Modernism was natural evolution
of enlightenment. Indeed enlightenment period was the brightest phase in human
history, atleast European history, emblematized by virile minds of likes of Leonardo
da vinci. It had significant impact on humanity and decided the course of
action. Modernism was built on triumph of reason that was essentially
intertwined on liberty and freedom setting the foundation of democracy and
modern world. It led to technological innovation and set the industrial
revolution catapulting humanity into frenzied action. Somewhere in its
enthusiasm it neglected the ambiguous. Ambiguity that veined through the nature
and firmly rooted in human mind. There was a split from the very nature that sustains.
Technology was seen as a potent instrument to remove ambiguity as it percolated
into all aspects of life. Binary valuation gained significance. Digital media entered every home to occupy mind. Internet
became source for interactive reactions and associations that consolidated
binary. Meanwhile computer ran on binary, 0 or 1, and compete with the intelligence of
human brain. This then permeated into social systems and mindsets. Certainty
led to binary of thoughts. Yes and No. Us and Them. There was
a constant push towards extremities in order to squeeze out the ambiguous. Issues
were sought to be cleaved into neat halves, ostensibly for better understanding
but meant for consumption. It became a preferred mode to deal the confusion and
give the appearance of control. Indeed ambiguity was seen as something
terrible. Admitting not knowing was weakness, and constantly admonished. This
led to firming of binary while the ambiguous space (what Syzmborska refers as
‘I don’t know’) was usurped by certainties of religions and market. Knowledge, instead of
creating awareness and understanding, was consolidating into utilitarian and
focused on specific needs. This set in motion a dangerous value system that
polarized society as it degraded debates and social issues. The binary narration
taken into the absurdities of polarized politics is what you see in US, very
much the culmination of these inanities that brackets everything and anything
devoid of reason or compassion. A vociferous section of society constantly
mainstreamed binary value system and had clear ideas of the world of what is
good and bad. Since they were never confused they exude confidence and easily
influenced masses with solutions to all their problems. (“…they ‘know,’ and what they know is enough for them
once and for all. They don’t want to find out about anything else, since that
might diminish the force of their arguments” -Syzmborska). They are
abetted by certainities of market and religion. This gives transactional quality
to relations and humbug at the core of interaction. While creative engagement i.e.
art end up embellishing and pandering the majority or mainstream narration meanwhile
constantly marginalizing the protest or vigilant interventions.
Modernism no doubt reformed social institutions and evolved on the ideals of renaissance. But its fatal flaw was its undoing. It unleashed horrors of binary as humans slipped into pragmatism of flipside that compromised ideals. The deterioration was swift and led to world wars and amazing level of atrocities in the modern settings (alarmingly among ostensibly refined bearings of classical achievements of modernism, and to make it worse simulating efficiently run industry). Vandalism of modernism was brutally achieved while remnants were dealt by prostituting semantics to highest bidder. Words like liberty and freedom were casually used devoid of any meaning. Refined ideas of logic were stretched to its irrational limits. Art was made inconsequential entertainment that played on the binary to consolidate the narration into fantasy, the victory of accepted good, nationalism, mythical identities and regressive contexts. While fascists, demagogues, fanatics…had easy walk through altars of modern state. The happenings in the early 20th century baffled sane people out of their complacency into intense soul searching. Post modernism was a backlash. It sought to rectify the mistakes of modernism by identifying the complexities of individuals and diversities of societies. Instead of clubbing humans into achievable and prescribed ideal state it sought to assert uniqueness of human experience. It set out to destructure the systems that were mortifying humans. It was meant to consolidate democratic ideals. The problem with post modernist experience is that it took it to the extreme of nihilism into human centric (ironic, since the deal was not to remove human from the center of discourse) irresponsibility -thus a conduit to hedonism, which was effectively tapped by market. What we see now is the worst of modernism and post modernism in a tussle. The binaries of debates, percolate as values, taking it to absurd extremes while on the other side there is assertion of regressive collectives and irresponsible careless selves.
Agreed objective truth is difficult to arrive but what is true and sacrosanct is the identity of human beings as humans. This is a timeless and valued universal identity. What is also real is the reality of the world that we face, and nothing, nothing at all must be allowed to diminish this reality. The way we deal with the reality determines the future. There is no relativism in this reality. We have to restore faith in human reason. These cannot be always dismissed as mere rationalization but expressions of thinking human, of human consciousness. It is a potent cognitive tool to deal with reality of our existence. It’s an indelible aspect of being a human. Reasons are consolidation of human experience. For the experience to matter it must be attuned to the reality of existence. In a globalised world of 21st century facing unique global challenges human identity has never been as significant as also as precarious. There are differences but there is also common humanity, aspirations and challenges. Instead of nurturing systems that seeks segregation and dehumanisation in the garb of differences a synchronous world is a conscious tango with post modern world. It respects humans as humans, and doesn’t assign identities or contexts that negate these. It accepts chaos and realize the absurd. A synchronous world has individual awake to their reality, are creatively involved to assert their uniqueness and synergically associate for global challenges and enlightened goals. This is paramount to consolidate the gains of post modern meanwhile correcting the mistakes that lead to impasse that humanity is in. Mistakes of post modern nihilism led to scattered world stuck in its self-fulfilling prophesies, and ironically, with egoistic humans self-absorbed at its centre. This hubris is responsible for human acquiring fantastic notion about themselves and seeking it as identity undermining humanity as also egalitarian values gained through conscious evolutions of society and subconscious assertion of liberty. It is ironic (indeed deeply disturbing) that post modern context is being flagrantly used to invigorate medieval identities and regressive value system. Sane people must resist this dilution of humanity. They must attempt to creatively involve in a deteriorating world. There must be greater understanding and sincerity in dealing while empathize with predicaments and contexts of fellow humans.
