Modernity vs. Modernism, Part II
Starting from the 20th century, a tremendous effort is made to combine Tradition and Modernity that brought with it a so-called modern world and to explain this phenomenon, humans started introducing one “-ism” after another. Ism’s normally surface during hard times when humans find it difficult to find reasonable explanations for what is happening and in panic start looking for answers in the past. An “-ism” is usually an ideology and a way of looking at the world in a one-sided exaggerated way of what a human is and what it should be. How humans behave and how they should behave. The 1st industrial revolution in 1900’s was not only the beginning of factory assembly lines, mass production and the beginning of prosperity and more freedom, but also the beginning of diminishing of Church and religion’s influence on the society and it being replaced by a new achievement-oriented society. In a sense, one -ism being replaced by another.
Looking at the history, we can see again one common denominator among almost all the -ism ideologies and that is, each one of them mobilized a group of people against another and legitimized, in some cases, carrying out horrific actions against one another. The end has always justified the means and the results range from unresolved and ever-escalating cultural differences even within the same society to tens of millions of humans losing their lives. Racism, Fascism, Communism, Socialism, Nationalism, even Capitalism were/are all one-dimensional concepts and frameworks developed by humans in order to solve the fundamental cultural, national, international, and world issues. The idea was so appealing that it did not stop there, and we kept coming up with new ones such as Consumerism, Feminism, Nihilism, Totalitarianism, and the list goes on. Most of the ism’s have failed because they failed to show a way forward and those that did not yet fail, seem to be doomed to follow the same path because they are also falling short of showing and contributing to progress in humanity. Some may argue that this is in fact the very definition of evolvement and the fact that progress has its price to pay. However, in reality we see that through these changes a framework for two very dangerous phenomena has taken shape: 1. Nationalist extremism, 2. Moslem extremism. Particularly among the religious groups, these changes have led to a strong belief that the world is/must be coming to an end and therefore it is upon us to act in this world in order to be rewarded in the other. I find it astonishingly interesting that the exact same narrative is also being preached by the followers of “Climate Activism” school of thought in a sense that unless humans start behaving in certain ways, the world will come to an end.
Modernity has its roots in physical and financial gains or power. This was true as humans discovered fire for the first time, and it was still true when the atomic bomb was invented. We are also confronted with the term post-modernity (or modernism) which does not mean that everyone agrees that a modern estate has been reached and that generation can now enjoy the glorious aftermath of its positive effects. Rather, it might also have to do with the fact that a generation did not in fact gain what they thought they would gain by going through a modernization process. They are now faced with the difficult task of re-evaluating themselves as to what went wrong and where they are headed now. Today we live in a world where modernity could be achieved not based on a set of inventions or technological advancements that are the result of hard work and originality exclusive to a certain group of people, but in a world where modernity -or the promise thereof- is traded and sold almost as a commodity to others free of the fundamental consideration whether or not the recipients would have the capacity of handling the post-modernity’s positive or negative effects. And whether the newly created values as a result of those changes would clash with the old values and beliefs and what their consequences might be. This would be one of the explanations as to why Iranian revolution took place in 1979 and a population of over 30 million (at the time) wanting to go “back” and not forward. Of course, most Iranians regretted it after realizing the realities of what wanting to go back means and they have been paying the price for over four decades trying in vain many times to even get back to the same starting line where they were forty years ago. Looking at some other nations, we have on one hand many countries in the Middle East where the endless revenue from oil has brought luxurious and lavish lifestyles to a point where ski slopes are built in the desert, residences are built under water and useless islands are created, while on the other hand others appeal to extreme religious ideas to put a stop to all this.
Many do get stuck in this phase and cannot find their way out paving the way for extreme ideas to surface that are mostly rooted in the past, in tradition and in religion. Ideas such as what we had in the past was taken away from us and we must now get it back, the way into the future is going back to the past (nationalist extremism). Extreme ideas such as a system must be created within which others are “under control” otherwise there will be devastating outcomes that would undermine the traditional value system and therefore extorting to strict traditional ways and the way things were in the past is the way forward (religious extremism). Or forcing an ideological value system upon others with no room for compromise and a mindset of we shall go to heaven by creating the hell in this world (religious fundamentalism). Both phenomena happened during post-modernity era due to modernity’s short comings.
Such ideas quickly gain momentum because once a society or a group of people enter this phase, a very compelling argument is that we failed because we ignored our roots, tradition, the past and forgot where we came from and who we are. The only way to succeed is to go back to where we were because we already know the outcome, we know what to expect and we can live with it as we did before. This is in fact the human nature to want to go back to the bad known rather than to take the chance for the possibility of a better unknown. Children want to listen to the same story over and over again even though they know the ending. The reason why is that this gives them a sense of security and peace and they can fall sleep. Adults are no different and therefore the comfort zone lies in the past. Religion and religious prayers, mantras, daily repetition of the same sentences and customs gives those who believe in a certain faith also that same sense of security and peace and the claim that they feel closer to their divine. This sense of closeness comes not because of divine forces but due to the human brain entering a state of calmness. The same phenomenon that is experienced when meditating where the brain activity and the heart rate decreases to a minimum.