Postmodernism
Here we explore what appear to be good ideas that turn out to be bad ideas.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau opens Book One of Émile ou De l’éducation (1762) with the line: Tout est bien, sortant des mains de l’Auteur des choses ; tout dégénère entre les mains de l’homme. – “Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man.” With this recognition, which echoes Genesis 6:5 (Bereshit)—“evil continually”—he sets out to improve the lot of humans on earth with a philosophical masterpiece about the relationship among education, an individual (Émile), and society.
Rousseau portrays the individual, natural man, as originally good and self-sufficient, corrupted by artificial social institutions. He also warns against cosmopolitan philosophers: “Tel philosophe aime les Tartares, pour être dispensé d’aimer ses voisins”—“Such a philosopher loves the Tartars so as to be excused from loving his neighbors.”
This describes the leaders of Western nations who have bought into the dominant philosophy of our time, namely a combination of liberalism and postmodernism. Liberalism still provides the normative framework of law, governance, and free markets. Postmodernism shapes cultural imagination, moral relativism, and identity discourse. It creates a currently dominant philosophy, a liberal order inhabited by postmodern culture. It’s an alliance that is arguably creative but frequently unstable, and often highly dysfunctional. It qualifies as an artificial social institution that will eventually crumble under the weight of its dysfunction.
Nowhere is this dysfunction more evident than in our decades-long experiment with identity politics and its inevitable spillover into arguments about culture and immigration. Immigration policy perfectly illustrates the fusion and its contradictions:
Liberal dimension
Enshrines rights of asylum, non-discrimination, and equality before the law.
Encourages open markets, labor mobility, and assimilation into the workforce.
Recognizes the state’s responsibility to its citizens to control its borders and regulate legal immigration.
Postmodern dimension
Emphasizes cultural pluralism and the deconstruction of “national identity.”
Frames migrants as bearers of diverse narratives rather than as subjects of assimilation.
In many cases, previously and currently, condemns rigorous immigration requirements.
Tension
The liberal state promises universal rights and civic integration; postmodern culture treats identity as irreducible and diversity as an end in itself.
Result: policies promoting inclusion but lacking a shared integration narrative, leading to social confusion and backlash.
To say that traditional German or British culture is worth preserving now invites criticism from the ruling elite. To suggest that American culture is worth preserving invites the response, “what culture?” America is a melting pot. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Yearning to breathe free is a noble objective, but what are the real objectives of the large numbers of migrants from Syria, North Africa, Iraq, and Afghanistan who entered Germany after Angela Merkel declared, “Wir schaffen das” (“We can do this!”)? And what has it done to German society? Is there still a recognizable British culture? Remember France?
France is waking up to the threat. Here’s a link to the French Ministry of the Interior web page where you can find links to their report and press release about the Muslim Brotherhood and Political Islamism in France: Publication du rapport “Frères musulmans et islamisme politique en France”
To what extent is integration into the prevailing culture possible? Evidence in Europe suggests that radicalization among second- and third-generation immigrants is real and sometimes severe. The trend is less about religion and more about social identity conflict, perceived exclusion, and reactive subcultures. Socially disaffected people become susceptible to well-financed ideologies, as evidenced by global jihadism.
Will America finally arrive at cultural stability?
