What is Postmodernism?
[[File:Portland Building 1982.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Portland Building ([[Portland, Oregon]])]] '''Postmodernism '''is a way of thinking about [[culture]], [[philosophy]], [[art]] and many other things. The term has been used in many different ways at different times, but there are some things in common. Postmodernism says that there is no real [[truth]]. It says that knowledge is always made or invented and not discovered. Because [[knowledge]] is made by people, a person cannot know something for sure - all ideas and facts are 'believed' instead of 'known'. People believe that they know what the truth is, but they will think that the truth is something different later. This is the opposite of 'objectivity', which says that the truth is always there and people have to discover it. Since postmodernism says that the truth is just a thing that people invent, people can believe different things and think it is the truth and all be right. Postmodernism says that one person should not try to make another person believe what he believes, because it means nothing to say that one belief is right and the other is wrong. Postmodernism says that if somebody has a belief and tries to make somebody else believe it also, it means that they are just trying to have power over them. Starting with the 18th century [[the enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and into the early 20th century, many people believed that [[science]] and new knowledge would make the world better. When scientists or philosophers discovered something new, it would always make society a little bit better. They thought that social progress could not be stopped. [[Modernism]] especially believed this. But postmodernism says that there is no real social progress. It says that while some things about the world change, people only want to believe that the world is better than it was. It changes but does not get better, because there is no 'better.' Postmodernism says that since peoples' opinions change, and since one person's opinion cannot be more right than an