Toward a full appreciation of post-modernity

It will take a while to get our heads around the concept.

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Between the period of The Enlightenment and the twentieth century, progressive and sophisticated people thought history was moving in a certain direction: away from tribalism, superstition, autocracy; toward tolerance, egalitarianism, internationalism.

But the idea of the latter direction actually seemed to lead toward homogeneity: the “world citizen” (speaking a universal language, like Esperanto?).

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/21/why-russians-are-unlikely-to-abandon-putin/

“ . . . spreading revival of Russian nationalism.”

The “populist” wave we’ve heard so much about is actually a nationalist wave. Instead of “moving forward” we see populace after populace “going back” to nationalism and/or religious fundamentalism.

Liberals and socialists are appalled and alarmed. Modernism is fading.

Well, its vision was unnatural. It was anti-communitarian. It was utopian and ideological in the worst sense of those words. It did not understand the human condition.

To the modernist mind the pending direction will seem regressive. There will be a lot of confusion and disorientation as the devolution unfolds. Hopefully some lessons will have been learned. Hopefully, ultimately, what the Greens call Ecological Wisdom will prevail.

The modernist vision did not correspond to social, cultural, or biological reality. The Green worldview is post-modern.