Jump to content

Student Projects/Postmodern world and its problems

From Wikiversity

     It is generally held by all by the scholars after the world wars the postmodern era began. We cannot tell exactly as to when it began. The postmodern era was unlike any other periods of human history. During this phase many scholars like Focault, Derrida and Satre were being appreciated for their seminal work. Let us first try to define what postmodern world is. But we need to understand that it is extremely difficult to give a binding definition to it. If we were asked to define it is nothing but “inexplicability of the human survival in contemporary and technologically advanced times.”

    Let us try our best to examine some of its chief problems:

1.  Human beings existential problem:

    After the terrible world wars which devastated the whole human population, many scholars began to search meaning in human lives. They felt as though a human’s sole purpose was to barely breathe and push life. The literature of that time started echoing as though humans were devoid of any meaning in their lives. Mere existence seemed burdensome and cumbersome, survival became absurd and miserable. The inquiry of into human existence was begun to be investigated deeply.


2.  The Idea of distrust in language:

    The postmodern scholars felt language as a structure which failed to convey meaning. It merely was present with the humans to fill the void. The critical ideas such as structuralism and post structuralism appeared in the early 70s. People felt as though language did not convey the real meaning. It was widely promoted by Derrida in his Deconstruction theory; he felt that language as dogmatic and metaphysical. His theory has been widely accepted as an important visionary document for the postmodern problem. It is read in an interdisciplinary way, i.e. in linguistics, literary criticism and historiography it has been widely debated and discussed.

3.  Growth of identity politics:

    The postmodern discourse saw a rise in various movements. It was the beginning of the LBGTQIA movements. The whole point of this particular movement emphasized on the pride on account of their uniqueness in terms of their sexual orientation. We must agree that historically the queer individuals have been traumatized and harassed, many communities still penalize them for being who they are. We should try our best to reduce the discrimination, and build an accommodative and inclusive society and a hospitable world. The weakest link of the movement was that it refused to go about in a rational and logical manner. We should at some point understand that we are humans first; later on we can have the distinctive identity. These things have only complicated human lives.


4.  An extreme importance over the Individual humans:

   We should probably realize that humans are the most advanced creatures biologically. Humans have advanced in fields of literature, medicine and in almost in all walks of life. But these things have only increased the arrogance of human beings. All human’s greed and selfish tendencies has led to the extinction of various animal species like the dodo. We should probably view the world in all its plurality; we ought to feel that this world belongs to tiniest of microbes to and to giant animals. We should understand that humans are important as any other creature which inhabits this blue planet the earth. We pollute rivers, slash trees, clear forests at the cost of other organisms which is probably the biggest mistake we are committing.


    These are some of the problems which have been challenging the postmodern world. The only solution can be found if we humans become more reasonable in their behavior and ideas. All the ideas can be differed provided they can be logically refuted.