CMC 300 is a continual struggle against what I think I understand, and what I actually understand. Whereas the previous readings chronicled the marked differences between modernity and post-modernity. Habermas argues a controversial point, however. He states that the struggle is not modernity vs. post-modernity, the point of conflict and contention primarily lies in the general belief that man has superseded modernity.
To Habermas, there is a visceral cultural danger in the belief that man has exceeded modernity. The belief that man has entered into a post-modern society, encourages him to turn away from the aims and aspirations of modernity, as he seems himself above them. The nefarious effects of the belief of post-modernity is perhaps most recognizable in the modern belief that man has entered into a “post-racial” society, one where racism, discrimination, and bigotry do not exist.
When this is believed, man in society no longer aims towards self-reflection on his personal tendencies or institutional tendencies towards racism or discrimination. Doctrine instead perceives existence in episodic frames rather than thematic frames. Instances of racism or police brutality are instead deemed to be unrelated instances, removed from systemic processes that may even vaguely hint of some kind of societal connection.
The danger of the false beliefs of a “post-racial” society disfigure movements in search of constant introspection and betterment. When institutional or cultural issues are viewed as episodic instances, there is a paradigm shift away from scientific, moral, and social investment. Habermas’ explanation of modernism is probably the explanation I can most closely align with, because it accounts for both reactionism and progressivism, which I believe, most accurately summarizes the ruling ideological binaries of the 21st century.
Furthermore, his explanations of the false belief of post-modernist parallel examples contemporarily exalted by neoconservative doctrine, specifically the belief that the era is characterized by post-racialism.
ReplyDeletePost-class Sarah Ismail 9/26
Cristelle, thank you for your wonderfully enlightening post. Your comparison of the idea of a post-racial society and the problems that it poses in the self-reflection of a society as well as its ability to move forward has helped me comprehend the issue that Habermas has with the idea of post-modernity.
However, I am interested in further unpacking the conflicts that our society could potentially face if we were to dismiss modernism as an already completed era that our society has moved on from. Perhaps if we were to state that we had moved past modernism, this would limit our growth as a society, especially in the realm of the arts. Modernism has a lot to do with the concept of optimal functionality. Artistically, modernism has allowed us to push our limits and create art with a distinct purpose and/or meaning. If we were to claim that we are now in a postmodern society, this could mean that we believe we have already reached optimal functionality and since we are beyond that task, we are now able to move on to the task of expressing ourselves in diverse ways. If we are not truly complete in regards to modernism, this thought process could keep us as a society from progressing as much as we potentially could as a society. Perhaps Habermas’s fear is that we as a society have not explored all of the existing modes of expression that we possibly can, which would then mean that moving on from modernism to postmodernism would be setting ourselves up for failure. To use the example of a post-racial society, if we declare ourselves to be a post-racial society when in reality common phenomena such as police brutality as well as overrepresentation of people of color in the prison system are just two of many examples of the continuation of slavery into the 21st century, we will most certainly fail as a society because there is no way to reach new heights with a broken or unstable foundation. If modernism is the foundation of postmodernism and we are trying to climb to postmodernism while we have not yet finished exploring modernism, then we are bound to tumble down as a society.
The date on that is actually 9/30, my mistake! Also, I noticed that I spelled your name wrong--Christelle*.
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