Post blog 9/27: what is the promise of modernity?

It’s 5 weeks in and I’m still struggling to truly  understand what is modern and what is postmodern and if postmodern even exists outside of an aesthetic/art genre. I think it’s because everyone seems to have their own definition of modern. A lot of the scholars we have read seem to think modernism is over, except for Habermas who believes we’ve just been sidetracked from the project of modernism. 

I didn’t really understand what this meant until it was compared to people claiming we’re in a post-race society even though we have a long way to go before this is even close to true. Say we’re post race actually makes things worse and further from achieving this because it’s denying the problem. You can’t fix something if you deny it’s broken in the first place. I guess this is why Habermas seems so frustrated. 

What really was the project and promised goal of modernism though? Was it really intended to benefit everyone? Considering the time estimated time frame of modernism, if you believe modernism is over, I doubt it. If you’re not of a privileged identity is it something to lament like Habermas seems to? These writers spoke about class briefly but theres still a lot missing. As a women’s studies minor, I’m naturally suspicious when theories and ideas are mostly constructed by men, likely in privileged positions. That isn’t to say they’re wrong and what they say is not of value, but it’s a safe bet that something’s or some group is missing. 

Enlightenment was about rationality and organizing things by disciplines. But what seems to be rational is influenced by hegemony. It’s not just this objective, indisputable thing that exists within all contexts and cultures. Organizing things tends to be based on binaries and putting things in boxes, including people. Anyone that seems to not neatly fit into a box, whether this is someone who is mixed race or gender queer, can attest to how damaging this is. 

Neoconservatives view people that go against what they define as “traditional” and “rational” as a threat to modernism.  Whatever society we’re in right now, modern, postmodern, a weird place in between, we’re still far from learning how to coexist and accept each other. Some have no interest in learning how to do this. If the promise of modernism doesn’t have a place for the minorities and oppressed groups that these writers may have not been thinking about, then I’m not interested. I’d rather work through this chaos.