The Post-Modern Condition - Essay Example

This term entails:

• A fascination with the convoluted mechanisms and dynamics of symbol systems 
• A rejection of realist or objective theories of knowledge 
• A form of hyper reflexivity that is self-absorbed but not critically self-reflective 
• An emphasis on leisure and on "aristocratic" expressiveness, not on work 
• An abandonment of universal narratives of progress 
• A sense of fragmentation as well as an acknowledgment that "total" philosophical or religious systems are no longer believable 
• A kind of hyper sophistication that reflects the subject's ironic involvement with its knowingly manufactured environments (Eco 1986) 

  Early modern: Signs modify or screen reality, which is thereby acknowledged to be at least partially artificial or contingent. Observers concede that symbolic forms of mediation do not immediately touch or mirror reality-in-itself. Example: There is a growing recognition among intellectuals that theological disputes are an unavoidable part of deciphering the enigma that is "God." 

  3. Modern: Signs dissimulate -- that is, they conceal the presence of absence. Example: We begin to understand that God does not exist (absence), that he was always a figment of our too-fertile imaginations. Nevertheless, we concede that religious belief should perhaps be tolerated because it gives people hope and a reason for living.
  4. Postmodern: Signs no longer claim to depict, mirror, or even disguise an objective reality. Consequently, symbolic modes of representation become pure "simulacra: copies (or copies of a copy) that have no original (Baudrillard 1983). The simulacrum embodies nothing but a knowingly manufactured and contrived reality. Hence, culture must be faked before it can be recognized. Example: A McDonald's commercial shows a little girl supposedly enjoying a hamburger with her father. Such a commercial is neither "true" nor "false." Both at the point of production and at the time of consumption, it is judged merely in terms of whether it is attention worthy. (Gary Genosko, 1994).In Jean Baudrillard's (1983) terms, postmodern simulation "is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: hyperreal."