Central Oregon Emergent Cohort

I was recently sent the article below.  Since many of us on this blog are both postmodern and spiritual and even committed followers of Jesus, I wanted to introduce this perspective into a discussion.  The author clearly has no use for any of postmodernism, and sees the loss of the greatest of western culture that is occurring in his view as the death of all humanity has achieved up to now.  This is a critique of postmodernism that is not about theology directly, but his view that it is totally a secular exercise begs the question at least.

Flame on…?

Bob

Post-Modernism and the Death of the Western World
 
POST- MODERNISM really isn’t a culture, but an anti-culture. It’s what people do in the absence of authentic culture…it is a downward spiral into the abyss. 
 
At the opposite end of the spectrum lies what I call “ORGANIC CULTURE.” Organic cultures are typified most importantly by a “chain of being.” In such cultures an individual sees himself as one link in a family that extends back through innumerable generations. Such an individual also looks to the future and adjusts his time preferences to account for the needs of future generations. Respect of one’s ancestors and concern for one’s descendants are thus wrapped together in a religious and culture milieu that is of profound importance in everyday life. 
 
The Western world, beginning with the French Revolution and culminating in WW I is now drowning in the cesspool of post-modernism. Our intellectual and cultural elites have long since abandoned whatever remnants of organic culture they may have had and now totally embrace this new, dysfunctional cultural World view. 
 
This is of importance for several reasons. In particular, like Alexis de Tocqueville, I don’t believe a system of self-government can exist in the absence of an ethical people. A society of self-indulgent, cosmopolitan vagabonds cannot maintain a free republic. Our system is, in fact, breaking down all around us. The post-modern worldview, and its attendant self-destructive contradictions, is causing much of the decay we are now experiencing.
 
Specifically, post-modernism suffers from three major flaws that are leading to its (and our) demise.
 
1. ETHICAL RELATIVISM
Perhaps the most important task of any civilization is to develop a single, coherent system of morality (and to transmit that system to its youth). A functioning society requires almost continual interaction between citizens. And that, in turn, requires a high level of trust. Without that trust, and without a common set of principles on which to base it, the entire system unravels.
 
Post-modernism is marked by extreme relativism, secularism, and multiculturalism. In fact, post-modernism prides itself in its disdain for any system of ethics, believing this disdain represents “liberation” from oppressive social structures. We can see the results of this philosophy all around us. Sexual (im)morality, a decline in standards of dress, language, and behavior and a political leadership based on lies and deception, are some examples. 
 
2. AUTO-GENOCIDE
Post-modern culture treats children as an expensive and peculiar hobby, something like a curious fashion statement. If children are seen as a mere fashion accessory or an emotional indulgence, then one will do just as well as two (and much better than three or four). This attitude reveals itself in the demographic statistics of all societies that have adopted post-modernism. Across the Western world there has been a catastrophic collapse in birthrates. Over the next few decades, parts of Europe may see their populations fall in half. 
 
Organic culture views children in a radically different fashion, which was summed up brilliantly by Oswald Spengler in his seminal The Hour of Decision:
A woman of [tribe] does not desire to be a “companion” or a “lover,” but a mother; and not the mother of one child, to serve as a toy and distraction, but of many: the instinct of a strong tribe speaks in the pride that large families inspire….A man wants stout sons who will perpetuate his name and his deeds beyond his death into the future and enhance them, just as he has done himself through feeling himself heir to the calling and works of his ancestors.
 
Since the West has adopted the post-modern world model, it has only two choices: It can throw off the yoke of post-modernism and reestablish an organic culture that is capable of reproducing itself, or it will be colonized and overrun by other, more prolific cultures.
 
3. THE DEATH OF THE SACRED.
Post-modernism is a materialist philosophy to its very core. By “materialist,” I don’t mean greedy (though Heaven knows there is plenty of that), but rather I refer to the Marxist sense of the term. Post-modernism is anti-spiritual. It recognizes nothing beyond the immediate, concrete world. It has no higher aspirations and provides no spiritual sustenance to its adherents. 
 
Despite these materialist assertions, mankind needs a “reverence for the sacred” to inspire him to loftier heights. One need only walk into the Sistine Chapel or enjoy a Bach requiem mass to see the results of an artist’s soul being touched by the divine. 
 
The increasingly ugly and vulgar creations of our contemporary artistic world are, on the other hand, more likely a manifestation of post-modernism’s degeneration to its ultimate endgame: Nihilism. 
 
CONCLUSION:
It is difficult for contemporary generations to even imagine what has been lost. One of the reasons I enjoy cinematic productions of Jane Austen novels is for precisely this reason. It is fascinating to see what Western culture actually looked like before the collapse and to see how the people thought and acted. I’m fascinated by their complex manners, their vibrant sense of right-and-wrong, and their organic connection to their history (in Sense and Sensibility, even the bad guy, a total cad, carries a copy of Shakespeare’s sonnets in his pocket). Western culture has been withering since the early 20th Century. Those of us born during or after the sixties social revolution have no living memory of even a vestigial remnant of Western culture, but rather have experienced only the degenerate post-modernism, drenched in stifling humanism, absurd universalism, and fatuous egalitarianism, that has dominated ever since. 
 
Post-modernism has led us down the primrose path to decadence. This system of decadence, however enticing and delectable it may sometimes be, is unsustainable. It cannot go on. It will ultimately end in bankruptcy, demographic implosion, or Road Warrior-style chaos. 
 
If one believes in Spengler’s view of civilization as akin to an organic life form, then the West cannot recover its earlier, more pristine self any more than a senior citizen can be reborn as an adolescent. In that case, the die is cast and we are finished. But if Spengler is wrong, then the possibility of a rebirth exists. Only time will tell. 
 
-Steven LaTulippe