Inspiration

Post-modernism

Post-modernism rejects universal truth and grand narrative. Instead, post-modernism poses meaning as only contextual. For example, a post-modernist might claim there doesn't exist a god or gods who gives every person meaning, and there doesn't exist any set of morals or values that apply to all groups of people.

I frame post-modernism as negative (“there doesn't”) here deliberately. Hallmarks of post-modernist media include irreverent self-referentiality and cynicism. Post-modernism has bled pretty deeply into modern media. For example, take this scene from Futurama:

Fry: Hey, uh… What was the purpose of life, anyway?

Professor Farnsworth: Who knows? Probably some hogwash about the human spirit.

Less amusingly, we can see it in the marketing of ORANGE DRINK:

I hope Ironic Brand Twitter™ marks the height and downfall of the dominance of post-modernism.1

What does(n't) irony do?

The last example demonstrates another hallmark of post-modernist media: irony. Informally, if nothing means anything, why not do everything ironically?

Let's start with what irony does well. For me, satire constitutes the most impactful form of irony. Without even your knowing it, satire can point out issues with (i.e. absurdities of) institutions. In addition, irony can take down harmful ideologies by reducing them to laughable, non-serious form. Rarely, however, does irony present a solution. Cynically, people may use irony to entertain, to revel in our shared recognition of some problem, yet never progress into thinking about tackling those problems.

In our Ironic Brand Twitter™ example, the irony points out that corporations often use positivity to manipulate people to buy their products. Yet, we don't get any recourse, only maybe a laugh.

Conclusion

From where I stand, I see post-modernism permeate a lot of modern media. I have some fun engaging with post-modernist media for a bit. Yet when it becomes the dominant force, I find myself wanting of spaces where we do more than just gloat, and instead try to exercise our moral imagination in expressing genuine messages about problems that we face.

  1. I find Ironic Brand Twitter™ especially cynical because the marketers ultimately care about your buying their product. ↩︎