[AAACE-NLA] modernization thesis

[AndresMuro at aol.com]

Andrea:

Modernism is often the term given in history to the period that starts in the late 1400s. The ideology behind modernism is grounded on the enlightenment and the idea that through technology, science, empiricism and utlitarianism the world would improve. Postmodernism is a movement that rejects these ideas as a grand narrative. Postmodernism is is not a movement that says that new technologies have ceased to exist. It is the belief that the ideology emerging with the technology does not apply and does not transcend all contexts.  

Postmodernists don't reject the fact that we use oil, gas, computers or airplanes. They simply argue that the grand narrative of modernism has failed.

This is not hard to see. How is it possible that in the richest country in the world 50 million people have no access to health care? Or that 1/4 of the population lives in poverty? It is not that the technology does not provide or that there is not enough for all. So, the problem is not with oil, gas, computers and airplanes. The problem is that somehow the ideology that manages these resources is such that it keeps millions out of the loop. 

With all the wealth, if we cannot provide health care and education for everyone, something has to be wrong, not with the technology itself, but with the way it is being managed. So, modernism, as an ideology, has failed.  

Andres

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