"All that is solid melts into air." This quote by Karl Marx is important in understanding the relationship of modernity, postmodernity, and globalization because the one thing all three terms have in common is that they are ever-changing. The ideas of modernity and postmodernity are always changing along with time, as are the flows of globalization. I think the three terms are ever-changing because they are affected by the world we live in, which is always changing.
Since the world is always changing, what is considered "modern" will never stay the same. Everyday new ideas are being thought, knowledge is being created, and new relationships are formed. As long as time keeps changing, the three terms will too. Going back to the quote before, nothing lasts forever.
No one really agrees as to what modernity, postmodernity, and globalization really mean. There are various opinions on each term. The only thing people manage to agree on is that postmodernity is a reaction to modernity and that globalization connects everybody in the world in some way.
In the article, "Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies," it defines modernity with four characteristics. In order for a time period to be considered "modern", it must have a dominance of secular forms of political power and authority, a monetarized exchange economy, a decline of the traditional social order, and a decline of the religious world-view. Each characteristic has to do with a change in what came before it. In order for a society to be considered "modern", it must change completely from the prior society.
The ideas of Modernity can be traced back to the Enlightenment period. On page 25 in the article, "Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies," it describes the Enlightenment as "the creation of a new framework of ideas about man, society, and nature, which challenged existing conceptions rooted in a traditional world-view, dominated by Christianity." Before that time period, the only thing people were allowed to believe was what the Church told them. During the Enlightenment, people began to think rationally and have their own beliefs. The Enlightenment period began the times of progress we would enjoy to the present time.
In the book, "Cosmopolis," on page 14 it says, "We were taught that this 17th century insistence on the power of rationality, along with the rejection of tradition and superstition reshaped European life and society generally.
Modernism indicates a branch of movements in art (Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism; Cubism; Expressionism; Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art. Etc.) with distinct characteristics, it firmly rejects its classical precedent and classical style, what Walter Benjamin would refer to as “destructive liquidation of the traditional value of the cultural heritage”; and it explores the etiology of a present historical situation and of its attendant forms of self-consciousness in the West. Whereas Modernity is often used as ...
Genocide is “the deliberate systematic murder of a certain race, ethnic group, or even a nation.” To a very high extent the mass killings in Cambodia can be considered as genocide because the Khmer Rouge deliberately and systematically attempted to destroy the people of Cambodian people. After the deposition of Cambodian president Lon Nol the Khmer Rouge wasted no time in imposing their will on the country. Within days of overthrowing the previous government the Khmer rouge forced the civilians of Cambodia to leave their homes to go and work as unpaid labourers on a collection of farms. No one was shown mercy upon; the very old, sickly and very young were all sent. If they failed to move quickly e...
After the plane crash, Nando’s life would change. He would speak publically about what happened and would later write a book called, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home. After he returned, he would also give up his studies. Nando would be “under the weather” because he was coping with the loss of his sister and his mother. He would work in his father’s hardware store, and he would develop the love for racing so he became a race car driver. After getting married, he would give up race car driving and become a co-owner of his father’s hardware store. He has also become a motivational speaker. He uses his experience in the Andes as an example to help others cope with psychological trauma. This is how Nando’s life would change after the plane crash.
The day that the survivors of the Cambodian Genocide will never forget, was the day that the Cambodian society took a turn for the worse. On April 17, 1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge went to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, took control and renamed it Democratic Kampuchea also known as DK. Pol Pot announced to all the citizens that he had to “purify” the Cambodian society. Although the Cambodian genocide did not kill as many people as other genocides such as the Holocaust, it is still just as important. I think that the Cambodian Genocide is an awful thing that took place and I feel bad for all the victims of racism. I also think that the perpetrators in this situation are heartless because of the torture that they put the people Cambodian society through because those people were discriminated and did not deserve it. Just like other people who get discriminated by in other genocides such as the Holocaust. When the Jews were discriminated by Nazi’s in the Holocaust .
Postmodernism movement which began in the 1950’s and still prevails today, is the successor of Modernism. Postmodernism, in contrast to Modernism, seeks to challenge authority as a whole, refutes any belief in absolute truths, regards hierarchal power as distrustful and seeks to establish an approach in
Identity theft is whereby an individual obtains some piece of an unsuspecting victim’s sensitive information and uses it without their knowledge to commit fraud or theft. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), “people whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years and their hard earned money trying to clean up the mess the thieves have made of their good name and credit record. Some victims have lost job opportunities, been refused loans for education, housing, cars or even arrested for crimes they didn’t commit.”
