Index
· Characteristics of XXI century society & changes that led to it
· Postmodernism
· Late modernism
· Postmodern Marxism
Society of the XXI and mid and late XX centuries is distinguished from other societies by four main characteristics. The first is the notion of a nation-state, where territories are divided into nations that generally share a same culture and language, and which are led by one central government. The second is the use of rationality and science to obtain knowledge, whereas in other societies such as pre-industrial European society superstition is the main means for this end. People become more individualistic, meaning that they have a greater personal freedom and rely less on tradition. Finally, society is dominated by capitalism, where the proletariat majority sells their workforce to the bourgeoisie owners of the means of production.
Four main changes are the ones that have led to these characteristics, the most obvious of which is technological change. Technological development has led to space-time compression, because the effects of space and time on our lives are less noticeable thanks to machines. For example, a journey from Europe to South America on a plane takes less than a day, whereas on a ship it would have lasted months, and before that it would have been impossible. Economic change is seen in the way we handle money. Increasingly the way to do this is more digital, and even the products sold have shifted from being solely material goods to including, as an important part of them, information such as films, music or games. A great part of the money we handle is managed virtually, through global networks of banking and online transactions. Political change is seen in transnational corporations (TNC), such as Nike, which sell standardised goods worldwide, having factories and shops in multiple countries. These corporations now have more power than governments, because in the free-market economy they are the ones who truly appeal to people. This standardisation of the product of sale has the effect of creating the same tastes worldwide. For example, Nike designs a model of trainers they think will be successful based on American tastes, but when they sell the same thing in other countries people in those countries will begin to acquire these American tastes, simply because in many cases there isn't an equivalent design for their culture's tastes. This leads to social and cultural changes, where increasingly the world's cultures are being absorbed and mixed in one global culture. Another thing that leads to this is the mass media, which promote role models such as music superstars that radiate and spread these cultural traits.
POSTMODERNISM
This said, postmodernists believe that the modern era has ended and we are now in a postmodern era. Postmodernism is based on the principle of anti-foundationalism, which argues that there is no absolute truth. This has two consequences: the Enlightenment project, which claimed that humans are capable of bringing a better society through the use of rationality and science, is dead, because we can't use objective knowledge if such thing does not exist; all theories which claim to have an absolute truth, such as Marxism or feminism, are now a waste, they are meta-narratives that have to be forgotten. Lyotard (1992) argues that, because of this, the only thing that exists are views and opinions, and all are equally valid. He believes that, despite the end of the Enlightenment dream, this is preferable to having an objective truth imposed on us. Baudrillard, like Lyotard, argues that there is no objective knowledge, but because economy now is based on the selling of information in the form of images, a new type of signs appears: simulacra (singular: simulacrum), which are signs that stand only for themselves, such as cartoons or the logo of a bank, this unlike symbols, which represented things in the physical world. This simulacra create a hyper-reality, in which people are trapped and thus separated from the real reality. Since we are more individualistic, tradition is less important in our lives and losses its power to guide our actions and define us. Now identity has become unstable, and it can be changed only by changing our way of consumption, because it is the simulacra that with which we present ourselves that give us identity.
However, postmodernists have criticisms. For example, most non-postmodernists would argue that Baudrillard is simply wrong in suggesting that people can't distinguish between hyper-reality and the real reality, and, as we will see, other theories argue that while it may be true that science can't lead us to absolute truths, it can get us near enough that we can indeed change and improve society. Moreover, why would you take as a truth a theory that says that there aren't truths? If all views are equally valid, the view that the Holocaust never happened becomes just as valid as the posture that it did, despite having tones of evidence against it, thus legitimising neglect to the victims. Thus, this perception can have not only theoretical but moral issues associated with it.
LATE MODERNISM
Late modernism argues that we have not moved on from the modern era, but are just on the late stages of it. Giddens argues that we are undergoing disembedding, which is the process where we become distant from tradition and its ethical guidelines. Due to individualism we are more free to decide how t act, but this leaves the question: "how to make this decision?". What we do is jump to reflexivity, where we monitor, reflect upon and modify our behaviour constantly. Under these two principles, late modern society becomes fragile and ephemeral, always subject to rapid change. Beck argues that today's society is characterised by manufactured risks, human-made hazards such as global warming or economic instability. We humans, due to Giddens' principles, pay special attention to these risks when making our choices on how to act. For example, if you see on the internet that a certain food is bad for the health, you will change your diet. He calls this risk-consciousness. Beck is optimistic about the Enlightenment position. He is sceptic of science, because it is technological development mainly that has brought a large number of the manufactured risks, but he believes that empirically observing the world can change society for the better. For example, new political movements such as environmentalism are largely based on scientific understanding of our condition.
Some sociologists reject Beck's optimism, because they argue that political movements like Extinction Rebellion are too fragmented to make an important impact. Moreover, Marxists oppose to the idea that we can freely change our lifestyle based on our decisions, because there are structural factors that restrain us. For example, a working class person who wishes to stop consuming fast food and each mor healthy organic food is faced with the fact that fast food shops are more common in w/c areas, thus exposing him or her to more temptation, and that organic food is more expensive.
POSTMODERNIST MARXISM
Marxists agree with postmodernists in that we have moved to a new era different from modernism, but take sides with late modernism in their acceptance of the Enlightenment project. Harvey notes that capitalism has an ethos of profitability, and thus it constantly replaces old ways to acquire benefit with new ones, leading to more specialised and efficient workers. Harvey agues that the present system of production is one of post-Fordism; Fordism is the mass production of standardised goods in factories that is characteristic of the industrial era, whereas post-Fordism is the mass production of personalised products for small, niche markets. For example, Nike now allows the consumer to design their own pair of trainers from templates via online websites. This leads to the creation of more diversity: people are more able to translate their own personal tastes and preferences into the real world, and thus more trends of fashion emerge. Moreover, drawing on Baudrillard's notion that consumption makes identity, identity in post-Fordism becomes commodified and commercialised; identity and culture become consumable products. For example, if a person likes rap music, they only have to consume 'rap music products' (clothing and gadgets that are commonly used by rap stars) to create that identity, and souvenirs of countries you visit, like key chains with the Eiffel Tower, are the epitome of the commodification of culture. Jameson suggests that postmodernity is the highest point of capitalism, because it is able to commodify all aspects of life.
Summary:
PoMo: Lyotard - anti-foundationism; Baudrillard - simulacra and hyper-reality
LateMo: Giddens - disembeddeding and reflexivity; Beck - manufactured risks and risk society
Marx PoMo: Harvey - post-Fordism; Jameson - the capitalist peak
Thanks for reading. If you found it useful or interesting, share it with your friends and family, and I should want to leave with a meme depicting one of the criticisms agains postmodernism that I always find hilarious.
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