Reimagining Lyotard: “postmodernity” as a continuation of modernity from WWI (sexuality, corporatism, universalism, anti-religious) to post-post-modernism of rejecting the narratives of modernity by reclaiming conservatism through trumpism, religiosity and anti-corporatism
Lyotard famously argued that postmodernism was a rejection of meta-narratives. This was claimed back in the 60s. This claim in spite of the recent revolution in 2016 seems to be the real postmodernism or the peak of post-post-modernism. Whatever the description one uses the real pushback on modernity was 2016 a century after modernity began.
Postmodernism was defined as a rejection of meta-narratives. A path away from modernity. The narratives of modernity had failed and a new model had to be deployed. The social constructionism, deconstruction and relativism were among the claims. Claims against religion and science were the brunt of the postmodern force. Postmodernism challenged existing archetypes and fashioned a profound path forward. The French thinkers promoted their vision as a rebellion against the old. Modernity had failed and postmodernity would salvage. A crucial point in history about to come true. Yet it’s worth questioning whether Lyotard’s assessment was true of its time? Did the world become anti-science? Did relativism seep into society? Is the world more benign than in 1960? It is true that counterculture became rampant but was that a revolution or continuation?
The major claim is the acceptance of these failed gifts that modernity promised. Yet it is seemingly confusing which he discussing. Liberalism persisted through the decades, anti-traditionalism continued to rise and sexuality became more open, the government gained more power and globalisation reached an all time high with technological assistance. It is hard to see how a counterculture blasted onto the scene. If anything, these were just continued promises of modernity. France may have been different, so this is purely subjective to English countries but the same ideas that permeated Eastern Europe and grassroots since the end of the First World War became ever more dominant as the century continued. WWII had brief pause but buttressed many of modernities ideals straight into effect. Modernity was the era of progress. Women’s rights, sexual exploration and consumerism. Urbanisation only enabled these features to develop further. LGBT rights weren’t attained until post-sexual revolution but it was a long time coming. It was part of the process. Underage sexuality became more popular in the late 70s. All counter culture did was speed up change. It wasn't counterculture but continued culture.
It sought to revolutionise the inevitable effects ever faster. Instead of society gradually adopting these new norms, youngsters inscribed these visionary ideals as a political voice. The youth spoke up and demanded their voice be heard. They followed their idols in the art of the damned. An age of public exploration. It wasn’t so much that religious voices were so anti-drug use but that it was publicised so sternly. It was an open secret and one that could not be wiped away. Lewd actions were now exposed as the cool thing to do. Cigarettes were something at one point a cool thing for adult to do. Drugs and alcohol was normative as teenage actions took on a new rebellious stage. These were promoted by their favourite rockstars. Trying to experiment just like they were. It was an epidemic of just do everything. No lines nor rules. This culture existed but exploded into try everything and do what you like. This long held secret done under wraps now is a common phenomenon among the youth following the footsteps of their idols.
There was some changes but not a counterculture just a publicising culture. To some extent it differed from its predecessor but it was a part of the continued evolution. To some extent it was procedural. It skipped a few steps. Animated youth may have been somewhat down the road but it wasn’t too out there. Liberalism’s eventual stop would have reached in the 90s, then again it was the time for it. Both world wars had caused different groups to be noticed, Vietnam killed so many youth they had to speak out. Without Vietnam it may have taken a little longer but it was along the lines. Many youth lost their lives in subsequent affairs. It was an inevitable part of the process. It was progress mutating a little too quickly. Yet Vietnam was the catalyst for much of this derangement. It was an avid call for the end of dead children. Yet while children did gain a voice nothing else really changed. Corporatism, sexuality, globalisation and anti-religionists persisted into the twenty-first century. Children gaining a voice was similar to minorities entering congress. Different faces some nuance but the same rodeo.
In contrast, 2016 was the big change. Trump’s election shook the entire globe. The rise of nationalism after Afghanistan and sufficient religious polemics spawned a new response. A powerful conservative trend that has more independent motifs than republican connections. Republicans have continued to lose elections but the independent conservative-ish voice has gained speed. The irony is in such socio-cultural pushback. Trump gained so many voters. If not for the pandemic he probably would’ve won in a landslide. The witch-hunt wasn’t sticking and exposed. January 6th horrors have only hurt those running on his campaign. Despite their numbers dropping, his numbers are climbing. Whether or not Trump wins is irrelevant to the populace. Trumpism has taken on its own theology unforeseen by many countercultural individuals. Anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-globalists can no longer be properly represented because of the religious lacing of Trumpers. The libertarian party gained one percept of voters with independent podcasters outdoing mainstream media. Trump was the first big sign but the growth of podcasts from Jimmy Dore, The Hill and Breaking Points has fuelled this movement. It is a movement that breeches corporatism.
