Reading posts offered on this web site have provided great insight into how people think and what influences their thoughts. Perhaps the most intriguing posts are those rooted in the tenets of Modernism.

Modernism promises a wonderful life to be acquired through the trinity of science, technology and education. Science promised so much. It promised a world free of disease. Just give science time and even death would be conquered. Technology assumes any problem can be solved if the right tool, method, or technology could be found. No need for God. No need for revelation. Man’s problems are man-sized problems. Man can handle them. Education was viewed as key to removing ignorance and thus eradicating evil in the world. Society’s major problem wasn’t sin, it was ignorance.

David Bosch identified seven different ideas that characterized the Enlightenment and its counterpart, modernism. These ideas were offered as sources of hope in the modern world:

1. The emphasis on reason suggested the human mind was the indubitable point of departure for all knowing.
2. All of reality was divided into thinking subjects and, over against these, objects that could be analyzed and exploited.
3. All reference to purpose was dropped. Every process was viewed only in terms of cause and effect.
4. Enlightenment and modern thinkers put a high premium on progress, expansion, advance, and modernization.
5. All true knowledge was assumed to be factual, value free, and neutral. Over against facts there were values, which were not objectively true, the holding of which was, therefore, a matter of taste. Religion was, in the course of time, relegated to this category.
6. All problems were assumed to be solvable in principle.
7. Finally, people were regarded as emancipated, autonomous individuals, no longer under the tutelage of “superiors.”

We thought they could save us: science, technology and education. We made them our gods—our source of hope in the modern world. But in the 21st century, beneath the ashes of Auschwitz, Hiroshima, the Gulag, two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, the world Trade Center, Afghanistan and now Iraq, reveals and exposes these idols for what they are—presumptuous gods promoted by deceiving prophets.

Perhaps the two most striking characteristics of postmodernism are despair and hopelessness. Their signs are everywhere. In a world where there is no escape or hope, we all live life trapped, as the Beatles sang, in a yellow submarine. Indeed, the great need of the hour is hope.

Novelist Ayn Rand mesmerized a student audience at Yale University with her prickly ideas. Afterward a reporter from Time magazine asked her, “Miss Rand, what’s wrong with the modern world?” Without hesitation she replied, “Never before has the world been so desperately asking for answers to crucial questions, and never before has the world been so frantically committed to the idea that no answers are possible.” Indeed, we live in an age of despair, alienation, and confusion.

Alain Touraine graphically captures the characteristics of the post-modern world: “We live…in a ‘self-producing,’ ‘programmed,’ and ‘fully administered’ society, run by giant industrial corporations under the direction of teams of technocrats. It is a permissive society, without norms, models, and traditions; an ‘immediate’ society, without past and often without future: people live utterly in the present and seek instant gratification (or, in many parts of the Third World, survival just for today: “We’ll see about tomorrow if and when we get there.”)

For now, this is all I choose to offer on the subject. There is much more I wish to share, but many may not be interested. I’ll leave that up to the “listening audience” to decide.

Blessings.

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"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."
Winston Churchill

so back to the Creationist's view of the world, dont eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge.

Ah, so someone is is now pointing out that modernism as it applies to us is coming to an end. hello the post modern world.Super.

But lets see now, did you know that WTO trade rules block cheap medicines from going to Africa. so much for science helping them out.

As for the long list of events that happened to the USA in the 20th century. Let's be a bit honest here, that is way too narrow minded. Firstly it neglects all the other wars/atrocities that occured during the same time period. The USA is not isolated from world events, any one who believed that the USA is isolated would wonder why all those wars started and then blame the advancement of science & improved technologies and ignorance on their occurance.

if this period in history will be remmebered, it will be that those guys in the 20th/21st century had the greatest access to the world's resources and did achieved very little witht he abundance of materials that they took for granted.

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I have something to hide.

Alain Touraine graphically captures the characteristics of the post-modern world: “We live…in a ‘self-producing,’ ‘programmed,’ and ‘fully administered’ society, run by giant industrial corporations under the direction of teams of technocrats. It is a permissive society, without norms, models, and traditions; an ‘immediate’ society, without past and often without future: people live utterly in the present and seek instant gratification (or, in many parts of the Third World, survival just for today: “We’ll see about tomorrow if and when we get there.”)

