Defining Post-modernism

Post-modernism is a historical label that describes broad developments in the cultural history of western society. Though primarily an academic label that describes contemporary schools of literature, architecture, the fine arts, and current intellectual trends in the social sciences and humanities, it also has taken on a more robust cultural meaning in recent years. Everybody talks about post-modernism today. What exactly are people referring to when they use the term?

Attempting to describe post-modernism is a difficult task. Because post-modernism is primarily a historical term of art, I will frame my analysis of post-modernism within a historical context. Therefore, with much caution I will attempt to examine a short history of the "post-modern" period, and hazard a prediction of future historical developments based on an understanding of this history.

A Short History of Post-Modernism

To understand what post-modernism is, it's more useful to compare it to what it isn't. Post-modernism broadly refers to the cultural period that succeeded the "modern" era, as historians know it. Roughly describing the period of time between the end of the "Victorian" era to the middle of the 1960's (roughly 1900-1965), the "modern" epoch was characterized by a triumphant view of science and technology, and the rise of the market economy, democracy and global integration. Essentially the height of the Victorian English civilisation upon which it was built, this period of history is most noted for its confidence. While post-modernism can be characterized by a continuation of the same developments in science and technology that were the hallmarks of the "modern" era, it doesn't share the confidence of the time period that it replaced.

Intellectually personified by the "continental" philosophy of Jacques Derrida, the writings of historian Michel Foucault, and the work of Jacques Lacan in psychology, the first "post-modern" thinkers are roughly associated with a school of thought which railed against the prevailing "rational/scientific" (i.e. "modern") approach to the social sciences and philosophy which dominated academic life during the post-war period. The most important commonality between these post-modern thinkers and what are actually distinct epistemological approaches is the radical scepticism that characterizes each of their thinking, as well as a concurrent willingness to experiment within the academic boundaries of their respective vocations. To take Foucault as an example (the thinker with whom I am most familiar), his work contains sincere doubts about the relevance of narrative in historical texts (in a narrative driven discipline), the pretension of "scientific" approaches to the subject, and is characterized by a willingness to explore topics not traditionally considered worthy of historical analysis (such as sexuality and mental illness). Foucault's scepticism, as well as his desire to experiment, characterizes some of the traits of our current age.

The "modern" epoch followed a coherent narrative: "The Triumph of Science." Scientific knowledge led to enormous advances in health, technological development, and economic progress throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Human beings lived longer, led healthier lives, and found themselves freer to pursue leisure activities as the result of scientific advances. Compared with the misery of dying of tuberculosis or cholera as late as the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the western world, scientific progress was ultimately humanistic and therefore welcomed by the academic and cultural voices of the period. However, historical developments including the growth of nuclear power and the arms race during and after the Second World War (not to mention the technological barbarity unleashed across Europe during the First World War), environmental damage, and economic uncertainty (the OPEC crisis and inflation), all contributed to a re-thinking of the epoch's intellectual foundations. Academic and cultural voices began to ask: Is science truly the answer? The scepticism then grew to encompass the question: Are there any answers at all?

This reaction to modernism has been labelled "post-modernism." This is the spirit of our age. Like Foucault, it rejects narratives. There is no overarching explanation for the way things are. Rather life is the cumulative result of human experience. Therefore the ordinary (sexuality, mental health) rather than the traditional areas of historical inquiry such as politics, war and economics (the large external events which shaped human existence in the "modern" epoch) became the focus of Foucault's inquiry. Humanity is the centre of the post-modern period; indeed it is helpful to characterize this age as the self-centred era. Because there is no external reason for being, no explanation for human existence (such as the scientific march of evolution towards the perfection of the species), the focus of the post-modern age is internal and concerned with individual human existence.

Post-modernism then, looks inward, to find human meaning. Thus one looks to internal sources of morality (the self is the arbiter of moral behaviour) in the post-modern age (there being no external God to provide moral direction). In political life one rejects military service (in the case of the Vietnam War) because of a basic distrust of external political leadership (who are willing to sacrifice human lives for the sake of abstract ideas such as "democracy" and the "state"). In economics capitalism exalts a new age of individual entrepreneurship whilst huge disparities between the rich and the poor emerge in the "new" economy (poverty being the individual failure of the poor rather than a broader systematic result of the structural economic system).

