Postmodernism
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1. Postmodernism became an issue sometime in the late 1970s, and the end of modernity was declared. Modernism was forced always to project a next stage, for it was built on the theme of progress. Postmodernism has been portrayed as a matter of fragmentation. In this postmodern world, many of the verities no longer apply, and some of the centerpieces of Western Civilization have disappeared. We can see this politically with the dissolution of the Soviet Empire and the subsequent fragmentation that has taken place because we no longer are certain what our politics are about--there is no clear enemy except perhaps ourselves. One of the markers of postmodernism seems to be a certain sense of nostalgia, a belief that things were much better in the past and that perhaps that can be recaptured by turning backward. the loss of the sense of steady progress that marked modernism has been a devastating loss, for without progress we lack goals and a sense of accomplishment.Marx in particular seems to have fallen by the wayside precisely because of his insistence on a certain type of progress that has been discredited by the fall of the Soviet bloc and the economic failure of pockets of Marxist thought such as Cuba. Yet the underlying forces about which Marx talked remain, and though we may not see these forces as tending inevitably toward positive change and social evolution, we have to understand how those forces interact and affect people and their thought processes. Marx may
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dentifiable forces, and this simplified the picture in a way that allowed them to ascertain the end point to which society was moving. For Marx the economic realities of social class were the primary forces in society. For Weber, it was the bureaucracy and other institutions of society that were shaping the social realm. For Mills it was more specifically three massive bureaucratic organizations that determined the direction in which society was tending--the corporate business establishment, the military bureaucracy, and the federal government.
A modern sociology does not seem possible at the present time because we no longer have faith in such institutions or in the view that there are opposing forces wrestling with our social destiny such that some synthesis will take place and we will evolve into the next stage. Instead, we see a variety of forces, many of them seemingly chaotic, and we do not see an end point toward which we are moving. Instead, we see entrenched points of power and pockets of powerlessness, and we do not see the situation as changing in any positive way. Instead, we see the present stretching endlessly into a confused future, with the same problems, perhaps worsening, but always present. This has prod
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Marx Durkheim, Third World, European American, Soviet Empire, French Revolution, Ameica European, Marx Weber, , Marxist Cuba, Western Civilization, american sociologists, european american, class class, capitalist class class, sociologists tended, marx particular, american society, marx weber, belief progress, sociologists considered, change change,
Approximate Word count = 1590
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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