The Death of Postmodernism and Beyond (2006)
I&#x27;ve been mourning postmodernism and wondering at the cause of death and at what has or will replace it. I think postmodernism has the answers to much of what plagues society today, and in fact I wonder if the plague may be due to its loss.<p>In a world of overwhelming information and especially fake information, a strong belief in the &quot;elusiveness of meaning and knowledge&quot; and of doubt in anyone possessing an ultimate truth, and the high degree of skepticism that results, would seem essential - a pre-Internet philosophy that seems tailor-made for the Internet era. Instead, people seem to be embracing ideology (ultimate truths), self-importance (another ultimate truth, rather than &#x27;ironic self-awareness&#x27;) and whatever claims can be insisted upon rather than supported through reason and fact; they are abandoning skepticism and reason, and the project of the Enlightenment entirely. I would ask what they see as the solution to this flood of lies and deception, but I&#x27;m afraid their answer will be that they don&#x27;t care.[0]<p>I was at a lunch with someone I hadn&#x27;t spoken to in years, an English lit academic whose PhD was about a post-modern author; one of their co-workers sat between us. I mentioned reading something related to their dissertation; to my surprise, my friend was clearly embarrassed; they said &#x27;I don&#x27;t read those things any more&#x27;. Other PhDs I know have abandoned intellectualism as fervently as the &#x27;psuedo-modernists&#x27;; they buy into the ideology and fake news du jour too. If not them, then who? (When I mentioned this to a sympathetic academic, they said &#x27;they aren&#x27;t intellectuals; they&#x27;re just a medieval guild&#x27;.)<p>I want to ask: Why did academics and intellectuals abandon post-modernism? Why has everyone else? How can they knowingly lie to themselves and accept the misinformation as truth? What do they think will replace it? How do they intend to solve these problems without it?<p>[0] To avoid redundancy: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=17361122" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=17361122</a>