Independent innovations have challenged the traditional models. Younger people constantly on social media have found these alternative routes. They are the main feeder of these podcasts. Joe Rogan is the biggest podcast in the world. Lex Friedman’s show is another growing channel. Much of their content opposes the mainstream. They work outside the classic binary. Attempting to facilitate a third path. While that rarely occurs, their honesty and anti-corporate agenda is sufficient for people. They’d rather not deal with talking heads. You can oppose aid to Ukraine on economic grounds instead of being called a racist. Making solid arguments for helping American citizenry before Ukrainians. That money could stop poverty and house everyone. Taxpayer money being used for unregulated unmediated wars abroad. People are fed up and these podcasters fill that void. They respond to their concerns. This is the real pushback. This is the true postmodern shift. When the ideas of modernity finally fall flat on their face. When the high prized governmental apparatus that saved people from the evil tycoons and destitute depression finally showed its devilish face. It was in on it the entire time. Betraying the citizenry in secret.
Much of the counterculture 60s had begun in the 20s. WWI ushered in all sorts of untraditional behaviour. Teenagers were experimenting, women received rights and consumerism. The socio-cultural elements were gradually modifying from impure to taboo to normal. Dress began to evolve little by little. Marilyn Monroe preceded the counterculture. WWII, television and rock fuelled the taboo but encouraged behaviour to be normalised. Socio-politically, the formally isolationist nation became embroiled in every event. A brief stint of shady isolation following WWI didn’t last long as Wilson’s presidential power grab extended to FDR. Once the depression and the war ended, the people were in the country’s debt. Whatever they said they would do. Go off to Korea no worries. Communism is like Nazism. Both really bad. It was only in the 70s that questions started being raised due to the incalculable teenage deaths. This hippie style didn’t last long as few voices actually opposed Iraq and Afghanistan. Anti-war was only when your life was on the line. When it seemed a little too ridiculous. Yet the endless war on terrorism or on drugs had its deviants but many of those who participated in this counterculture have yet to repeal these laws.
That is by far the biggest point. So they grew older and more conservative. Yet there are many politicians who not only have present corruption issues but were screwing around and buried in drugs during their youth. Showing up to rallies to stop the wars and prioritise the American citizen. Now they are in office making a profit off American deaths. Why make changes when there is money to be made. Why make changes if it never really meant anything. They were young. It was stupid and fun. Cracking down on the contemporary youth despite their own hypocrisy. Counterculture occurs when it is actually followed through. All those ex-hippies have apparently grown up and seen the light of modernity. They are not postmodernists nor are they relativists. They live by post-war ideals. They have yet to actually make a difference. Since WWI the country has progressively moved more liberal. There was a strong leftist group in the 60s and there is one now. The group is larger as their liberal concerns have finally centred on meeting the social the economic and the political. They have reached marxism. Like their Russian brethren before them the American liberal has evolved. Each generation adding a new group. Inclusivity to the absolute degree.
The youth today are still modernists. They still believe in a single truth and a globalised world order. Standing up for human rights abroad and protesting to ensure people get in line. Whether for sexual orientation, expression or nature, the liberal truth is that which continues to expand. The youth today are more progressive than the youth of the postwar era but only a few doors down. They are the outgrowth of their grandparent's generation. It has been building up to 2016. Vietnam only procured more protections for the youth. It wasn't an attempt to undo the ways of old but add more institutional defences. To ensure more people were protected. From women to blacks to gays to teenagers now to transgenders. The identity metric has become more openly accepted. That is a motto of modernity not postmodernity. Modernity also flourished with more global interference since WWI. The youth are still fighting for American participation. Even those anti-colonialists do so in regards to specific adversaries and even if no military involvement they do believe in fervent protest. The protestors also engage in ecological warfare. Marching and defending the environment against sinister corporatism. The youth also promote more governmental assistance. Student loan forgiveness is of the most recent interjections. More government the better which fits will in the socialist thinking. None of this is postmodern.
