Post Modernism Leads to Totalitarianism

There is objective truth to be learned by observation, and the knowledge gained gives power that other "ways of knowing" have not. But the more dangerous problem with postmodernist thinking is its a priori nature. Not truth, but a political goal has to be served—in this particular case the goal of openness, or tolerance without judgment. But without acknowledgi objective truth, all arguments become rhetorical and therefore can go on forever—and we are either paralyzed by it or we must resort to authority instead of objectivity to make decisions, which collapses us all the way back to Thomas Hobbes's war of every man against every man: predemocracy, pre-Enlightenment.

Thus, when taken to an extreme, postmodernist thinking inevitably leads, through its dependence on authority, to the brutality it sought to avoid, a brutality that was becoming increasingly evident in political arguments as the later baby boomers took charge in the culture. As the first children taught under this philosophy, they were generally unable to articulate positions based on accumulated knowledge or data because they hadn't been taught about them or taught to value ^ left with "but faith, or opinion" and a belief finding the nuggets that match your argument—and in never, ever compromising, because the winner writes the history books.

Notes:

When facts are relative and belief makes reality, then the best strategy is to hold to your belief uncompromisingly.

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Concepts:
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Truth (0.765048): dbpedia | freebase
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 Fool Me Twice
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Otto , Shawn Lawrence (2011-10-11), Fool Me Twice, Rodale Press, Retrieved on 2013-01-08
  • Source Material [books.google.com]
  • Folksonomies: politics science