Post-Modernity, Anyone??

The 1960s was a critical period for Europe. My generation left the austerity of the postwar years behind and tasted freedom - not just in the UK but in the world as a whole as vividly shown in this brilliant production by the German Historical Institute 1968 – memories and legacies of a global revolt (2009). These past few days, I stumbled on a short draft about Post-Modernity which I felt needed updating – not least because it traces my intellectual development, a subject on which I tend to be a bit reticent. I’m attaching the new draft because I suspect it reflects the experience of my older readers and might help my younger readers make more sense of the world.

I consider myself lucky because my upbringing made me particularly aware of the very different ways people look at the world. This for various reasons

• My parents lived in a mansion in the West End of a Scottish town – but were poor, my father being a presbyterean Minister.

• I went to a State school although some of my friends came from more privileged backgrounds.

• I became a Labout councillor at a young age (25) in a town very sensitive to class differences and, as a result, became a bit of a “mugwump”.

• At University, I was exposed to the teachings of Karl Popper and therefore resisted the easy ideology of the New Left – despite my avid readings of the early editions of the New Left Review from 1960, with various hiccups, right through to the present. Whether you agree with it or not, it is the most thoughful of publications.

This is a short paper but an important one for me given that we have so many lens through which we look when we’re trying to make sense of the world - be it 2, 3, 4, 5, 12 or 57. The exact number is not a matter of great importance – what does matter is that we recognise that there are these differences in how we view the world. But that is something we seem very reluctant to do. The paper tries to -

• explain how my upbringing and university experience predisposed me to a postmodernist way of thinking

• demonstrate the influence of such writers as EH Carr (1961) and Peter Berger (1966)

• show how the mix of academic and political work developed in me an appreciation of the different ways people understand the worldview

• suggest how this was confirmed in my later reading and work

The paper can be accessed here – or in the list at the top-right column of the blog