kaymac 2.14.08

Oh Habermas, how you make me swoon. No, seriously, he does. The concept of postmodernism being anti-modernity just blows my mind. It's like avant-gardism: screwing up what we traditionally think is beautiful on purpose, just for the sake of being different.

"Culture in its modern form stirs up hatred against the conventions and virtues of everyday life." (101)

So in this Habermas is calling out today's society. Everything we do goes against the so-called "great" and "acceptable" morales that the "country was founded on." You know, that usual religious/righteous bullcrap that they shove down your throats from the time you're born until the time you die: family, friends, and god are all you need in life; money is the root of all evil(however, ironically enough, I'd like to point out that the subtle undertone of all of our morals is that you need money in order to be happy, because even if you do have friends, family, and god and you're living under a bridge, you're still not going to be too happy),do unto others as you would have others do unto you, etc. etc..

So, according to Habermas, we are creating resistance to our morals in an effort to pull away from modernity/traditional values and be "avant-garde" just for the sake of doing that. Maybe it makes life interesting. Maybe we're all just sick of neo-conservatives running the country/world and feel like it's time to step up.

Yet we've developed into this culture where we need instant gratification and so when we protest the war or gay marriage or anything at all, we expect to see instant results and if we don't, we automatically give up and maybe that is what Habermas is saying as well. We are losing our will to be democratic citizens who take action and stick with something we started.

But honestly, I think we're all just chickens. We want to stay rooted in our traditions so that we will have our "clearly defined identities and existential security" and that way we won't have to know what life is like without money, friends, family, or a roof over our heads. We don't want any extremist viewpoints in either direction. We just want this comfortable middle and so when somebody comes to shake it up, we ignore it or find some way to make it acceptable. But I think that this just a ticking time bomb and sooner or later, it's all going to blow up in our faces.