What is Modernity?

[ThewildRageofGordon]

Put science in one of those compartments - a useful zealotic click coupled with a utilitarian practice - and let civilization itself finally blossom.

[ThewildRageofGordon]

So, has the post-secular age begun? or What? 

[bellotti00]

thank you! I've been looking for something like this... for anyone interested in an older voice speaking in this vein, check out: Rene Guenon's The Crisis of The Modern World.

[coreolis7]

I should have written "create" instead of synthesize. Watts makes a distinction between the Grown and the Made. A tree and a table are both "made" of wood but one is born and one is assembled. Everything not "made" is in a lot of danger these days, but only the "born" can regrow.

[coreolis7]

--- Such a succinct summing up of the conceptual milieu we are soaking in --- wasn't it McLuhan who said that the immediate and sensible eventually becomes the invisible environment? To build, to grow, to synthesize is the best revolutionary response to Deathculture.

[JoshPhotographer]

Hey Matt,

Let me know where in the book the excerpt is.

Cheers,

Josh

[emblemOFbeing]

I understand, I sympathize, and further, I appreciate someone pointing out--or bringing up again--these prejudices to readers or those who will listen. Many of those features are exclusive to our epoch. But I feel, at least, some are not. When and where were people, or any other primates, 'less masculine' in their cultural style and simultaneously more encouraging of empathic behavior, insofar as the organization of structures i.e., social-normative / ritual / 'form of life' is concerned?

[chapero1]

Top man!

[1PostPoMoMaN1]

Excellent.

[9claudius]

How succesful is Mathew Fox's "Creaton Spirituality" in attempting a return to the hyper-female ? Worship is based on rave elements. Are there communities in your area ?

[0ThouArtThat0]

He is teaching a course at my school right now, but I couldn't tell you how successful it is, per say. I am not sure about communities, by which I suppose you mean a group of followers of his teachings?

[TheLogicJunkie]

...And then Ayn Rand came along.

She took a handful of logical objectivity, mixed it with an equal handful of narcissistic rationalization, and gave us "Objectivism"... thus strategically and self-servingly hijacking the term forever.

Pure genius.

[AntiquityCentury21]

Although the bit on spirituality on the end is dead wrong. Religious influence will always hold significance in the Modern World. That is why religious institutions that emphasize man's unique relation to its creator are always more successful that religious institutions that just "go with the flow" in the Modern World.

[phobosx12]

you mean western culture in general, which has taken over the modern world, but it can always change, whos knows in 100 years the dominate mode of thought could be tao or zen with temples on the moon and mars

[1PostPoMoMaN1]

Or like now: people doing yoga breathing exercises to focus mind. Example: do this: breathe through one nostril and then through the other,change: first out then in, then with the other nostril, do that whenever you're too stressed, depressed, too excited, too sleepy, and do it as long as you want. This is the basic yogic method dof breath that leads to transparent and transformative states and stages of consciousness. As or the dao and zen, Im all for that, beacasue that's what I also practice.

[AntiquityCentury21]

Thanks man.

[TinkerMitski]

hey there. do you have that written at all? I was trying to write at the same time that you talk but it will take me ages.. so if you have it just let me know and I'll give you my emails address.

thanks for sharing! ;)

[cupofcoffees]

THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN 'TRYING' TO SAY! TY :)

you rock so hard. 675 views says a lot- more people need to see this!!

I'm going to get the book. thanks so much.

[mistaspot1]

neat effect

i sometimes think rationalism

is an absolute disrespect

for philosophy, which i equate with

emotional health.

an affect that is altogether irrational.

[plenipotentiarius]

Good summary. And a much needed perspective.

Of course it plays into the hands of someone who accuses you of Romanticism and the desire to return to primal, medieval or ancient times.

Somehow, with six billion people those very modern systems seem necessary to prevent even more widespread starvation etc. I'm not sure if more "spirituality" would not make it worse; as the obese reach for spiritual solace while the hungry have to remain vehemently materialistic.

[0ThouArtThat0]

We should be careful not to mistake the techniques and ideologies of modernity as the only means of curtailing the very same circumstances said techniques and ideologies have contributed to creating in the first place.

I think there is nothing more important at this particular moment in human history than a renewed spiritual connection to the planet and its ecosystems. Spirituality does not necessarily mean striving to transcend; it can mean seeking a deeper connection to nature.

[plenipotentiarius]

My point is that this kind of "moment in human history" has been going on for 200 years or so, the moment to renew spirit has been preached from the altars of Romanticisms from the start, almost as though it were born with this rapacious system.

I agree that the very same techniques of modernity are not the only means for curtailing/improving; what I question is this obese, navel "spirituality" and if it has not really been a part of the problem from the beginning.

[silverbackman]

Sounds interesting......I'm very pro-science but I find it silly that many modern anthropologists find the tyrannical patriarchal structures like dominance, hierarchy, inequality, ect. as the rational scientific way. I think we can still have all the benefits of science/rationalism and all it can offer without reverting to old hierarchal/institutional/patri­archal practices. This in my opinion is more of a feature of authoritarian faith-based religions.

[0ThouArtThat0]

I will read a section from the same book where the author describes what she would like to hear the scientific community say about the scope of their enterprise.

[0neironaut]

there is a logical progression from the bullet to the atom bomb. Scientific inquiry is inextricably entwined with the military industrial complex. You might argue that science is innocent, it merely discovers and invents things, but to what ends that knowledge and technology is later (mis)used for is not of science but of poor judgement, or authoritarian appropriation. Buuut, that pretty much ignores the conditional relationality between science and the World.

[w0r1dpeace]

this effect so radical!

homo extra terrestrisssss

[docrufus]

Would bet that passage identifies what many folks feel but are unable to articulate.

We have a saying in these parts...

"She'zall owtta gear b'ye"

[cosmanthony21]

This view is more preferrable, and to think, all is known or can be known; maybe all is knowing?

[Mork5]

true

(exept for the left brain half :-)

[zezt]

GREAT video, GREAT words and insight!...and reading ;)

" Modern Science: Drawing on the brief historical sketch above, we see that the three defining marks of modern science are careful observation, mathematicization, and the will to power (largely on the part of men). Accordingly, we arrive at this defininition:

[zezt]

cont)) modern science is the mathematicization of knowledge that has been derived from careful observation, motivated by the ( primarily male)will to power."

Critique of Patriarchal Reason, Arthur Evans