The following is part of Billy Wolfe’s presentation on Postmodernism for The Round Table. It affords a very succinct look into some ideas that float around in the mind of postmoderns.
Postmodernism’s Challenges & Manifestations
Billy Wolfe, March 2009
Postmodernism’s Challenge of Six Modernistic Myths ((Butcher, Jennifer and William Allan Kritsonis. “A National Perspective: Utilizing the Postmodern Theoretical Paradigm to Close the Achievement Gap and Increase Student Success in Public Education America,” in National Forum of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal, 26:4 2008))
1. Modernists believe is that there is one reality. The postmodernist insists that there are multiple views of reality.
2. The second myth challenged by postmodernists is the modernist belief that the process of knowing is separate from what becomes known.
3. Modernists believe that reality is testable. Postmodernists are worried about power, and believe that theory is the true language of power and are used to reinforce relationships with power.
4. Modernists believe that truth is discovered and is context free. Postmodernism views truth as constructed and embedded in systems of power.
5. Modernists believe that science is a rational self-correcting process. Postmodernists believe that science is a human activity subject to human prejudice.
6. Modernists believe that science is the ultimate authority. Postmodernists believe that science in not an authority, because it is a kind of tradition itself, and the logic that scientists admit to follow is not necessarily the steps they follow in doing their work. ((Ibid, pp. 1-2))
Postmodernism’s Manifestations
A Christian website – In Plain Site ((http://www.inplainsite.org/html/postmodernism-and-you.html, pp. 1-2)) – extracted from Dennis McCullum’s book, The Death of Truth, (( McCallum, Dennis (Ed.) The Death of Truth: What’s Wrong With Multiculturalism, the Rejection of Reason and the New Postmodern Diversity. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Bethany House, A division of Baker Publishing Group, 1996. Ch. 1, online version, pp. 1-6)) the following summary of how postmodernism is revealing itself today:
Education
In postmodern public education, teachers are no longer transmitters of information to children. Instead, teachers facilitate children as the children construct their own knowledge.
Health Care
So-called alternative medical techniques were considered pure superstition a short time ago. Now, authors like Deepak Chopra ((Deepak Chopra (born 1946) is an Indian-American medical doctor and writer. He has written extensively on spirituality and diverse topics in mind-body medicine. He has also been influenced by the teachings of Vedanta and the Bhagavad Gita, and by the field of quantum physics. Deepak Chopra has influenced the New Thought Movement in the United States.)) and Dolores Krieger ((Dolores Krieger, (born 1935) a prominent professor of nursing at the New York University Division of Nursing, conceived of therapeutic touch as a healing technique in the early 1970s and introduced the therapy in 1972. Therapeutic touch rarely consists of physical contact with the patient. The practitioner focuses positive energy through their hands, which are held or waved two to three inches away from the patient, and directs it towards the patient’s energy field. Krieger developed the technique along with a colleague, Dora Van Gelder Kunz, who is believed to be clairvoyant.)) have brought Ayurvedic Medicine and Therapeutic Touch into mainstream hospitals and nursing schools with the help of postmodern rhetorical techniques.
Science
Have you heard people claiming that Physics proves the whole world is interconnected? Have you heard people claim that quantum physics shows that the universe is not rational? Why are top rated movies like Jurassic Park and Dances with Wolves attacking science and western culture?
Psychotherapy
The existence of therapists suggests that they want to seek a better state of affairs for their patients. However, who determines what constitutes a “better” state of affairs? Isn’t this a values judgment made by one (the therapist) for another (the patient)? It’s not clear what the basis for such a judgment is, when reality is that which is constructed in the mind of the patient.
Religion
The new tolerance in religion means never questioning the propositions of another religious point of view. There’s one exception. Its okay to censure any religion arrogant enough to think it knows the truth, that is, the fundamentalists. They have to be stopped before they gain the upper hand and begin persecuting other religions again. Marginalized religions, those of non-western civilizations, must be given a voice.
History
We don’t look for what happened in history any more. That will never be known, and besides, everyone’s reality was different then, as now. No wonder we have today, Women’s history, Gay and Lesbian History, Black History and Native American History.
Literature
We used to be naive enough to think that literature was a mode of communication: an author took pen in hand to produce a text, which could communicate propositions to a reader. Now, postmodern literary theory has shifted locus of meaning from the author to the reader who produces, or constructs new meanings from the text, like someone looking at a painting.
Biblical Interpretation
Considering these new reader-centered approaches to literature, we should not be surprised to discover that postmodern hermeneutics (or rules of interpretation) are radically different. No longer is God in authority through his Word. Now readers construct their own meaning.
Law and Government
The Critical Legal Studies movement is increasingly influential. This radical reading of the law sees all law as political constructs designed to hold down the poor, women, minorities, or those of alternative sexual preference. They think judges cannot be “fair” in any objective sense, and are therefore really only engaging in the theater of justice while pursuing their own agenda.
