Post-modernism.
What is it? Well, it’s what comes after Modernism.
Modernism is a philosophy, attitude, way of interpreting the world.
Modernism embraces the idea of a Grand Narrative – that reality and the Way Forward can be explained by a single, seamless, grand doctrine. Modern (big M) philosophers and politicians contend that science and rationalism will necessarily lead to a more moral and Enlightened society, a “higher culture”. Its critics claim that Modernism’s ship ran aground and sank after the Holocaust, and after the failures of Marxism, the Mother of all grand narratives. More recent tragic events like Jonestown and 9/11, however, come not from Modern, but pre-Modern modes of thought.
Orthogonality, where there are a minimum number of tools to perform the totality of required functions, no more and no less, is a cornerstone of Modernism. Minimalism is very much a Modern state of mind. Small, simple, ordered, structured, regular. When I think of Modernism I see polished, featureless monoliths – or really a SINGLE, polished featureless monolith - reaching for the heavens. Originality, too, is important to the modernist. Build it from the ground up, starting from nothing. Continue to polish and refine it. Anyone who takes it away and claims it as their own is a thief or worse. Anyone who takes it part and puts it back together, or takes bit of it and mixes them up with stuff from outside, let alone stuff he or she worked out for themselves, is a heretic.
And, this is SERIOUS. You can’t take something the culmination of something that’s been developed and held inviolate, or been developed and carefully distilled by a clear hierarchy of patriarchs and acolytes over centuries, apart and see how it works. Or mix it up with something else, especially for something as trivial and light-hearted as fun or curiosity. And who gave you permission, anyway, huh? Unless you’ve trained for 50 years under an anointed Grandmaster, you can’t possibly understand. Let alone criticise or suggest that there might be alternatives. Know your place, shut up, drink the Kool-Aid and ascend to Heaven.
So what comes after Modernism? How can there BE something after Modernism?
Well, why shouldn’t there be, and on whose authority?
Postmodernists reject the universal, Grand Narratives, in favour of the local and temporal – well, not quite true, universal doctrines can be embraced, but only as one of a number of possibilities and as part of a more complex whole, and when they are appropriate. They embrace differences and contradictions. “High” and “Low” cultures are equally embraced. Authority figures’ ideas of what constitutes “art” or “culture” or what is “good” are rejected in favour of individual evaluations or the consensus of equals.
You have to make up your own mind about things. Analyse, deconstruct, recreate and recombine, not just regurgitate. Modularity and interchangeable parts are good, as is being able to see where everything is joined together. Much easier to fix that way.