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"...public opinion deserves to be respected as well as despised" G.W.F. Hegel, 'Philosophy of Right'

Xmas spirit « Previous | |Next »
December 23, 2006

The Australian outdoes itself in its hatred that borders on the pathological. In its Xmas editorial it gestures to friendship amongst the Australian people but the text is primarily concerned to deny friendship. The editorial starts thus:

Christ's birth, with its universal promise of redemption, also planted the seeds of enlightened values and their universal promise. Here we refer to the power of reason tempered by the ultimate dignity of the individual, as well as a scepticism in its thoughtful form that smartly seeks out knowledge and questions received dogma, rather than its debased post-modern version that either substitutes a cynical universal disbelief for genuine thought or, worse, imposes a moral arrogance that shuts down debate.

Well, I'm a postmodernist. And I reckon this is wrong:

Hicks.jpg
Geoff Pryor

That ethical judgement closes down the debate with moral arrogance. I'm then condemned because I'm a '68er and an environmentalist. The former impulse, which aims 'to remake the world in the name of secular religions into new arenas', results in the following:

Both science and traditional religion became the enemies as New Age religions promised all the answers. Pharmaceutical companies are derided as exploiters rather than life-savers. Much of the environmental movement survives on the back of a human impulse that sees the apocalypse as always just around the corner. Here "sustainability", as it is called, has become a post-modern form of grace and the mantra by which all projects are judged. ....For the end results of all these movements is darkness, not for an hour, but eternity.The common thread to all of these post-modern beliefs is their low horizons, constrained worldview and consistent lack of confidence in humanity's ability to use science and reason to better our condition.
Well, that gets rid of the ecological enlightenment or the 1968 impulse to expand and deepen democracy beyond its stunted liberal form.

The Australian editorial ends by wishing 'our fellow Australians a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2007'. Well, that can't mean me, can it? According to them I'm unAustralian and an enemy. Just like David Hicks.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 1:54 PM | | Comments (3)
Comments

Comments

I take back what I said on JFC about the pink and the pics in this format....It all blends together very nicely. A good job. Looks great!

Re questioning received dogmas and low horizons. Isnt that exactly what the postmodernists have tried to do? And what the neanderthals at the Oz are incapable of doing!
Altogether, through philosphy, art, literature etc postmodernism has tried to find ways out of the deadly iron cage of modernism created by the spirit denying dogmas of scientific materialism and mainstream exoteric religion.
By contrast the Oz's editorial "philosophy" wouldnt last one day in a philosophy class at the European Graduate School.
Or at Columbia in the early sixties when my favourite "philosopher" was a student.

As for the first statement it is pure psycho-babble---power affirming institutional propaganda. See
1. www.dabase.net/proofch6.htm#idol
Meanwhile "christian" America accounts for 48% of the worlds armaments trade.

As for the "dignity" of the individual my favourite "philosopher" points out that capitalism has reduced all forms of genuine cultural expression to rubble and has brought the entire world to the brink of both cultural & ecological meltdown. Capitalism being in effect an extreme form of the war of all against all and everything. See once again.
2. www.dabase.net/coop+tol.htm

John,
yes we can think of postmodernism as the name for the new. As you put it, postmodernism tries 'to find ways out of the deadly iron cage of modernism. ' The Australian can be seen as standing for freemarkets+technology+social conservatism---a particular stand of modernism that deeply opposed the social liberalism, its ethos of self-realization and participatory democracy.