culture is a myth. In fact, a postmodern culture is an impossibility; it would be utterly unliveable. People are not relativistic when it comes to matters of science, engineering, and technology; rather, they are relativistic and pluralistic in matters of religion and ethics. But, of course, that's not postmodernism; that's modernism!"

Camille Paglia has said:

• "The end result of four decades of postmodernism permeating the art world is that there is very little interesting or important work being done right now in the fine arts. The irony was a bold and creative posture when Duchamp did it, but it is now an utterly banal, exhausted, and tedious strategy. Young artists have been taught to be "cool" and "hip" and thus painfully self-conscious. They are not encouraged to be enthusiastic, emotional, and visionary. They have been cut off from artistic tradition by the crippled skepticism about history that they have been taught by ignorant and solipsistic postmodernists. In short, the art world will never revive until postmodernism fades away. Postmodernism is a plague upon the mind and the heart."

Postmodernism is critiqued in "Beyond the Hoax" by physics professor Alan Sokal as nothing more than "Fashionable Nonsense" as spoofed by the deliberately nonsensical article appearing in the cultural studies journal, Social Text.

Zimbabwean-born British Marxist Alex Callinicos says that postmodernism "reflects the disappointed revolutionary generation of '68, and the incorporation of many of its members into the professional and managerial 'new middle class'. It is best read as a symptom of political frustration and social mobility rather than as a significant intellectual or cultural phenomenon in its own right."[122]

Analytic philosopher Daniel Dennett expressed the damage of, "Postmodernism, the school of 'thought' that proclaimed 'There are no truths, only interpretations' has largely played itself out in absurdity, but it has left behind a generation of academics in the humanities disabled by their distrust of the very idea of truth and their disrespect for evidence, settling for 'conversations' in which nobody is wrong and nothing can be confirmed, only asserted with whatever style you can muster."

There is no doubt that postmodernism has its intellectual roots in fascism because it is actually about the very power it denounces seen in its obsession with undermining truth and reason:

• "If the modern era begins with the European Enlightenment, the postmodern era that captivates the radical multiculturalists begins with its rejection. According to the new radicals, the Enlightenment-inspired ideas that have previously structured our world, especially the legal and academic parts of it, are a fraud perpetrated and perpetuated by white males to consolidate their own power. Those who disagree are not only blind but bigoted... "

The ultimate goal is to elevate every lazy, ignorant, pseudo intellectual academic with letters after their name, or not, to the rank of a god with their own, truth and morality.

The ideology that "all truths are relative" is of course also relative and by its nature anti-reason, anti-scientific and at best pseudo-scientific which allowed people to image they are following science when they have never gone near or even stumbled across science.

Modernity

There are three phases of this modernity are distinguished with the terms: eurocentric, westcentric, and polycentric modernity.

The four key characteristics of modernity are the rise of science and rational thought, individualism, industrialisation, and urbanisation. But it is said to have five faces: "Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism".

The particular meaning of Karl Marx's modern society is the capitalist society. Hence, his conception of modernity is specifically linked to the advancement of modern capitalism and its effect on social arrangements. Indeed, he acknowledges that the main transformative power shaping the modern period is capitalism.

Deconstructivism

Postmodernism is akin to deconstruction and post-structuralism.

Deconstruction proponents like Jacques Derrida argues that language, especially in idealist concepts such as truth and justice, is irreducibly complex, unstable and difficult to determine, making fluid and comprehensive ideas of language more adequate in deconstructive criticism. He was a pernicious nihilist who subtilly attacked the values of culture by insisting that truth and absolute value cannot be known therefor undermining all moral judgment.

Deconstructivism in art is characterized by the use of fragmentation, manipulation of ideas of a structure's surface or skin, redefinition of shapes and forms, and radical manifestation of complexity in a building.