PetalswiththeWind Habermas

Oh, Modernity! You are threaded through my conscious and subconscious, so no matter which direction in my mind I go, I run into you! The essence of being human, is our emotional energy flow and we benefit the most when we flow it positively. Stop leading me down straight roads and taking me away from whom I’m suppose to be. Don’t lie to me, even if it is omittingly. That’s the worse kind of dishonesty! Why are you hounding me, clowning me, and downing me? You’re stressing me! I’m a human being first, so treat me equally! Stop waving your ticking chronological clock in front of me, transfixing my brain on signs that are only a tiny fraction of me. You are trapping my mind, my 100% brain capacity; with those narrow black and white lines, you have bounded me, to a life that you have mapped out for me. I trusted your authority, you disappointed me. It’s my lifetime, before I have to leave, please allow me to take in breathes naturally…

Postmodernism, thanks for resuscitating me!

As babies, we naturally breathed subconsciously, it is an innate function of the human body. Our little bellies would go in for five seconds and out for five seconds, taking in a sufficient amount of oxygen not only for our bodies sustenance, but also assists our brains develop to the fullest capacity. As civilized American adults, we have forgotten how to breathe properly. Our attention has been fixated on so many conscious societal signs it has eradicated our natural breathing patterns. Of course it is still a subconscious effort to breathe. However, over-civilization has stifled part of our subconscious, our natural instincts, by always directing our conscious mind linearly. Over-civilization is domestication of the human mammal altogether. Civilization is good in healthy dosages, it should compliment our nature, not take us completely away from it. Although reading Habermas’s essay was like reading a bad political campaign ad (excruciating), it was necessary for us to know what human nature itself is up against. Thankfully, we read Jameson’s "Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism", prior to reading Habermas’s “Modernity - An Incomplete Project”. Jameson’s warning comes to us from beyond his text because Harbermas's article is set up “to be read as stylistic description as the account of one cultural style or movement among others” (484).

Habermas, insults human nature directly when he states; “They remove into the sphere of the faraway and the archaic the spontaneous powers of imagination, self-experience and emotion" (107). I’m sorry buddy! Human nature, the subconscious, was here way before you, Modernists are the ones who decided to tap into it and draw it away from itself, so it is not “faraway” as you think; it leads us back to ourselves away from the narrow minded linear thinking of Modernism. Modernist thinking is what should be deemed “archaic”, only seeing one truth instead of multiple truths. Habermas, is acting like Modernists knew that Postmodernism would happen all along, it was part of their plan they call it “Cultural Modernity” (101). First of all, it is very obvious that Habermas is playing with language here, taking the word “Modernity” and placing the word “Cultural” in front of it, trying to make it appear that Postmodernism has always been a part of Modernism, appearing as one of its phases.
Are you kidding me !?!
If that was the case why weren’t Modernists up front and honest all along. Isn’t like a linear thinking Modernist trying to place Postmodernity on their timeline. Modernists, look at our lives backwards trying to plan the future as if we are guaranteed tomorrow. Their planning our future as air times on a television station, our lives are not time slot segments. Habermas, discusses our lives as if they are on one big day planner, always looking ahead into the future way before the moment actually passes or back in the past, that’s why the moments of today flee so fast. Habermas, is either digging up our ancestors or burying us alive before we even get a chance to actually enjoy the moment, in order to learn about the present? He is attempting to equivalently align Modernism to Mother Nature through chronological comparatives: “But all those attempts to level art and life, fiction and praxis, appearance and reality to one plane; the attempts to remove the distinction between conscious staging and spontaneous excitement; the attempts to declare everything to be art and everyone to be an artist, to retract all criteria and to equate aesthetic judgment with the expression of subjective experiences - all these undertakings have proved themselves to be sort of nonsense experiments” (105). Isn’t everyone the Artesian for painting the picture of their own existence, or does someone else have that right for them? What makes the expert, the figure of authority on our personal lives? Habermas, is objectifying human beings reducing them to some sort of specimen, calling their attempt to lead their own individualized lives, “nonsense experiments”. The 21st century has the longest decision hallway than any other period in history. Evolving civilization should be about learning from the dehumanizing mistakes from the past; that disregarding people’s humanity and natural’s rights, is what triggers off the “barbaric” instincts in humans, their natural defense mechanisms and survival instincts.

Harbermas, is transfixed on singular perspectives with very specified truths. He might as well speak in binary code that programmers use for computers. He has a binary perspective on everything and of course the opposite perspective is the wrong one when it does not support and maintain the Modernist cause: “Postmodernity definitely presents itself as Antimodernity” (99). He uses binary oppositional language in attempt to lead readers away from the complete truth and point us in only one direction; transforming us into one dimensional robots instead of the multi-dimensional human beings we are naturally. He uses the same name calling techniques as any shady politician would labeling postmodernists, anarchist for not conforming (101). Harbermas, is trying to past Postmodernism off as only going against “the grain”, as if there is only one grain, and one direction that the grain can grow. If going against the grain means exposing more than one truth and discovering multiple truths. Does going with the grain mean only seeing only one truth and ignoring all other actual possibilities since transfixed on one perspective? Isn’t that hypnosis? Hypnosis is defined as “An artificially induced altered state of consciousness, characterized by heightened suggestibility and receptivity to direction” ("hypnotize." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. 11 Sep. 2006. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hypnotize>). Civilization should compliment our natural instincts, restricting it causes us to use a very small percentage of our brains, because our minds are fixated to only specific perspectives.

Postmodernism, is the aftermath of Modernism! Postmodernism references the past to compare our human nature and how it has been botched by civilization. The same issues keep on occurring due to over-civilization’s battle with Mother Nature. Modernism, is the simulation of reality, it tries to perceive what we should expect to see or do; in it’s attempt to predict a linear course, humanity is always running off the road, because life can not be driven in a straight line. Postmodernist’s perception can be steered everywhere, below, on top, under, around, behind, between, in front of the linear, etc. Postmodernism, enables critical thinking in order to perceive expansively, well what about this way, that way, an alternative way, why is this objectively the wrong way or the right way, for whom, and for what situation. People with a narrow minded perspective may be blinded by a bias cause.