Editor’s note: This commentary is by Greg Guma, the Vermont-based author of “Dons of Time,” “Uneasy Empire,” “Spirits of Desire,” Big Lies, and “The People’s Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution.” His latest book is “Green Mountain Politics: Restless Spirits, Popular Movements.” He blogs at Greg Guma/Maverick Media.
In the so-called modern world, things basically made sense. Despite some setbacks, technical glitches and brutal strongmen, most people believed in the possibility of a better future, in the idea of changing the world that was simultaneously changing us. But now we live in the post-modern age. And although that need not be a pejorative label, it does tend to emphasize uncertainty, spectacle, even the chaotic.
It has already given the United States its first post-modern president. And that, in turn, has opened the door for a right-wing cultural counterrevolution.
The term “post-modern” first came into use after World War II, referring to literature and art that took modern forms to their extremes. Since then, it has evolved into a general attitude. Characterized by skepticism, it often challenges “authorities” and “their” institutions to defend themselves against charges they are incompetent, corrupt, or no longer relevant.
Does all this sound familiar? On the plus side, that attitude helped bring down the Berlin Wall and sometimes appropriately puts experts and leaders in the hot seat. However, it also tends to challenge any strongly held belief.
Self-conscious, often self-contradictory, post-modernists tend to believe that truth is merely a perspective and nothing should be taken too seriously. The characteristic approach is ironic, emphasizing the doubleness in whatever is being expressed. One favorite grammatical device is quotation marks, either written or “air,” reinforcing the idea that the words don’t mean what they seem. This expresses a defensive cultural logic, and plays well into the schemes of media and political demagogues.
Faced with machines that have made life more complex and less secure, a vast amount of unsettling information, and an overwhelming variety of ephemeral “choices,” it is hardly surprising that people, especially the young, are no longer very impressed with much of anything. Their favorite media often revel in this sensibility and have abandoned the grand narrative approach once standard in novels. Although most commercial movies continue to rely on the old linear formula – a hero overcoming obstacles to reach some obvious goal – few people actually believe in that scenario anymore. Real life is so much more ambiguous.
At its extreme such an awareness can lead to disillusionment, nihilism, and a disabling narcissism that favors fads and raw power over ethics and any ideology. And these days narcissism no longer applies solely to “beautiful people” who can relate only to their own images. Narcissists can also be pseudo-intellectuals, calculating promoters, or self-absorbed rebels. Even more unsettling, they seem to be ideally suited for success and power – callous climbers all too willing to sell themselves and say anything.
In post-modern society, self-promotion is the ultimate form of work. It’s a state of affairs that, as we have just witnessed, can catapult a celebrity into power.
In post-modern society the electronic media often promote both chronic tension and cynical detachment. Much of advertising implicitly suggests that appearances are what matter, while many shows reinforce an ironic distance, often winking that it’s just a put-on. And what about truth? That’s the last thing we expect.
The technology of journalism has advanced as much in the last two decades as in the century before. Yet print, electronic and digital media often fill time and space with speculation, advertorials and questionable news. The race for circulation, clicks and audience shares has meanwhile placed a premium on superficiality and feeding audience biases.
Newsroom staffs have been slashed. More than 50,000 news industry employees, most of them newspaper journalists, lost their jobs in the first decade of the 21st century. The result is that many stories go untold, and chronic community problems are ignored.
The inconvenient truth is that there is no constitutional guarantee that democracy will be fair, or that people will be well or truthfully informed. Instead, America is currently experiencing a crisis of fact, leaving people with little to trust or believe. More and more they consume only information that reinforces their existing opinions. It’s a vicious cycle.
Thus far, the post-modern age has been characterized largely by fraud and scandal – disputed elections, corrupt leaders, fabricated accounting that devastates the savings of thousands, doped-up athletes, and plagiarized or phony news. Scholars have been caught plagiarizing parts of their books, a development so common that a peer-reviewed academic journal called Plagiary was launched. Its subtitle announced: Cross Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification. One early investigation, on whether student terms papers had been faked, found that at least 30% of those submitted online were plagiarized, at least in part.
