Postmodernism and Historical Continuity

I saw a poll on TV the other day that asked respondents the question: “Is today the most divided period in American history?”

My first thought?

Ever heard of the Civil War?

Postmodernism is self-absorbed. Modernism was too. No matter what your worldview is we will find a way to be self absorbed. Modernism was self-absorbed in the sense that we thought we had the ability in ourselves to figure out things outside ourselves in an absolute sense. Postmodernism is self absorbed in that it assumes what is going on inside me and about me is absolutely all that matters and that what is external to self really doesn’t matter a whole lot if at all. This attitude expresses itself in moral relativism, that there are no moral absolutes…that I am my own ultimate authority. It assumes that what I experience and how I see things is how it has always been.

People have no sense of history. They don’t see themselves in the flow of history or even in a cultural context because all that matters is me, today…no one else…no other perspective. Is this the most divided time in our nation’s history? Of course not. If you have the ability to consider someone other than yourself and a perspective other than your own it would be plain to see. The irony of it all is post-modernism, in theory, is about embracing multiple perspectives…even conflicting perspectives and in doing so becomes can very quickly become blind to reality.