“Modernity” comes from Latin “modo,” meaning “just-now.” Thus modernity is any generation’s own time; it is the mode of the recent, the contemporary—with a hint of time-pride: the latest is the newest, and the newest is the best.
Mr. Ropoulos and I were talking in the St. John’s College Coffee Shop, and the subject of modernity came up. So he asked me to write a few pages for his issue of the Gadfly [ed.: the St. John’s student paper].
“Modernity” comes from Latin modo, “just-now.” Thus modernity is any generation’s own time; it is the mode of the recent, the contemporary—with a hint of time-pride: the latest is the newest, and the newest is the best. The moderni of any era, its progressives, think along those lines—and the conservatives see decline. But modernity also has a history-bound meaning: It is that epoch which is tied to Antiquity by a Medieval or Middle Age. It is a time, first of renewal and rebirth (Renaissance), then of the simply new, Modernity, and finally, of novelty, namely when its very signature is prolific innovation. Eventually “modernism” is appropriated for a style, or rather a plethora of styles, in art and architecture—rejectionist with respect to tradition, deliberatively expressive of modern functionality, and relentlessly “creative.”
Now it has come to this: Innovation has been institutionalized, change and growth has become a way of life, and knowledgeable rejection has turned into forgetful oblivion. Moreover, modernity, just-nowness, epochalized, has become just another age to be superseded. Therefore we live in post-modern times; and that was really what Mr. Ropoulos and I were talking about.
(I haven’t yet come across a proper name for the next epoch, post-post-modernity. In retrospect, what will post-modernity be the “pre-” of? Johnnies are well positioned for conjecturing about that temporal Non-being, the Future.)
What are its now-discernible features? An intensification of modernism, I thought as we talked: More and faster. But also explosive variety—everything going off in opposite directions: globalism and nationalism (an ever-smaller world with evermore national entities), personal freedom and impersonal tyrannies (options galore and regulative officiousness), rampant individualism and conformist outcomes (anything goes, and so we all wear jeans and logo-imprinted T-shirts).—Any Johnnie can expand this post-modern Table of Opposites, which lists the contrary trends that pull at us; I’m full of additional items.
How to live in this roiling stasis? I thought: Go soundmindedly schizophrenic (Greek for “split-minded”). Be cannily knowledgeable about all this sheer potentiality. Then fall to world-making: Found small habitable communities that have definable purpose, definite character, and flexible stability. It might be a gathering of 3 or 3×10^n people, a band of friends, a school, a company, a civic group. You might be the catalyst or the organizer or a devoted participant—whatever. Just make a place for souls to be—adapting Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics I.7 and X.6—thoughtfully and fulfillingly at work in behalf of some good.
Mr. Ropoulos said “400 words,” and I’m already beyond that—though I’ve barely begun.
This essay was originally published here in May 2013, and appears again in celebration of Dr. Brann’s ninetieth birthday. This essay was originally published in The Gadfly, a publication of St. John’s College (Volume 34, No. 21, 2013).
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The featured image is “Pointing to Modernity” (1941) by Pedro Godinho. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Alas, in the “post-modernity” of 2018, nothing is more ephemeral than the Cause of the Hour (or of the Minute?). Conversing with a close relative recently, I was accused of not being a “Conservative” because I am “so-o-o old-fashioned”. I demurred at explaining the etymology of the term “Conservative”, for the sake of familial peace.
It is, I dare say, the hallmark of the present age (whatever the Hades you will call it) that Conservatives do not understand what it means “to conserve” , and Liberals fail in generosity. Both seemingly have devolved in a Darwinian spiral into bomb-throwing Bolsheviks who seek to destroy society and remake it according to some unproven (or likelier — disproven) abstract scheme or ideology.
Increasingly, my response is to indulge myself. Today, it is strawberries and whipped cream with a small glass of wine to balance. Also, to wait for the Aftermath, when the children (some of them as retired as myself) come around seeking anything of value after the inevitable collapse of “Modern” Tribalist Society.
SIN is the constant companion of our world and pride the eternal corrupter. All hide bound life rides the pendulum from excess to excess. Man reacts to the abused corpse of a Christianity divided and at war making a mockery of Christ’s peace. Unable or unwilling to attain the radical and revolutionary vision we promote a safe vision with all the ardor of a Rotary Club meeting and none of its’ coherence. Or in a rage we shake the fist at God in every conceivable way rebellious or banal. Eventually, the utter bankruptcy of our resulting concepts of reality become undeniable. We find ourselves anxious, bemused and forlorn. Then the Cross of Christ shines brightly again for those humble enough and courageous enough to seek it.
Interesting that the image “Pointing towards Modernity” is a downward spiral, the only point of which is pointing downwards. As a shape of fluffy icing it would be lovely: in a building it serves no structural purpose; as a decoration its shape is too amorphous to inspire lasting interest: very modern.