POMO MUSINGS

I have been reviewing some of the literature that I have on the transition from modern to postmodern culture of late. In particular, I have been rereading Crossing the Postmodern Divide by Borgman.

Now, Borgman is a professor at University of Montana, and since I lived in Montana, a lot of what he is talking about seems to make sense to me. Especially as he uses the metaphor of crossing the continental divide for understanding cultural change. It is amazing what a barrier those mountains are! And how 3 hours to Kansas from Colorado Springs does not seem near as far as driving three hours from Bozeman to Missoula. And it is interesting how people's way of thinking changes depending on which side of the mountain you are on.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few of his insights and see what you all out there think

First he characterizes the current state of our American culture with two characteristics:

1. Sullenness--a sense of wounded melancholy

2. Hyperactivity--more busy doing more things going more places than ever before.

Characteristics of modern life

1. Agressive realism--The objectification and commodification of the world around us

2. Methodological universalism--a desire to come up with universal rules, methods, and definitions for everything, and to put everyone in the same boat

Postmodernism is then

1. A critique of this type of realism

2. A reaction against the type of universalism that generalizes things into absolute truths instead of putting everything in context.

3. A critique of the individualism that these two things produced by isolating our lives, perspectives and view of truth from community. (This Borgman seems to say later, still needs to work itself out. Currently, he posits, we are more hypermodern than postmodern in this regard.)

4. Most evident (says Borgman, and I had not remembered this) in the field of economics. Especially with the advent of the computer, and how that radically changes our economic future.

So what do you think? What changes do you see around you....