Criticisms of Postmodernism (PM), while intellectually diverse, share the opinion that it lacks coherence, and is hostile to the notion of absolutes, such as truth. In its Philosophy aspect, PM has been accused of using obscure language or what is called obscurantism. It has also been accused of being resistant to reliable knowledge. It is held that Postmodernism is meaningless (again I use Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot as an example), and it uses relativism in culture, morality, knowledge, etc. to the extent that it cripples judgement.
Postmodernists contradict themselves, and exaggerate the amount of social change that has happened. Marxism has explained changes in society, so modernism ideas are not new and PM views of society are said to be fragmented.
It is worthy of note that Postmodernism Literature and Philosophy are diverse in nature; they do not necessarily agree.
Postmodernism has been accused of many ills such as its furtherance of liberal concepts of living. Also, it’s been accused of Vagueness – Linguist Noam Chomsky puts forward the argument that Postmodernism is meaningless because it adds nothing to analytical or empirical knowledge. Chomsky argues that postmodernists explain nothing that is not already obvious. Christopher Hitchens writes in his book, Why Orwell Matters, “The Postmodernists’ tyranny wears people down by boredom and semi-literate prose.”
Some other enumerated criticisms of PM are: Moral Relativism, Marxian Criticisms, Art Bollocks – this is a term used by Brian Ashbee in 1999 when writing a review in the magazine, Art Review, on the importance given to language in postmodern art – the term “bollocks” means “nonsense”.
Sokal Affair – is Physics Professor, Alan Sokal’s, hoax in which he wrote a nonsensical article lampooning postmodernists’ views of science where he criticizes empirical approaches to knowledge, but on the same day it was published he published another article in another journal explaining the Social Text article, and this was turned into a book titled, Fashionable Nonsense,
Mumbo Jumbo is also a listed label in the criticism of PM. Some other critics have viewed Postmodernism as contributing to deviant behaviour. Cultural and religious conservatism have rejected both modernism and postmodernism as rejection of spiritual and natural truths critiquing them on their emphasis on material and physical pleasure which makes their views a rejection of inner balance and spirituality.
Most critics attack “specifically” the tendency of modernism and PM to abandon truth, as the crucial unacceptable feature of the PM condition. So the stance of Postmodernism in empirical knowledge, to these groups, is unacceptable.
It is admitted that Nietzsche influenced PM but wasn’t a part of it.
What started PM?
In the 1970s, in France, a group of poststructuralists developed a radical critique of modern philosophy with traceable apparent roots in Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Heidegger. They became known as PM theorists. Notable amongst them are: Jacque Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, etc.
Why is PM dangerous?
It has been concluded by the cognoscenti that PM is an exceptionally harmful ideology. It is also known as a great threat to Western Civilization. Most things about PM are unacceptable, from its anti-rationality roots to its hostility to logic and reality. Many believe that it is an ideology that will destroy the west if it is allowed. Its anti-rationality stance is detrimental to progress and societal health.
Another feature of PM that weakens it is its relativism. Postmodernism having sacked absolute truth which can easily be identified, the world is left with subjective opinions which are not reliable at all. So although those who propound this idea or thought believe or declare that Postmodernism theory of relativity which is subjective, leads to tolerance, ironically the opposite is the case.
Because PM holds truth as relative, and are skeptical of explanations which those who propound it claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, and races, their stance tilts towards anarchy, especially as in the maintenance of economic and political power; they focus on ideology and not absolute truth.
PM has been found to be resistant to reliable knowledge. The frightening destructive views of Postmodernism are: i. there’s no objective reality. ii. There’s no scientific or historical truth; no objective truth because truth is relative); iii. Science and technology, as well as reason and logic are not vehicles of human progress but suspect instruments of established power, and so on…
PM is a brain child of western secular condition, and thus detrimental to religion and social values. It questions the ideas and values of the part of modernism that believes in innovation and progress.
If you look at some of the novels we treated in the last edition of Inside Literature, you will see PM’s anti-rationality and relativism stances. For example, Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel, Beloved which is inspired by a true life incident involving Margaret Garner, an escaped slave from Kentucky who fled to the free state of Ohio in 1856, but was captured in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. When U.S. Marshals burst into the cabin where Garner and her husband had barricaded themselves, they found that she had killed her two-year-old daughter and was attempting to kill her other children to spare them from being returned to slavery.
I was told of stories making the rounds in the eastern part of Nigeria in the 1970s of some sect members of Olumba Olumba who kill their children for some religious rites. Their reasons are relative truth to them, but quite detrimental to society if art has to reflect them.
Also, novels likeWilliam S. Burroughs1959 Naked Lunch in which the author carried the uses of banned substances to a ridiculous level (a novel I wouldn’t allow my young teenage children to read), or Vladimir Nabokov’s 1962 Pale Fire which is about death, suicide, and the search for an afterlife which concludes in a faint hope in higher powers. Or Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, White Noise, in which a character, Murray, suggests that killing someone, could alleviate the fear of death! These works or the “truth” they project are detrimental to society.
Who is a post modern individual?
The PM person is a hybrid. They have, not one core, permanent self, but many selves. Their self-and their identity- are not fixed, but continually in process, as the boundary between themselves and others and between the different parts of themselves are negotiated.
What does PM focus on?
PM is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific or objective efforts to explain reality, and for this reason, PM is highly skeptical of explanations which claim to be valid for groups, cultures, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truth of each person.
What is the central message of PM?
The central message of PM essentially states that there’s no such thing as an objective, singular truth independent of human capacity.
What does PM say about society?
PM is an approach that attempts to define how society has progressed to an age beyond modernity. Within this age, individuals are more likely to have immense value placed on science and rational thoughts as traditional meta-narratives no longer supply a realistic justification for postmodern life.
What does PM say about humanity?
It argues that human nature is just a myth. It argues further that there’s no essence to who man is. Man has no self identity, central personality or permanent soul.
ADVANTAGES OF PM
PM raised important questions about cultural changes, and its theories highlight how modern theories are out of dated or outdated.
Some famous postmodernists are: Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Pierre-FelixGuattari, Fredric Jameson, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Francois Lyotard, RichardRorty, and Slavoj Zizek.
