The Post-Modern Period -- Commentary -- December 31, 2023

Locator: 46436B.

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Into The 21st Century

I assume this is Susan Rubinow Gorsky but I wrote this years ago, and did not catch the source, or the full name of the writer. But let's assume it was Susan Rubinow Gorsky:

Gorsky said that “Virginia Woolf speaks for the modern period.  Modernism is the most important aesthetic movement of the twentieth century. Along with such experiments as Joyce, Eliot, Yeats, Faulkner, and Lawrence, Virginia Woolf is a prime representative of those so strongly affected by the tumultuous transition to the current [20th] century.”  

According to Gorsky, at the time of Virginia’s birth, “Victorian England was becoming increasingly aware of the tumultuous change which introduced what today is called the modern age.  

This period of upheaval witnessed frequently disruptive events in history and literature. 

The breakdown of the traditional Western family and of class structure, the coming of a major economic depression, the accelerated shift from an agricultural to an urban and industrialized society – these general trends were supported or symbolized by specific occurrences, among them the death of Queen Victoria, in 1901, the flights of the Wright brothers in 1903, and in 1914 the great climax of the first World War. At the same time, startling new ideas were being promulgated by Carl Jung in anthropology and psychology, by Sigmund Freud in psychology, by William James in philosophy and psychology, by Henri Bergson in philosophy, by Albert Einstein in the sciences, and by Sir James Frazer in anthropology. 

"However little or much the theories of these important thinkers may have been understood by their popular audiences, there can be no question of their impact.  For example, Jung’s work suggested strange and universal links among all people, an idea supported by Frazer’s study of myths which repeat themselves from one community to another, from one culture to another.  The explorers offered support for each others’ ideas, and the ideas themselves inflamed the curious and sensitive who learned of the new discoveries.” Somewhere Gorsky stated that the transition from the Victorian Age to the Modern Age was as remarkable as the transition from the Dark (Medieval) Ages to the Renaissance Age. That is a remarkable statement if one stops to think about it a moment. 

From my perspective, moving into the second half of this decade (2020 - 2029) could be just as tumultuous:

• "the death of literature as we knew it":
• the rise of OpenAI; 
• Harvard president not guilty of plagiarism; 
• admits to "duplicative language";
• will be allowed to add citations to her PhD thesis
  
• "woke" literature;
• LBGTQ authors rise and shine
• wedge issues decide elections
• supposedly decided in the 60s, abortion now the #1 wedge issue
  
• tectonic geo-political changes:
• most believe that one way or another, the boundary between mainland China and Taiwan will be much more seamless by the end of the decade;
• US hegemony will continue to decline
• US seems unable to manage asymmetric warfare
  
• Putin "wins" in Ukraine
• NATO grows but a paper tiger as it cedes Ukraine territory to Russia
• Middle East: Iran showing its bite through its proxies
• globally: anti-Semitism becoming acceptable
• US east coast / west colleges leading the charge
• Palestinian movement in US seems to be gaining almost exponentially 
• Southern Surge divides the nation
  
• medicine:
• mRNA
• CRISPR
• cures for sickle cell; thalassemia
• diabetes type II: Ozempic
• diabetes type I: on the cusp?
  
• the gilded age: at least in the US
  
• the wealth gap between the well-off and the middle class will continue to widen
• cryptocurrency surges in value
• guys like Warren Buffett won't touch it
• Elon Musk will do a whole lot more than touch it
• EV house of cards falls; implications enormous