The other feature of post-modern thought is experimentation. The post-modern person is willing to look to non-western forms of religion (the remarkable rise of Buddhism in the west is an example) for spiritual guidance, and non-traditional forms of social habitation (such as the rise of sexuality including sexual experimentation) to engender self-actualization (I'm purposely using psychological terminology such as "self-actualization" to further my contention regarding the rise of self-centred human understanding. The language of psychology is the vocabulary that describes the nature of humanness in the post-modern age).

To summarize, post-modernism is a reaction to the overarching narratives which gave meaning to the modern era. In defining it, it is easiest to compare post-modernism to what it isn't rather than positively define it for what it is. Comparing its modern forms to the thought of the intellectuals whose ideas characterize the age, it is possible however, to find that post-modernism rests on a basic assumption: Truth, whatever truth is, is human centred and internal. This search for truth has resulted in a marked rise in experimentation in social arrangements such as sexuality, as people attempt to redefine truth based on the experience of the primary source of truth in the post-modern age: The self.

Post-Modernism and Electronic Consciousness

Some critics have argued that the post-modern era has now passed. It is certainly true that with the unparalleled economic expansion driven by the information technology revolution in Canada, the United States and other parts of the western world, that at the very least the post-modern paradigm is going through a period of refinement and a new confidence is emerging. However, it can be argued that the current cultural developments surrounding the development of information technology, especially the Internet, are simply outgrowths of the post-modern understanding of humanness. Certainly the central image of the age, that of a solitary web surfer sitting alone with his walkman blaring in his ears, tuning out the rest of the world, supports the basic tenets of the post-modern characterization of humanness.

It is my contention that though the current historical direction of the age can be understood as an historical consequence of post-modern thinking, the new cultural forms developing around the birth of information technology have usurped post-modern thinking and represent something altogether different--a new cultural paradigm.

With chat rooms, ICQ, IM and the Internet in general, information technology has helped to foster a global sense of community. On a broad level examples of this new community include global environmental campaigns and Web "hacktivism." The protests against the WTO meetings in Seattle (one of the prime forces of globalization), were organized in part through an Internet website. On a personal level Usenet groups and chat rooms foster new forms of human relationship (virtuaplatony that is, virtual friendship) and contribute to a broader understanding of foreign cultures and foreign locales (assuming the conversationalists speak the same language). It is this new community, enabled by new technology, which may well be the harbinger of a new global age. Post-modernism, and the scepticism and reaction that characterized it may be giving way to a new age of community building and hope based on global interdependence fostered through electronic communication. It could be that post-modern consciousness is giving way to a new electronic consciousness.

Electronic consciousness, Post-Modernism and the Future of Humanness

Electronic consciousness, though characterized by a post-modern solitariness, finds its meaning in community. This focus on community is a direct challenge to post-modern assumptions about humanness. The electronic person finds self in the community of other technology users. Meaning, and fulfillment, not to mention information about religion, politics and Martha Stewart recipes, can be found on the Internet. The answers of a solitary web surfer can then be shared in numerous electronic forums. It is the technology which supports identity. However, the electronic community at the heart of electronic consciousness is illusory and temporal. When the self is removed from the technology, the self literally "loses" its identity.

The modern age asked: "What is the external Truth?" The post-modern age replied: "It doesn't exist externally, it is internal." In the electronic age, the answer to the post-modern proposition is: "Even my self is an illusion." Though electronic consciousness fosters community and interdependence, once a person steps away from the technology, the community ends and is replaced by disjointedness. The obliteration of self that is a feature of electronic consciousness is unprecedented in human history.

Copyright © 2000 Robert Delamar All Rights Reserved

Robert Delamar resisted using the word "meta-narrative" during the course of this discourse, only because he decided to go to law school instead of graduate school. He loves his computer more than most of his friends. His computer even has a name. He is the Managing Editor of *spark-online.

Read Max Podstolski's Perspective on the Discussion Board.