TYG - 8/22 - Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain...

My impression of PoMoCult after our brief jaunt Tuesday night is that it bears a great resemblance to a traffic circle I travelled in Rome (Italy, not Georgia) some years ago; at first glance it is a free-for-all -- chaotic, energetic, loud, dangerous, and exciting. The control elements -- white-gloved, whistle-blowing policeman standing on raised platforms safely above it all -- are mere tokens, present only to counter any complaints that the "government did nothing" in the event that serious tragedy ensues. But if you watch the confusion for a little while, the order and symmetry become apparent; all the traffic enters and goes in the same counter-clockwise direction; the traffic circle is a circle, not a convoluted oblong; the road surface is at roughly the same level throughout the course, and the aforementioned law officers are guarded from the kamikaze drivers by virtue of NOT being on the motor-level.

Further study may counter this initial picture of postmodernism’s hidden order, but I somehow doubt it; whether one accepts the modernist idea of a creator God or agrees with Nietzche that "Gott ist todt," it is all too plain to anyone with the slightest powers of observation that the universe in which we live is an orderly place. From the atomic level to the galactic, there exists physical coherency that must logically follow through into philosophy. The idea propounded by the Notorious One in class, that the postmodern era is one "in which commentary supplants authority," seems like a rehash of situational ethics, whereby the lunatics are running the asylum.

Wikipedia was brought forth as something that validates this definition of postmodernism, as these encyclopedia entries are created from the commingled ideas of a plethora of interested parties. But Wikipedia is a moderated discussion -- "About Wikipedia" includes a section on "Who Keeps Order" that explains "several hundred Wikipedia administrators have the power to protect (lock) articles, and to block individual editors. These administrators are elected by the community to enforce the site's policies and guidelines" -- commentary must bow down to the authority of these uber-wikians.

On a lighter note, the discussion on the “Cult of the New” and Chris Rock’s “pills to make us feel differently” (legal antidepressants instead of Cheech-and-Chong’s “Up in Smoke” solution) reminded me of an old song; “In the Year 2525”, by the nearly unknown Zager and Evans, made it to number one on the charts in late 1969.

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive (Nuclear threat; global warming, pollution)
They may find........

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, or say
Is in the pill you took today (Prozak? Zoloft? Zanax?)

In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to chew (Big Macs? Most Fast Food!)
Nobody's gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got nothing to do
Some machine, doing that for you (The Matrix?)

In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube (way too real...)

In the year 7510
If God's a comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
``Guess it's time for the Judgement day''

In the year 8510
God's gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say ``I'm pleased where man has been''
Or tear it down and start again

In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man's gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing...

Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday...

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find.......



The song is a remarkably prescient picture of American society today, though the process hasn't taken nearly the centuries that the lyrics outline.

And the jury's still out on the Second Coming.