(no subject)
Resistance to the "power of the mainstream" is always cool. Postmodernism was cool because it embodied all resistances. It was the ballbuster of every oppressive hegemon, every feminazi cliche, every nauseatingly totalizing political text. It was cool.
But what happens as po-mo gets more and more mainstream and itself is a hegemon? As we start mindlessly throwing around critical terms that were once invented by the intellectual margins to make philosophical giants collapse?
I bet soon it will become deliciously counter-culture (read:cool) to walk around acting self-consciously un-Postmodern. There will be nothing cooler than to say things like, "I don't know about you guys and your "postmodernism", but I really do believe in truth and beauty. Call me naive, but I believe that's what makes us who we are." If po-mo is at the center, we must move to the margin to subvert it.
Is it within the scope of postmodernism to recognize the will-to-power behind an anti-postmodern counter-culture? I think so. Have we, then, moved to something new? Probably not.
But what happens as po-mo gets more and more mainstream and itself is a hegemon? As we start mindlessly throwing around critical terms that were once invented by the intellectual margins to make philosophical giants collapse?
I bet soon it will become deliciously counter-culture (read:cool) to walk around acting self-consciously un-Postmodern. There will be nothing cooler than to say things like, "I don't know about you guys and your "postmodernism", but I really do believe in truth and beauty. Call me naive, but I believe that's what makes us who we are." If po-mo is at the center, we must move to the margin to subvert it.
Is it within the scope of postmodernism to recognize the will-to-power behind an anti-postmodern counter-culture? I think so. Have we, then, moved to something new? Probably not.