All statements are false.
~ Gorgias
Sooner or later politics will be faced with the task of finding a new postmodern face. A politician must become a person again, someone who trusts not only scientific representation and analysis of the world, but also the world itself. He must believe not only in sociological statistics but also in real people. He must trust not only an objective interpretation of reality, but also his own soul; no only an adopted ideology, but also his own thoughts; not only the summary reports he receives each morning, but also his own feelings.
~ Vaclav Havel, in a speech at the World Economic Forum in 1995
Post-modernism means the end of a single world view, and by extension, a “war on totality,” a resistance to single explanations, a respect for difference and a celebration of the regional, local and particular.
~ Charles Jencks, in The Post-Modern Reader, page 12
Homo mensura.
~ Protagoras
Marilyn [Monroe] once was asked if she believed in God. With a flirtatious grin she said, “I just believe in everything—a little bit.” This “Monroe doctrine” might be the defining doctrine of postmodern times.
~ in Is Jesus the Only Way?
Postmodernism defies definition because we’re right in the middle of a cultural phenomenon still unfolding before us—it’s a moving target.
~ Peter Sacks, in Generation X Goes To College, page 116.
But perhaps the best candidate for postmodernity’s byword is given us by Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, the grunge rockers many observers rightly contend are emblematic of Generation X culture: “Here we are now / entertain us,” says a line from “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” a lyric that hits upon the domination of entertainment values in contemporary culture, spanning politics, education, and even religious institutions. Indeed, one might modify Nirvana’s lyric along the lines of Descartes to say, “I am entertained, therefore I am.”
~ Peter Sacks, Generation X Goes To College, page 118
Generation X is not a thing; it’s the lack of a thing, the lack of a positive theory, or an opinion about anything. They don’t believe in anything, and everything is up for grabs.
~ Lloyd, quoted by Peter Sacks, Generation X Goes To College, page 139
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