Postmodernism a Largely Nebulous Concept Contrasted to the Culture of Modernism and Truth

Postmodernism is a very confusing, very nebulous concept. Even though many people have been trying to cast this ideology in stone for years, postmodernism is still just as elusive and shrouded in mist as the ship in the distance that is finding its way ashore by the light of the lighthouse.

The world is in this holding pattern, waiting to see whether this creature known as postmodernism is around to stay. Modernism is still on its way out, though, for better or worse.

Why is the culture of postmodernism so hard to grasp?
For many, the truth about postmodernism is plain and clear. This era in history has some very concrete, all-inclusive truths about it that help people to understand the nature of the beast. Those people are typically modern in their thinking.

The problem with this thinking is that postmodernism rejects absolutes, and distrusts anything masquerading a false, or even promenading a real, truth. Truth is relative, hidden, unknowable. This is the way postmodern thinking works, and everything, even their understanding of the culture of postmodernism itself, is filtered through this lens.

The concrete culture of postmodernism
The culture of postmodernism does not need to be saturated in mystical, unformed opinion. In their postmodern attempt to whittle the world down to a land of permanent grays, many have forgotten that there is a very distinguishable contrast that is easily accessible.

Modernism, though on the way out, is far from gone. The culture of modernism is written throughout the pages of history, and even on the current generations of people who live in an increasingly postmodern world. It is in this contrast that one can start to get a grasp of where this culture of postmodernism is headed.

Contrasts between the cultures of modernism and postmodernism
A few concepts can become clear when postmodernism is put up against the long era of modernism.

Finding truth
Modernism believed that truth could be found if searched for with enough vigor. However, after ages of men and women have claimed to have truth only to have their claims dashed by the next great discovery, postmodernism has said that there is no absolute truth, or that if there is, it is unknowable.

Fluidity in evaluating decisions and situations
Modernism believed that everything should be evaluated, and that decisions should be made concerning the evaluations. With moderns, the world can be cut and dry, black and white. Postmodernism stands against this by saying that the world cannot be evaluated in terms of black and white, and that decisions made are decisions that can be changed at a moment's notice. Fluidity in these decisions marks the postmodern culture.

Moral blacks, whites, and grays
Modernism, in simplifying the world into the categories of good and evil, black and white, right and wrong, or truth and falsehood, may have taken things farther than postmodernism would have liked. Postmoderns swing the pendulum to the opposite end of the spectrum, and as a culture fall solidly on the side of saying that there is no good or evil, black or white, right or wrong, truth or falsehood.

Sweeping generalizations like these cannot be a complete basis for understanding postmodern culture, however. A true student of culture will research to uncover more about this incredibly diverse and ever-changing era called postmodernism.

For more on postmodernism, please read 7 Steps to Understanding Postmodernism in Relation to Absolute Truth.