In the latest issue of Adbusters, “The Post- Postmodernism Issue,” philosophy professor Michael Larson suggests that “we are living through postmillennial tension,” an idea that caught my attention, given our country’s collective downward spiral in recent years. Larson writes:
We live in wait for a defining event that either never seems to come or, when it is declared to have arrived, only seems to reinforce the very darkness we dream of emerging from. This tension often takes the form of frozen anguish. We seem thoroughly jaded by the dreams of “progress” associated with modernity and capitalism but can hardly venture to move in another direction. Perhaps we cannot accept that there won’t be another grand narrative to guide us along, a new Moses floating down the river to guide us to some promised land.
This idea of a “defining event” is what initially piqued my interest in Larson’s piece. Growing up in America in the 1980s, and early 1990s, I’m of the generation that was repeatedly told: “You can be whatever you want to be when you grow up. Follow your dreams.” It was the positive reinforcement born out of the idealism of our parents’ generation, those who came of age in the idyllic 1950s, followed by the turbulent reality check of the 1960s. But as a result, this type of positivity-soaked idealism left many of us listless, confused about what exactly our true path in life should have been. To believe you are destined for great things is by no means a terrible fate. If anything, it is the job of the important people in each our lives to bolster us, feed our minds, and nurture our ideas. And that is what so many of our parents and loved ones did. But if unprepared, the limbo between that anticipated reality and real life can become a dangerous place — no matter what generation you came of age in.
Several years ago, while still in college, I had a profound realization about this anticipatory feeling I’d had all my life. I was sitting in my car at a red light, stressed because I had gotten out of work late that day and was afraid I’d miss my afternoon class. For whatever reason, my mind quieted for a moment at that red light. Then, out of nowhere, this thought hit me like a cinderblock in the jaw: What if the moment I’ve been working up to my entire life, is actually death?
Though it may sound stupid to some, this crushed me. Not because I couldn’t handle despair, but because it was such a sobering revelation that plotted out a cold and absolute end. Now this isn’t precisely what Larson is discussing in his Adbusters piece, but as my tension about the world has only grown since my memorable “adult crash” so many years ago, the key points he hits on are compelling.
As Larson explains it, we are both motivated and frustrated by the promises of modern life:
The tension we experience between our lives and the promises offered by modernity have often been suffered passively. The question becomes: Can this tension be put to work productively? Can we move past denial and depression and face the precariousness and risk we have been dealt? Can we use these antagonisms to animate our actions? The present moment offers us a clear picture of the divide between our dreams of progress and our reality.
The divide Larson talks about is important. In many ways it speaks to America’s massive middle class, and the ever-increasing distance between the rich and poor in society — the haves and have-nots. In pre-financial collapse America, all was not well, we know this. But it has become an almost nostalgic period for so many of us. It was before we lost jobs, homes, and life savings. In essence, it was before many of us lost hope. Again, Larson:
If this was the death of the dream, then our present reality of global warming, water and food shortages, market collapse and the continued proliferation of violent factionalism make it clear that we had better get on with mourning and confront the sorrow we have been trying to repress. Putting it off has only allowed the problems to grow.
To shake out of our current malaise may still take time. But hopefully it can be overcome.
(Photograph: Lydia Panas/Millenium Images, UK via Adbusters)
