by Aja Magdaleno

Created on: June 27, 2007

Maybe the generation gap has something to do with our different perspectives on Postmodernism. And, yes, effects of the generation gap would themselves lend support to the Postmodern description of reality as I understand it. Seems like Lyman Stone is straw-manning the HECK out of Postmodernist ideas in the article here, something which is not entirely excusable, but is, at the very least, understandable.

Postmodernism is a collective term for ideas woven together in the minds of philosophers who recognize themes of subjectivity, relativism, and anti-canonical sentiments in various theories. Postmodernism is a catch-all label (much like MOST labels) that serves to communicate the distinction of certain kinds of thought, in a general way. The general Postmodern distinction is the difference between upholding the canon and critiquing it. If you hear the echo of a critique, of a satire, or of an anti-establishment sentiment, chances are you or someone you know will label this "Postmodern."

I think we are all fine with this so far, but self-titled "traditionalists" will begin to cringe at what they believe are the implications of Postmodernism on reality and morality. Lyman Stone here, in a frenzied bout of alliterated prose, even goes so far as to equate Postmodernism with nihilism! Stone bemoans the loss of meaning in words, the loss of meaning in morals, and the loss of meaning in life, as ushered in by "Postmodernity", since postmodern theory stipulates a "relative" significance of these, and thus the absence of an "absolute" significance.

What Stone entirely misses here is the point of Postmoderism. What i have understood to be Postmodern is the opening up of POSSIBLE truths, not the closing off of them. That is, while postmodernism proper refutes "ONE-way or the highway" prescriptions of being, it supports relative prescriptions as more closely related to the realities of the situations in question. When postmodernity says there is no "absolute" truth, it means that there is no "true" or "false" independent of people. It does NOT say that there is no truth AT ALL, as this is nihilism. Truth exists for the postmodernist, just as long as human beings exist with it. And postmodern thought hardly says that there is no meaning or significance AT ALL to language, life, and morals.
On the contrary, Postmodernism opens up a whole spectrum of possible meanings and significances of words, of morality, and of reality, and it maintains that these are the actual frameworks

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