The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up to 750,00 Cambodians through U.S. efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. This devastation would take its toll on the Cambodian peoples’ morale and would later help to contribute that conflicts that caused the Cambodian genocide. In the 1970’s the Khmer rouge guerilla movement would form. The leader of the Khmer rouge, Pol Pot was educated in France and believed in Maoist Communism. These communist ideas would become important foundations for the ideas of the genocide, and which groups would be persecuted. The genocide it’s self, would be based on Pol Pot’s ideas to bring Cambodia back to an agrarian society, starting at the year zero. His main goal was to achieve this, romanticized idea of old Cambodia, based on the ancient Cambodian ruins, with all citizens having agrarian farming lives, and being equal to each other. Due to him wanting society to be equal, and agrarian based, the victims would be those that were educated, intellectuals, professionals, and minority ethnic g...
Modernity. A major sociological concept that explains social change would be modernity. Modernity explains the changes in social patterns that result in a nation industrializing (Macionis, Jansson, & Benoit, 2009). Since the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, the Afghan people have been struggling to make social improvements to their living conditions (Kowaluk & Staples, 2008). The current Afghan government held by Hamid Karzai has been generally unpopular because the changes to living conditions have been very slow (Kow...
The genocide was the result of a civil war (156 000 died ) , and of Pol Pot and the Khmer
"The Killing Fields: The Genocide in Cambodia." Do Something. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Most contemporary historians define the European early modern period from around the beginning of the sixteenth century, up until the commencements of the French Revolution of 1789. The ambiguity inherent in this apparent catch-all period is problematic, and invokes much debate and disagreement among historians. For the purpose of expediency, this paper will have its modernizing genesis in the thoughts of Mitchell Greenberg writing in the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies. Greenberg states there was a common modernizing compulsion right across Europe during this time period ‘…marked by both a gen...
The term postmodernism is applied to several disciplines which include architecture, art, literature, music, film, sociology, cultural and media studies, visual arts, philosophy, history. Communications and technology. The beginning of postmodernism is quite unclear, however, it emerged as an area of academic study in mid- 1980s. "Postmodernism" is an outcome of the deep changes in social and political life style in post-industrialized societies with an attitude to question the truth and authority put forth by such conditions. Critics have constantly been debating about the treatment of the prefix “post” in "postmodernism". According to some critics, the "post" designates a process of historical succession. For them, "Postmodernism" is something that either follows or replaces what is known as "modernism". A consensus is yet to be reached about whether postmodernism is a break from modernism, a continuation of modernism or even both. Noorbakhsh Hooti offers three uses of the term “postmodernism”. “First, postmodernism represents a number of developments in the arts and culture in the latter half of the twentieth century. The reference point and point of departure for this type of postmodernism are the different forms of modernism that developed in the arts and culture in Europe in the first half of the century. Second, it designates the rise of new frameworks of social and economic organization, again approximately since the end of the 1939-45 war. As such, its reference point and point of departure is the tendency of modernization which specified the early years of the century, with the development of industry, the growth of the mass market, and the speed in automation, travel and mass communication. Third, it indicate...
When the contemporary society is observed, it can be perceived that there are hidden influences from past cultures that constructed how many people live their lives. Past cultures have left many innovations and notions that have either been reimagined or have advanced into items and concepts that are still used today. The era that contained a generous portion of inventions and ideas that are still used or have influence the culture of today would be the Middle Ages.
Loss of group identity and individualism because globalization promotes a western ideal of individualism. This advocate a homogeneous set of values.
Modernisation theory has been a dominant theory since post-World War II (McMichael 2012:5) to describe development and social change. It is structured and outlined through five different stages of the 'development ladder' proposed by Walt Whitman Rostow in The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto. (1961:4) The first premise of modernisation theory reflected by the ‘development ladder’ is that development happens in a sequential process through stage by stage, while the second premise underpinned by the ‘development ladder’ is conformity towards Western values and norms. However, these two premises are found to be problematic as they are neglecting the differences in societies and assuming that the 'development ladder' system is applicable to all societies.