We’ve looked at a couple of themes in this post-post-modern condition – the new truth and the new morality. The third theme – the new state – flows from and enforces the previous two themes. In a nutshell, the new state tends towards populist totalitarianism. An important caveat Before going on though it is important … Continue reading
The agenda of the New Atheists was never simply to promote science and materialism over and against religious belief and super-naturalism (though that was core); it was also the promotion of a new morality: an attempt to show that religion was not only untrue but bad and that atheistic humanism can produce a superior morality … Continue reading
Post-modernity was open to any narrative, any ‘truth.’ If you wanted to say there were fairies at the bottom of your garden then that was ‘an interesting folk perspective worthy of narration’ (and worthy of a PhD or two exploring the polyvalence and intertextuality of this tradition). In fact post-modernism was suspicious of science because … Continue reading
The death of post-modernism has been announced by a number of cultural commentators. In 2006 Alan Kirby wrote an article in Philosophy Now called, ‘The death of postmodernism and beyond.’ Another British writer, Edward Docx, in a 2011 article for Prospect Magazine, ‘Postmodernism is dead,’ noticed that a London museum was putting on a ‘retrospective’ … Continue reading
I’ve often wondered how postmodernism in East Africa differs from Western postmodernism. Wanyeki Mahiaini, former minister for training at All Souls Langham Place, London has carefully studied both cultures and gives a very insightful answer: The picture in Africa is a lot more complex [than in the West] because Africa is one of those places where anything you … Continue reading
Newton Gatambia Kibiringi, Kenyan brother, iServe Africa alumnus, youth worker in the UK, gifted wordsmith. Here is one of his recent poems reflecting on the condition of postmodernity: So stretched has become life’s scope And so narrowed any honest concern Stressed have become the natural muscles So loud is the solemn atypical intonation Widening is the … Continue reading
The new issue of Conversation Magazine is out now! And at 44 pages packed with insightful articles and thought-provoking comment on cutting edge issues you don’t want to miss this one. Here’s Lydia Maingi’s editorial: Post-modernism is a big word, but is it relevant to Kenyans today? Surely it cannot be that big … Continue reading
Education is changing. In Kenya in the last 10 years there’s been an explosion in university education, evening classes, online learning, Masters, MBAs, modular courses… But deeper changes are going on too. And if we’re involved in education – either as providers or as receivers (and most of are one or both of those), then it’s vital … Continue reading
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