What is Postmodernism?
I was given fifteen minutes to speak about postmodernism at the Hallowed launch of Rad Trad. Below is the transcript.
Good evening ladies and jerks, thanks for pulling through this evening. How bout a hand for Bulgarian Bar for having us here
Hallowed, keep up the good work and thanks for letting Queens trash in the building
I was given 15 minutes to discuss postmodernism. So I asked my constituents, fellow operators, homies, well wishers, neighborhood ne'er-do-wells and most importantly - my friends. Cars & Women Magazine is proof my friends are smarter and funnier than 93% of people out there with substacks you pay for, weekly columns somewhere and blue ticks next to their name on Twitter back when it was the Mark of Cain. Our vibe director Mr. Nick Dove argues its higher than that, and on some days I'm inclined to believe he's right. So I ask them:
What is postmodernism? Lets see what they came up with:
- when critique comes first before context
- Underlying assumption that we have reached the peak, or at least can “see” the peak of civilizational progress. There are no more frontiers. The mindset that we’ve already accumulated all the benefits of progress and have yet to understand the detriments of this progress.
- Postmodernism is a philosophy based on turning objective reality into the subjective interpretation of the individual.
- Came from the Frankfurt School and died in the 60s anywhere sensible but in some places lives on among people who are mostly unemployable anywhere sensible
- A friend of mine whose family came here from Sicily in the late 1800s described it as "As a philosophy, postmodernism rejects concepts of rationality, objectivity and universal truth. It instead emphasizes the diversity of human experience and the multiplicity of perspectives - so if you take Nietzsche's perspectivism and boil out the common sense then you get that nonsense" Then again, when he and I hang out he points out the Stop Uyghur Genocide stickers someone puts up around the city and he tells me "bro, we gotta do something about the wiggers" so make of that what you will
- Postmodernism is a thought experiment that decided to be reality. No fault of our own. Sometimes things just happen
- Online, properly applied, is Street Fighter practice mode.
- Postmodernism is a philosophy based on turning objective reality into the subjective interpretation of the individual. Men can get pregnant and chest feed. Women are "people who bleed". There are 70 genders. Working a job is slavery.
- I've seen the word "Voltaire" multiple times today so just talk about that
- Someone I look up to and respect said it is "The death of human spirit, and the triumph of resentment, consensus and hedonistic altruism over leadership and excellence. It's a man selling his grand piano so his girlfriend can squeeze another wardrobe into their studio apartment"
- Men with hats = Modernism / Women with tattoos = Postmodernism
They're not wrong.
I've always felt that a cause and symptom - an emergent behavior if you will - is getting rid of this whole "words mean things" business. Since time immemorial society dictated language. For the past decade or so its been the other way around
The past decade this whole "words mean things" has been beaten with pipes and chains, rolled up in a Persian rug, set on fire and thrown off the roof. Such things don't happen just because. Nothing happens in a vacuum
A neighbor of mine is convinced its because the Large Hadron Collider was turned on and something went terribly wrong, and every test they've ran has been cover for trying to fix it and just make it worse. I'm of the belief that mumbo jumbo times started with the the Mayan calendar coming to an end in December 21st 2012
Sure, things were already starting to get silly by then. Tumblr broke containment and started creeping into everyday life through online then social contagion, we were three maybe four years into the Greatest Depression that still looms over every aspect of our lives. Even among the land owning gentry the blood and thunder just a moment away from everything out there bothers them the m o s t
The point is 2013 pulls around the corner and all bets are off. No one's coloring inside the lines anymore. The most bitter and caustic cynic years later is convinced there are no more beliefs - just people and egregores of control. This "words mean things" ordeal is now a rising and dying entity getting the pipes, chains, rug, kerosene, match and heave ho off the roof routine day in day out and its still going on and its gonna happen tomorrow. Most of you already know this
And so we find ourselves under the global algorithm driven marketing and surveillance mind control grid. People are unable to eat or shower without their phone nearby and will sooner loose their mind over leaving it home instead of their keys or wallet. This thing. This infinite direction digital ayahuasca pocket screen scrying machine
Is this a symptom or a cause of postmodernism? There's a lot of overlap between the two and I don't know where to start but I know you seen it. Did you know people keep pitbulls as pets? All dogs go to heaven except pitbulls and that has nothing to do with postmodernism. But people (women) defend the existence of having this thing on a leash. "Gee, I hope no living thing makes any sudden movements around by precious beast I sublimate the desire to nurture over"
Women have it bad under postmodernism. Gay men now breed them like cattle and kick surrogate mothers out their hospital beds so they can pose for photos with the babies they didn't grow and birth without considering the surrogate mother has vaginal stitches, postnatal depression, sore milk impacted breasts and is in pain
Is it postmodernism or post-modernity that psyops, brainwashes, misleads, misdirects and preys upon women to leave the pregnancy force and waste their best years having a child making someone else rich? Cause since this event started tomboy genocide has claimed another small North American town
Birth control is a sales funnel to SSRIs - is that postmodernism or post-modernity?
It becomes daunting, if not impossible, to tell where this starts and stops making sense. Is this what we get for challenging grand narratives and universal truths? Our reward for destroying our beautiful language and giving meaning fluidity? The mutation in the connection between power, dynamics, culture and knowledge?
Deconstruction and fragmentation in art forms and identities and concepts of the self, dissolving the high and low culture divide - and everything from information dissemination, media, public discourse and proof of the existence of objective metaphysical evil
There are many people out there who aren't religious but can see the world as an engine powered by the suffering of others and for this reason they stay online. Online is a containment zone. You can have fun online but barring few outlying exceptions you can't do good online.
The only way to be good is to do good and to do good you have to go outside. Even if online is how you met someone you fell in love with you still had to go outside to confirm they weren't a skinwalker, a fed or your doppelgänger from the timeline next door
There are proxy wars waged by money men and industrialists using internet talking heads are used in an attempt to advance and further interests that don't benefit the general public they keep online
None of these so called "people" ever suggest to their audience how much more important their friends, loved ones, block, parish or neighborhood is than the 29 out of 30 headlines that don't affect the fridge being full and lights staying on
They never discuss how expensive things are getting, don't seem to affect change in meatspace and never offer anything beyond outrage as policy. Its all stage-one thinking. Notice, and move on. Not one will ever remind people of the civics of this country like ballots, initiatives, town hall meetings, zoning board meetings, hell none of them can tell you what the Chamber of Commerce IS and would probably stutter then cry if you asked them how much a gallon of milk or carton of eggs cost
After all, you have more fun as a cult member but make more money as a cult leader. Is this postmodernism or post-modernity?
But its not all doom and gloom, ladies and jerks. So much is up for grabs right now
Its no longer a matter of time but a matter of priority. You don't have to run out of reasons NOT to do something before you finally scale that wall inside to do it - the same way you don't need to throw a party to eat Party Mix
We're living in the golden age of art and its only going to get better. But we are overwhelmed by choice and desensitized by familiarity
That being said:
Imaginary evil is romantic and varied
real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring
Imaginary good is boring
real good is always new, marvelous and intoxicating
The good and bad news is its all in your hands
Thank you and goodnight