The Javits Center and Post Postmodernism

Yesterday Daniel Adler went to a trade show at the Javits Center, that huge structure that will one day be remembered as a relic of postmodernism. You know when you go to one of those old malls that has pinks and turquoises everywhere and you think, wow this place must have been great – 35 years ago. That’s what will happen to the Javits Center in about another 20 years. Because I.M. Pei designed it, it will look a better for wee bit longer.

While I was away from the office, I received a nice e-mail highlighting 10 aspects of postmodernism. I have been stewing about post postmodernism recently, and have used some of those aspects to redefine the shape of a couple of tenets described in the above link.

1.    Opposition to authority has become a general acceptance of authority. Religion no longer inculcates morality. The police do that these days. You don’t kill someone because you’re afraid that you will spend a lifetime in hell as was thought maybe fifty years ago; you don’t kill them because you are afraid of being caught and send to prison. When Foucault adumbrated this notion, it led to a resistance against the system. These days, we accept it.

2.    Postmodernists rejected Truth. Post postmodernism embraces it in our era of digital similitudes. It is understood and transmitted that there are certain universal emotions, like love, anger, and sadness. These are conveyed in an intimate manner in contemporary arts, often encouraging the viewer to interact to better understand the universality of such notions.