Another troubling development has been “deep fake” photos and videos, the fabrication of images using digital tools. It sounds entertaining, but given the power of images it has the potential to warp public perception in the service of misleading stories.
And how do the young get their daily news? Actually, many don’t bother with that, and those who do choose to keep track of what’s happening don’t use print, radio and TV. They prefer handheld devices and surfing online sources – too many of them actually operated by think tanks, front groups and special interests that have figured out how to build and manipulate audiences.
For all its benefits, the “blogosphere” has also accelerated social fragmentation. Many blogs and websites attract only like-minded people, creating a self-segregated news and information environment that serves the interests of extremists. It’s not so different from the partisanship that characterized the press in the early 19th century. But this version is more pervasive. As a result, truth and facts have become debatable and more difficult to define.
Conflict drives the news, with partisan sources and self-promoters often shaping the narrative. This makes it more difficult for people to reach agreement or have a civil discussion, and easier for opportunists to ignore or distort reality for the sake of pushing narratives and initiatives based on convenience or private interests.
The result has been a loss of faith in almost everything, and an escapist mentality rooted in the belief that no meaningful change is possible. Popular culture feeds on this attitude, encouraging excess and striking poses while confusing commitment with fanaticism and “straight talk” with hate speech.
It’s not all bad news. Along with skepticism comes reawakened concern about the human condition and the planet’s health. The idea that “rational planning” provides all the answers is no longer so convincing, gone with notions such as “bigger is better” and nature is merely a resource to be conquered and exploited.
In economics, the rigid approach to production known as Fordism, named for the man who brought us the assembly line and mass production, has given way to a more flexible, eclectic system emphasizing innovation and a post-industrial compression of time and space. As with most post-modern developments, however, there is a double edge. Reengineering economics and work could lead to more worker-owned businesses, a renewed sense of community and environmental responsibility, and a groundswell against corporation domination. Yet it could simultaneously increase instability, turning more people into contingent workers.
Commenting on the implications, once presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy warned that post-modernism favors “fuzzy logic” and subjective impressions over rational arguments and clear thinking. It recognizes no absolutes, just degrees and disposable attitudes. “This predicament is not altogether reassuring,” he concluded, “as it may lead us to a state of ‘entropy,’ i.e., of randomness, chaos and disorder, with little basis for optimism as to what may result.”
Speaking on his own TV network years ago, Pat Robertson made his own goal perfectly clear: “to mobilize Christians, one precinct at a time, one community at a time, one state at a time, until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than at the bottom of our political system.”
In a country founded on the principle of church-state separation, that may sound unlikely. But we should not be surprised that an embattled minority has seized the current chance to distort public debate and promote themselves as both victims and saviors. Demagogues have been doing this for generations.
Not much has changed since the time of Father Coughlin or Joe McCarthy except the targets. Today it’s multiculturalism, progressive politics and social justice. Fueled by Fox News and conservative powerhouses like the Koch brothers, they have mass marketed an extreme and paranoid worldview while immersing viewers in a false reality. Specious arguments and patent falsehoods are presented as history or scientific fact. Too often mainstream media have let this avalanche of misinformation slide.
An elaborate right-wing echo chamber has created a distorted picture of contemporary reality that now appeals to tens of millions who feel insecure and are hungry for clear and simple answers. Alienated and uncertain about their futures and the security of their families and friends, too many are vulnerable to the politics of paranoia and blame.
Bombarded with disinformation, in 2016 they placed their faith, and the planet’s future, in the hands of a gold-plated huckster who gave them slogans instead of answers, and the false hope for a return to some illusory “greatness.” Fortunately, he will soon no longer be president, or so it appears. Still, he may yet become a schismatic far-right “pope,” with his own media network and royal court-in-exile. And the forces he has unleashed will no doubt remain a formula for chaos, alienation, and deep division for years to come.
This excerpt is from Greg Guma’s “Fake News,” the final chapter, “Beyond the Bubbles.”
Listen to “Chapter Nine: Beyond the Bubbles” on Spreaker.