This is an interesting piece. Society is already an 'immediate society' . Officially we arent controlled by large corporations, in light of recent anti-corporate movies & ridicule of corporations. The perpetrators (super-size me) do not offer any alternative to the prodcuts that are offered by corporations.

As for the last line in that quote, check your credit rating.

__________________
I have something to hide.

“if this period in history will be remembered, it will be that those guys in the 20th/21st century had the greatest access to the world's resources and did achieved very little with the abundance of materials that they took for granted.

2. All of reality was divided into thinking subjects and, over against these, objects that could be analyzed and exploited.”

You have illustrated one more characteristic of modernism. Resources are there but for exploitation. Man is the center of all creation, and rather than being a steward of something much larger than himself, is empowered to exploit and use creation for his own desires.

And, so we not treat creation as a separate entity, to a large extent, modernism has treated relationship with others in the same view. Relationships are viewed as little more than commodities, to be exploited and used for the betterment of the individual. We engage in relationship with others only to the extent they benefit us individually. When the benefit ceases, we toss the relationship into the pile of garbage. We don’t even have the decency to toss them into the recycling bin. No, relationships are disposable. When their benefit to us individually is exhausted, we toss them out.

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"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."
Winston Churchill

I believe the truth of the quote is found in the overall sense of hopelessness and despair we experience in modern life. We feel somehow powerless in making sense out of life. We search for meaning and purpose, and end up filling ourselves with things that somehow simply don't satisfy. In fact, they leave us even hungrier than before. And as a result, we despair.

I am endeavoring to present more of a macro view of life in the 21st century. I believe we live in very trying times--never have we had so much. Yet, never had we had such despair. Education, science and technology were promised to solve all of our wants and needs. But they haven’t. We're no better off than we were before, in terms of discovering meaning and purpose from life. Perhaps, we are even worse off than before.

Something has gone terribly wrong. We've eliminated many diseases, we are the most educated generation in history, and we are the most technologically advanced people ever. Yet, despair and hopelessness dominate our minds and emotions. The hope we placed in these false gods has only resulted in a further sense of alienation and purposelessness in life. Something has gone terribly wrong!

__________________
"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."
Winston Churchill

"And, so we not treat creation as a separate entity, to a large extent, modernism has treated relationship with others in the same view."

Should read: “And so, we have not only treated creation as a commodity to be exploited, but to a large extent, modernism has also treated relationship with others as a commodity to be exploited.”

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"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."
Winston Churchill

I don't understand where all this negativism is coming from. How exactly is our generation so depressed and feeling hopeless. Everyone I know is happy, content, but always looking towards what is better. I just don't follow. Who are these people that you are talking about?

...for the fraud that you are. Immediately upon reading your post, I had the suspicion that you are not capable of such original thought. I went ahead and googled a couple of lines, and voila, we have "Building a Community of Hope in a Despairing World" by Berten Waggoner, apparently a Christian theological work. http://www.vineyardusa.org/upload/Bu...ng%20World.pdf

In fact, readers, take any one of the sentences and google them. You will find that this quaint little post is a shortened concoction of longer treatises. So I am interested to know if there is a penalty for plagiarism on this forum. Moderators?

Barney Fife, fraud extraordinaire. But really, is anyone surprised?

I'd be much more inclined to respond to this hogwash about "The Failure of Modernism" if it were not a blatant attempt at stealing ideas.

the premise itself is faulty.

Philosophers from the dawn of time have talked about hopelessness and despair. It has always existed. It always will. But I don't see how this age is any worse. Pick a century. Any century. There was plenty of hopelessness and despair. In many centuries (like the entire Middle Ages, for example) there was little else besides hopelessness. There was a lot of religion then, though.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

I assume you are currently moving to an Amish community and will shortly stop posting here. (Please)

Because if you want to live without electricity and drive around in a horse and buggy, you can choose to do that.