Hmm my toots are far too serious today, need to mix it up
I'm going to blame modernism and white supremacy for that.
No, I won't apologize for redundancy
I've been thinking a lot about modernism and the Enlightenment's role in shaping our world
A world where we take for granted that we are not only separate from nature, but deserve to master it. A world where we can measure human value quantitatively. A world where models should work. A world where the Greeks and Romans are foundational and Western civilization exists. A world where tradition automatically holds value and the past ought to guide our future. A world where beauty is only examined in human product.
Sometimes, I wonder what would have happened if Social Realism overcame moderism as the movement post Romanticism.
I blame the connections between the wealthy and the art world for this.
Why would they want to invest in paintings that showed the reality of poverty and the world the were creating for their tax evasion?
Pollack seems a much better bet.
It's hard to define post modernism because it's arguably not a cohesive thing. It's just a collection of critiques against modernism, not all of which function together.
But critiquing modernism is death to fascism, as it is built on so much of it.
Hence why postmodernism is so often the far-right boogyman. Hilariously, they also complain about modern art ruining art in the same breath.
So we could call that postmodern.
I think it's hard to say our current climate change disaster wouldn't have happened under capitalism without modernism.
But I think it'd be naive to claim it didn't accelerate the process.
You can see even now the lib response to climate change is that we can just out tech it. We don't have to change - we just need to make new tech to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
We are the masters of the earth. The natural and artificial division exists. God gave us dominion over this planet.
Fascism is fascinating in how many of its contradictions come straight from modernism.
Appeal to nature when that appeal supports what humans are doing.
Appeal to tradition when nature doesn't support what humans are doing.
There was some good shit in Enlightenment thinking. Don't get me wrong: I'm not anti science.
I'm just not an anthropocentric dickbag who justifies the modernist grand narrative of the Enlightenment.
It was a bunch of wealthy white dudes justifying why they made good shit, unlike everyone else. It's so steeped in protestantism that it can't be easily disentangled.
And it was immediately used to justify bigotry and genocide.
Grand narratives are dangerous.
They're nice stories, but I don't think we should use fiction to justify destroying everything, eradicating entire groups of people, and perpetuating bigotry.
The ties between modernism and fascism are explicit.
I can't name a single modernist thinker (the fine artists are separate, they were usually being exploited and had little power) who didn't support fascism. But I can name many who overtly supported Hitler, Mussolini, and eugenics.
Oddly the Grand Narrative now taught in literature and history classes leaves that out.
Fascinating.
Fuck modernists. Fuck fetishizing a false past, telling everyone the status quo is fine actually, and their pain can be solved via genocide.
I know it sucks when something a Leftist said is indecipherable without several years of reading, but understanding the underlying philosophies of this shit is important because it's how we notice it.
@deilann
Do you need to edit the first sentence? I don't follow.
Anyway, don't forget colonialism, imperialism, and a hierarchical view of society and ethnicities.
@deilann
I've heard it argued that fascism has no ideology beyond saying whatever they think they need to say in order to get power.
@tofugolem I think that's only true on a surface level
@tofugolem they have go to ideas that echo Eco's analysis and things they would never claim, even if it would gain them power
@deilann post modernism is when modernism gets put in the mail
@monoidmusician RTS that shit