[AAACE-NLA] modernization thesis

[AWilder106@aol.com]

Dear Andres,

Post modernism is conceptually incoherent because we are dependent on machines (high energy converters) and oil/natural gas(high energy sources).  We haven't moved beyond this--modernism-- to "post" anything.

Whatever modernity brings, we're stuck with it. It probably has brought lower mortality, even including  the wars of the last  century and various population extinctions due to disease and "stronger" technologies.  (Steven Pinker)

I'm not challenging enlightenment ideals, I'm interested in the utility of adult literacy--in the  face of declining energy reserves and environmental degradation, what is it good for?  How can it help population survival?  Can it?

What is the case for adult literacy?

"....The type of society which the vast majority of us take for granted as normal, ordianry, and more  or less understandable to anyone from anywhere is actually the  most exotic type in the msot general respects." (Levy) Maybe it was levy who called modernization a universal social solvent.

Andrea