Today, Postmodernism is defined by Google as, "a late 20th century style and concept in the arts, architecture and criticism that represents a departure from modernism and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematic relationship with any notion of "art."" Now, what does that mean?
My interest came from a reading I did for my Pop Culture class today, at the University of Pittsburgh taught by Professor Glover, a great lecturer. The reading was "Stam, "The Poetics and Politics of Postmodernism." I don't have a first name to give you but I'm giving credit where due as best I can. Stam calls postmodernism, "the decline of the radicalism of the 1960s" in such a way that we are more interested in a representation of something than its reality. How much time do you spend reading your friends' opinions on issues, how much time do you spend reading about those issues yourself? Media has become so biased and controlled that it's no longer a trusted source for real news. Even the word real has taken on a new meaning.
Because I'm a struggling college student I can't afford cable. I read articles online but most often I miss major issues as they hit breaking news. When I do see them it's at work on the televisions at the bar as I'm bussing tables or taking orders. When there's a lull at work we all sit around and watch tv, talk and generally pass the time. So often we say to each other, "I can't watch the news, it's too depressing." For years I would agree. The news is so depressing that we skip it in every form whether it's on tv or in the paper or on the internet. We shouldn't! It's been too bad for too long to let it go any further. My generation is not alone when we look around and say, I can't possibly do anything about the problems because no one is doing anything. It's too hard, so I choose to not care.
We don't know where to get the facts anymore. We don't trust the biased media. We don't like being pushed around and told things are getting better without seeing the facts for ourselves. We simply can't keep up. News that was relevant and important today will be old news next week, not because it isn't still relevant but because we got tired of it. Global climate change, world hunger, wildlife preservation, just three examples of things that are still problems that we just don't hear enough about anymore. We push it to the back of the pile and hope someone else will take care of it.
If you can do one thing to help this world become a little bit more real just search out the facts and don't blindly read what someone else thinks. This is just my opinion piece, you go read about postmodernism and tell me what you think.
