Can someone explain Modernism without me having to pull up a dictionary?
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Modernism is the idea that there is a meta-narrative, a grand overarching Idea that can be applied to everything-economics, politics, religion, social mores, culture-absolutely everything. The best and most successful Modernist idea was Communism. Communism attributed everything of interest to individuals and society to economic class. Through this lens of class, and in the struggle to eliminate class, everything could be ordered and organized and a utopian worker’s paradise could be achieved.
I would consider fascism and libertarianism Modern ideologies. Modernism continues to be evident today in architecture. Major mid-century architects like Le Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe sought to create an international style of architecture stripped of any culturally specific elements and reduced to their basic functions. This style dominated architecture during the Cold War.
Modernism was largely replaced by post-modernism, which rejects the idea that there is a single meta-narrative. This came about after the failure of Communist revolutions to yield truly communist societies. It also came about after the rejection of progressivism, the idea common in the early 20th century that all societies are “advancing” toward some state of civilization. Academics began appreciating different cultures on their own terms, without thinking of them in some linear unfolding of history and development. They stopped holding every culture in the world to preconceived Western European standards. For example, in architecture, post-modernists recognized that buildings themselves, even those stripped of so-called culturally specific ornamentation, were culturally specific. Therefore, an international style completely devoid of culture was impossible. This same concept occurred in politics, economics, etc. For example, a rentier state like Saudi Arabia or Venezuela has the economy it has not because it is less evolved on a single continuum of economic and political development, but because of factors unique to its environment and history and the same can be said of the capitalist organization of the American economy. Rather than seeing one as superior to the other, a post-modernist approach would study them by standards applicable to their unique circumstances rather than one, typically Euro-centric standard of correctness.
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