The idea that everything is evenly important has never convinced me. When postmodernism started however, it seemed a welcome relief from the constraints of modernism. It was colourful, funny and presented several layers in understanding. Jencks showed that modernism had had its days and was definitely over.
Now, decades later, we are facing similar problems. Postmodernism has become the dominant movement of thought, but is constraining us in many ways. "Everything is language, everything is evenly important, everything depends on context", to name just a few of its dogma's.
Apart from its philosophical emptiness that seems to be overtaken by cultural marxism, postmodernism seems to be political now, in the sense that it seems to be equal with globalism, mass immigration and political correctness.
What has happened and what can we do?
There is no way that I can explain the reasons for the demise of postmodernism. I can share however a few observations. In 1989 there was the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism as we had known it, at least in Europe. The world became an open place, you could go where you wanted, discover places that were out of sight. The world became a safe playground. This coincided with the process of digitalization. In the 90s the computer made its way into the households. From being a means to reduce jobs it became a practical tool for writing, organizing, music and games. Imagery changed because of programs like PhotoShop. For organizations the opening of the former communist countries and the digitalization opened up numerous possibilities and globalization became a keyword, synonimous with new markets, new products and a renewed production and distribution chain. Another trend in the 90s was the indulgence in consumerism, drugs and recreation, a process I propose to call hedonism.
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