I have included some very good comments, I think, on Victor Davis Hanson's America's First Post-Modern President in Pajamas Media. We have had, more then once, in my Sunday School class, discussions on the meaning of post-modernism. Dr. Hanson's article goes along way in explaining it, using both the President's actions and the words of supreme court nominee Sonia Sotamayor as examples (damning examples, I might add.)
here is the article; below are some of the comments (emphases are added by me)
1. Dr. Hanson:
A very interesting analysis. Its fascinating that we invent all manner of ways to explain what Obama (and those like him) mean and are doing. In the not too distant past, if someone said they had no intention of running a car company, but everything they did indicated to any sentient being they were doing exactly that, we would have simply called them a liar and behaved toward them as we would toward anyone whose word could not be trusted. Or if they said that the country was broke, but continued to try to spend the nation into oblivion, we would have simply called them a fool and behaved toward them as we would toward anyone who had no sense or self restraint.
And regarding Judge Sotomayor, a wise Latina would not think a she does, and surely would not have said what she said. It would seem that she has made a prima facie case for her own utter lack of wisdom. Wisdom teaches us to judge people by who they are now, but what they can accomplish now, not by an interesting life story. Wisdom–to say nothing of humility–also tells us to avoid hubris lest the gods take offense. One can only image the god’s wrath toward Obama and Sotomayor.
2. Thanks VDH…after reading your post I now can name that strange, unsettling aura that surrounds Obama. It is the moral anarchy, or perhaps moral vacuity, of the postmodern mind. Fine, glib, gilded words coupled to….nothing. A hollow man with no guts, no internal organs to give him substance. He has a vague program grown from his campaign rhetoric, but nothing beyond feel-good catch phrases to which he adheres. Bright but without “pre-postmodern” values or deeply felt and enacted ideals. A perfect politician for these days!
3. Relativism is inherently anti-intellectual. There is no reason to do any serious reading and studying if everything is ultimately relative. This explains why Barack Obama is such an intellectually shallow and poorly read man. He is unlikely able to read a halfway difficult book if his life depended on it. There are numerous adults in their middle twenties far more knowledgeable than our forty seven year old president. It’s not a question of I.Q. Obama is not mentally retarded. On a gut level, however, he doesn’t sense a need to get his act together. Obama on a daily basis says one dumb thing after another. The general public is reluctant to face this blatantly obvious fact because he graduated from Harvard Law. This is inherently supposed to mean that Obama is another John Adams. Nothing could be further from the truth. It only indicates that Obama can probably pass the typical state board exam. I always urge people to pretend that Obama instead graduated from someplace like “North Dakota Tech College.” After only a few days—the blinders start to fall off.
Obama learned to take advantage of white guilt during his teen years. Why study if all you have to do is learn to jack the system? Networking, on a practical level, is far more important than sticking your head in a book. Obama is a creature of his environment. The politically correct culture of the Ivy League schools gave him a pass. On top of that, it tacitly told Obama that his skin color provided him with a special wisdom far superior to the “dominant white truth.” He already knew more than his reactionary professors.
4. Victor is indeed correct in placing the onus of our decline squarely at the doors of our wretched postmodern universities.While the radicals were busy co-opting entire faculties, most Americans were asleep at the switch. Sound familiar?
I never thought I would say this because I groomed my sons from the time they could read to aspire to the height of higher education. I must honestly state that the only reason why I am pleased that they recently completed their university studies is because they chose engineering disciplines. Had they decided to opt for humanities degrees I would have directed them (gently of course) to the best vocational schools around. The humanities are nothing like they used to be. Nothing.
It’s infinitely healthier/saner to steer ones progeny into the art of refrigeration, auto mechanics, electronics techs etc, than into what passes for most US higher education indoctrination courses.
The postmodern university has become such a joke, and indeed a travesty, that it should be renamed LOWER education.