This generation of podcasters attacks all foreign wars whether Ukraine or Israel. While some do it on moral grounds others do so on isolationist grounds. America needs to stop funding wars abroad. Some have even recognised the weaponisation of NATO. America needs to focus on its citizens. This neo-nationalism is not a white power move but a national cohesive matrix. Focusing more on the people. Irate at the nonsense socio-cultural phenomenon. Whether it is intersectionality, corporatism or governmental corruption. It is the breath of extremes that need to be tamed. Everyone does it in their own way. Some believe the government ought to take care of it but many others cynically believe entrepreneurs ought to do so. Technology and not government will be the way forward. Some are sceptical of the corporate ladder but others are merely finding new ways. Growing climate change “deniers” yell at protestors for their annoyance. They have yet to buy meat, use their cars or wear child tortured clothing. They walk around high and mighty for a cause they do not believe in. They live by ideology. For every one tree cut build five new trees but this is ideology not science. This may be bad for the ecosystem. Oh no forrest fires. Yet they are a part of nature. Their dangerous breath may be due to either fraudulent protection or building projects in the middle of the ecosystem. Advocates know little of what they are actually fighting for.
A fervent cynicism has finally bellowed at the dubious nature. There are problems and they can be fixed but stop trying to overcorrect. Stop trying to critique others. Not only will it not help but it also comes from a place of deep ignorance and pure arrogance. Parading in the street as saviours when in reality they are contributing more to the problem than the average person. Most of these problems are on the state level. Egg their house or maybe don’t vote for them. Stop blaming everyone else. The situation is overblown and the media only furthers the drama. The media is cinema, it exasperates the problem. It overemphasises the issue when most couldn’t give a crap. People are tired of this nonsense. Disillusioned and exhausted. Sceptical and raging. Snowden and Assange are right for what they did. The media vilifying them and adding false storylines ought not to be believed. Innocent till proven guilty. The government is a scary devil do not trust them. Elected officials have gotten away with corruption for too long. Finally people are waking up and pushing back. Yet will it stick?
A counterculture may arise in different eras but the postmodern aspect is something very integral to the contemporary arc. Lyotard’s critique was merely exposing the secretive taboo that the elders didn’t like. The elders in their youth engaged in this type of experimenting and grew conservative. The socio-cultural aspects progressively grew liberal with the 70s but again those pro-drugs in the 70s are still pushing against. This younger generation is trying reform. Their anti-war sentiment was contextual not absolute. 2016 was the culmination of rejecting all the progressive ideas. All the more reliance on government and cultural imposition. Many liberals are pro-Ukraine. Those anti-Ukraine are generally anti-war and anti-military industrial complex. There are extremes in anti-west and colonialist lacings. The modest rejection is a middle ground that desires capitalist innovations, less intervention and public homeostasis. The government ought to protect the people but stay out of the people’s business. Own up when they mistake and resign from corruption. Seeing past the culture war for its media frenzy that it is. The rejection of meta-narratives does contain a conservative strain of traditionalism with minorities voting republican but the profound polemic is not reversal of progressive accomplishments but balancing them.
The pandemic only heightened these issues. People have lost trust in their formally indestructible institutions. Scepticism is so high. Relativism is so apparent in this post-truth society. Who is telling the truth Trump or the dems. Russiagate was a fraud, Hunter Biden was true, Fauci lied, Epstein was assassinated and recently January 6th was an inside job. Nobody knows who to trust. The establishment says Trump was a Russian agent and Hunter Biden’s laptop was a Russian hoax. Both proved to be false. Both proved to be hit campaigns wasting millions of taxpayers dollars on a lie. Trump opposed masks and said it came from a lab but Fauci said otherwise. He was from the CDC he wouldn’t lie. Rand Paul is a racist pig. Yet it has been proven that it did come from a lab that Fauci funded against American law. Epstein Island was revealed to be a trafficking ring that hosted the likes of Clinton, Trump, Chomsky and Dershowitz. Did they know? Did they participate? Did he really commit suicide? No investigation. Of course the attack on democracy on January 6th. The Gretchen Whitmer case was exposed as an FBI ruse. With the history of the CIA and FBI tactics it is not a forgone conclusion. Ray Epps has yet to be charged, video evidence and alleged destroying evidence furthers the fed plot. Is the latest event a fed orchestration, maybe not but it sure looks like one. Without full transparency, people will continue to ask questions and cynically distrust the establishment.
