Nemo, Habermas – Make Up

I found this reading to be extremely difficult which is why I did not post on it, but I am determined to figure him out so that’s why I am now writing about this reading. The main focus of Habermas’ article is the subject of Modernity and how it affects culture and the difference in its previous meaning and its current meaning. “The idea of being ‘modern’…changed with the belief, inspired by modern science, in the infinite progress of knowledge…” (99). The definition of what is ‘modern’ has changed with the increase of knowledge with the help of the advances in science. People now believe that things are better because we are making progress and are beginning to understand more things. They feel as though it is not important to know what has previously gone on in a society but to instead look forward and see how they can advance the society. This notion is more appropriately and accurately said by Habermas “the relation between ‘modern’ and ‘classical’ has definitely lost a fixed historical reference” (99). As I said before I believe this quote to mean that the vast majority of our society do not feel as though it is important to know anything about the history of the culture. We have some how come to believe that new is better and old is, not necessarily bad but unimportant. I know that when I see an advertisement for a new computer or cell phone I immediately want one of the advertised products. I do not care about who invented the first computer or cell phone, and it does not matter if my computer or cell phone is working perfectly they are still ‘old’. This is what I took from the reading my interpretation of the text could be completely off but this is what I understood.