When High Modernity (aka Scientism) lost the intellectual hegemony it held between 1875 and 1965, it did not also lose any political or economic power.
So now we see a world that basically - publicly - says it worries about a steadily warming planet, but, in practise, does nothing to mitigate it.
To exaggerate a lot, to make my point more vivid, it is as if the 99% agreed that that climate change was real and dangerous, but that the 1% did not.
High Modernity, the Theology of greed, is the Theology of Southern Baptists and of CEOs of growth-oriented multinationals and of leaders of growth-oriented political parties (socialist and capitalist).
Power and Age on one side, numbers and youth on the other.
Gridlock.
I hope this blog post survives the burning of the planet so any survivors in the future who can still read, as well as forage for scraps, will understand how the baby boomers came to blew up the earth....
Showing posts with label baby boomers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baby boomers. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Like BOOMERS, High Modernity kids divided into early and late stages
From 1873 to 1893 to 1913, people in North America went through first the 20 years of the long depression and then the 20 years of the long boom (in Canada much better known as the Wheat or Rail Boom).
Children born early in the Era of High Modernity , say between 1870 and 1885, were old enough to fully enjoy the fruits of that long Edwardian summer of optimism and exuberance between 1893-1913.
And then were often too old to enjoy the mud (and death) of the Great War.
Those born after 1885 and on until 1900 felt cheated - they had missed the boom Edwardian Years but got to enjoy all of the mud and all of the death of WWI.
The Twenties slumped except for a brief recovery in 1924-1929, then they had the Great Depression (The Ten Years Lost/LES DIX ANS PERDU) and the tight years of WWII.
When the 20th century's long boom between 1950 to 1970 began, they were more than ready for it.
In Canada, these now-elderly teenagers of the Edwardian Era were determined to relive their missed youth - this time right - and the Canadian Natural Resources Boom of the 1950s (what I call LES DIX ANS TROUVE/THE TEN YEARS FOUND) was wallowed liberally in late Edwardian hubris .
Seen in this light of feeling long cheated, the Boom's promotors (BC premier Wacky Bennett a clear example) felt they had good cause to be free of any restraints upon their soon-to-be-fading powers.
A cohort or generation is as important as to where and why it divides internally, as for what unites these 30 years worth of children from the generations before and after them...
Children born early in the Era of High Modernity , say between 1870 and 1885, were old enough to fully enjoy the fruits of that long Edwardian summer of optimism and exuberance between 1893-1913.
And then were often too old to enjoy the mud (and death) of the Great War.
Those born after 1885 and on until 1900 felt cheated - they had missed the boom Edwardian Years but got to enjoy all of the mud and all of the death of WWI.
The Twenties slumped except for a brief recovery in 1924-1929, then they had the Great Depression (The Ten Years Lost/LES DIX ANS PERDU) and the tight years of WWII.
When the 20th century's long boom between 1950 to 1970 began, they were more than ready for it.
In Canada, these now-elderly teenagers of the Edwardian Era were determined to relive their missed youth - this time right - and the Canadian Natural Resources Boom of the 1950s (what I call LES DIX ANS TROUVE/THE TEN YEARS FOUND) was wallowed liberally in late Edwardian hubris .
Seen in this light of feeling long cheated, the Boom's promotors (BC premier Wacky Bennett a clear example) felt they had good cause to be free of any restraints upon their soon-to-be-fading powers.
A cohort or generation is as important as to where and why it divides internally, as for what unites these 30 years worth of children from the generations before and after them...
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Don't waste your time scanning newspapers of 1945 for reports of MODERNITY's demise...
The current view that 1945 was the year that Modernity died and Post-Modernity was born wasn't shared by many in that crucial year - at least not consciously.
No doubt, at all, that many in 1945 were alarmed by modernity's latest 'triumphs' - but even more found those triumphs exhilarating in their potential.
No, 1945 was established as the year that Post Modernity was born (for once, a curiously apt metaphor) by senior university historians picking suspects out of a police line-up after their university had been occupied and trashed, in May 1968.
Long-haired protester after long-haired protester: it was soon evident that the vast bulk of them had awoken to life, after 1945.
(Age ??? I'm 22. Hum, 1968 minus 22 equals 1946, again !)
Baby-boomers, in another words, were leading the charge against all that most 1960s era senior professors held holy: progress and modernity.
But what boom - merely the regular boom in pregnancies after every one of humanity's wars or could it just be, perish the impure thought, the babies born post the atomic boom ?
Post the boom and smoke of Dresden ? Post the human smoke of Auschwitz ?
Modernity's hegemony was broken in 1945 - yes ! - but among babies not yet born.
By 1965 to 1973 however, they were fully ready to deny that hegemony and did so - in spades....
So, a revision: Post Modernity was conceived in 1945, but it first started voting with its feet, in 1968.....
No doubt, at all, that many in 1945 were alarmed by modernity's latest 'triumphs' - but even more found those triumphs exhilarating in their potential.
No, 1945 was established as the year that Post Modernity was born (for once, a curiously apt metaphor) by senior university historians picking suspects out of a police line-up after their university had been occupied and trashed, in May 1968.
Long-haired protester after long-haired protester: it was soon evident that the vast bulk of them had awoken to life, after 1945.
(Age ??? I'm 22. Hum, 1968 minus 22 equals 1946, again !)
Baby-boomers, in another words, were leading the charge against all that most 1960s era senior professors held holy: progress and modernity.
But what boom - merely the regular boom in pregnancies after every one of humanity's wars or could it just be, perish the impure thought, the babies born post the atomic boom ?
Post the boom and smoke of Dresden ? Post the human smoke of Auschwitz ?
Modernity's hegemony was broken in 1945 - yes ! - but among babies not yet born.
By 1965 to 1973 however, they were fully ready to deny that hegemony and did so - in spades....
So, a revision: Post Modernity was conceived in 1945, but it first started voting with its feet, in 1968.....
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