I just want to begin this entry with saying, I was a little confused about Habermas’ “Modernity- An Incomplete Project.” I don't know if I am the only one struggling with his theory of modernity being that we should just give up modernity all together. Now, this had me really confused so I had to read over a few passages again to make sure I wasn’t going insane. I then read his Enlightenment section and the history behind the project of modernity. I may be in left field for this idea that I’m conceptualizing, but just hang in there with me till the end.
According to Habermas, the Enlightenment began when the project of modernity was first introduced in the eighteenth century. The philosophers during this time period were very eager to promote an accumulation of specialized culture for the greater good for everyday life (Habermas 1997, 103). It was believed that the arts and sciences would promote a rich and new atmosphere. As Habermas says, this new atmosphere “would promote not only the control of natural forces but also the understanding of the world and of the self, moral progress, the justice of institutions and even the happiness of human beings” (Habermas 1997, 103). When I was reading this that last sentence really got to me on another level, “the happiness of human beings”.
I found this quite interesting because considering the happiness of human beings is a very important thing in society. Happy humans make the world go round, so I decided to do a little more research on the Enlightenment period and why it helped create the project of modernity. For my main source I decided to use. I found out that the Enlightenment in French means “Century of Lights.” How beautiful is that? Anyway, Wikipedia says, that the Enlightenment “was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe in the 18th century. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy, and came to advance ideals such as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state” (“Age of Enlightenment”).
What I found most interesting was the section about how Americans, like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, closely followed political movements from the Enlightenment. They then brought these ideas from Europe and decided to use them in the advancement of the New World. The Enlightenment is supposed to be a time where liberty and freedom is supposed to be expressed, but Native Americans didn’t have any say in this type of liberty or freedom. The happiness for this minority group wasn’t taken into consideration in the slightest bit. In fact, some people say that the American Holocaust was far worse than the Nazi Germany Holocaust, but people don’t know that. This whole new project of modernity was to bring forth the Enlightenment and progression of art and science, but did that really happen?
At the end of Habermas’ reading he says, “But the problem won’t go away: should we try to hold on to the intentions of the Enlightenment, feeble as they may be, or should we declare the entire project of modernity a lost cause” (Habermas 1997, 104). First of all, the Enlightenment did bring for many great things for our society and the European society, but it also created many other issues with the New World, our society. I sure as hell don’t want to hold onto any of the intentions of the Enlightenment because look what has happened to our country over time. We are all very invested in products, tv shows and ourselves. I think we should declare the project of modernity a lost cause because everyone is so confused about it now anyway, so why not just drop it to create less stress.
I attached the following music video “Illmerica” by Wolfgang Gartner to show how corrupt our country has became after this new concept of modernity came into play. If you don’t agree with me, I completely understand but thank you for listening to my rant.
(I also want to say one more thing. I’m sorry if this offended anyone but we do need to understand that the American Holocaust should be something that people learn about in school. I’m sorry if I offended anyone and thank you for letting me rant.)
“Age of Enlightenment.” Wikipedia. n.d. Online
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