PoMo cries "Uncle"

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "pynchonoid" <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
To: "Pynchon-L" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2003 6:21 PM
Subject: news: PoMo cries "Uncle"


> Modernism a beneficiary of war in Iraq
> Postmodernism succumbs to a friendly takeover
>
> Gerald Owen
> National Post
>
>
> Saturday, August 02, 2003
>
> One surprising consequence of the war in Iraq is the
> surrender of postmodernism to a victorious modernism.
> This has been largely overlooked in North America.
>
> In reaction to the U.S. intervention in Iraq, Jacques
> Derrida, a famous postmodernist, signed on as
> co-author of an article drafted by the German
> philosopher Jürgen Habermas, previously an opponent of
> his, in an unmistakable endorsement of modernist
> Enlightenment principles. Derrida, the apostle of
> deconstructionism, is now advocating some decidedly
> constructive and Eurocentric activism. [...]
>
>
>
<http://www.nationalpost.com/review/story.html?id=37CB6B04-A177-4E49-8E03-8D
BD2135C579>
>

This could only be written by someone who has no idea of what postmodernism
is about. I don't see any surrender, nor can I subscribe to calling Derrida
an "apostle" of deconstruction -- the term "apostle" has no place in
postmodernism, a philopsophy that explicitly rejects the dualism of master
and diciples.

Remember that 20th century fascism was a product of modernism too (think of
Marinetti), that Enlightenment couldn't prevent Germany from committing the
Holocaust.

"(...) he agreed with the article he had signed, which calls for new
European responsibilities "beyond all Eurocentrism" and the strengthening of
international law and international institutions."

For example the Kyoto-agreement and the International Court, both not
ratified by the current US-government.

"In other words, "Take that, George W. Bush! You're no Thomas Jefferson! Our
wall of separation between church and state is bigger than yours!""

Otto