Obama’s reputation took a nosedive when classified intelligence was leaked that he had indiscriminately bombed civilian populations (whether this created ISIS is of little importance. What is important is how much it contributed to growing hostility and increased terrorist activity). Nicknamed Obamer, it has only been whitewashed by the media. He even received a Nobel peace prize. Snowden showed how the government had illegally spied and many rushed to defend the government. This is the continuation of modernity. The reliance of government post-WWI through the economic programs of FDR to the social programs of LBJ. The welfare state has eclipsed the most notorious dependency program. Trump’s platform was anti-establishment. Do not trust them, trust me. A populist with grand charisma. Vilified he still won people’s hearts. Caesar reinvigorated. Yet people forget why Caesar was so popular. He was a man of the people in the face of governmental corruption. He wasn’t a celebrity that was chosen instead of the more qualified individuals. He was chosen because people were sick and tired of the Senate’s erroneous behaviour. The search for a populist is in place of a rogue foreign governmental apparatus. Trumpism may have gone too far but it was built on legitimate concerns that were being ignored. A Caesar to save them from corruption. He was better than the Senate just as Trump was better than the government.
Post-truth was applied to Trump’s fake news. People didn’t like him because his rhetoric didn’t capture their hearts. Yet his policies brokered deals and raised people out of poverty. So he was a dick. He had his faults but he aided the country that had been forgotten under the thumb of previous groups both democrats and republicans. Trump’s use of fake news was at times very true. He vindicated himself. In the end as Caesar himself he ended up corrupt. Power corrupts and government is corrupt. Not even a populist can outdo his own greed. That is not to say he is worse than others. Post-truth and fake news has little to do with Trump and more to do with the state of affairs. The aptitude of transparency provided by the government. The issues mentioned in the previous paragraph highlight this dreadful issue. What to believe? People still hold to the wrongful Russiagate and Hunter Biden laptop. Was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine based on western expansion or reviving the Soviet Union? There is little debate nor critical thinking. The media proposes their agenda and that is the answer. Fauci has yet to apologise or relent to his lies. He keeps appearing on programs to defend himself despite the evidence otherwise. No anchor has actually pushed back on him. They twiddle their thumbs and demand the audience accept him. The audience of the few who still trust their devilish narcissism.
Conspiracy theorists are longer fringe extremists. The polemics of old have finally rung true. No ideology nor agenda. 9/11 wasn’t an inside job but miscommunication and CIA trained operatives committing the genocidal acts seems to be a backfired plan that could’ve easily been prevented. While not every conspiracy is true it does outline the fishy circumstances surrounding JFK. Even if Oswald acted alone on his own volition it doesn’t undermine other conspiracies. Russiagate was a conspiracy but his other lawsuits may not be. Not everything is wrong but absent transparency nothing can be trusted. The conspiracists are the sceptical commoners. The average folk cynicism is represented in questionable internalisation. To be sceptical is becoming the norm. Relativism is the inability to discern fact from fiction. When the elites and the people see the world in a different way. The media posits a story and the audience says false. Fragmented plot lines that have no cohesive uniform. Various echo chambers spouting gibberish with charismatic intensity. The cynic mocks the dubious attempt. He sees the truth. Yet it is relative to the mainstream narrative. Conspiracists are outcasts. How dare you challenge. Governmental cover ups and illegal activity are apologetically defended while the brazen few challenge. Progressive positivism is losing its edge to crazy nuts.
People are stuck in a relativistic bind. Uncertain of the real truth. Instead they ponder the information posed. Yet have closer inkling to either bias. People are stuck in their ways. Media is correct they wouldn’t lie. Naive to the end of insanity for the sake of their narrative. It is the few bold who have looked elsewhere. Finding smaller platforms to teach the real truth. Hoping for the transparency the mainstream will never provide. The disillusionment is baked into the relativism. It is not moral relativism but rather a contextual art of genuine trust. Who is worthy of this. Choosing carefully and remaining sceptical. It is not a full blown refutation but a scepticism that cares for reconstruction and reapplication. It isn’t to tear down the institution but to repair it. It is a rebellion not a revolution. The so-called sexual revolution altered perception through exposure but it didn’t change the socio-political makeup. This contemporary rebellion is pushing back not overturning. Change needs to be made and we’re holding you to it. No more youthful bursts of visionary abstractions but concise concrete polemics that need solving immediately. This isn’t a rogue attempt but a mature chutzpah response.
Lyotard’s claim ought to be reevaluated in light of the progressive halt. Meta-narratives are failing. The modern notions of faith and reliance have lost their charm. It is time to question the narrative. It is time to stand up and inquire. 2016 was the start it has only grown, let’s hope it persists.
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