Todd Gitlin on Postmodernism

Todd Gitlin has occasionally been skeptical about postmodernism, but in explaining what it is, offers some useful insights. Essentially he argues, correctly in my estimation, against ahistoricismm ("Postmodernism defined, at last!", Utne Reader, July/August 1989, p. 52)

One context for theories of postmodernism is the concept of the post-industrial society, with its notion of a shift to an information economy. The idea of this is that societies would place new pressures and opportunities on the workers, allowing them a greater surplus wealth and more diverse statuses than previously. Arguably, as a result of size, mobility, educational level and widely differing life experiences of their populations, postindustrial societies have relatively various, tolerant and heterogeneous cultures, or, perhaps, subcultures. It has, in addition, been argued that this trend is likely to continue, even though large scale systems may show periodic outbreaks of social conflict and strain. New subcultures and lifestyles will likely continue to develop to meet rapidly changing needs and problems. It is likely that there will be greater emphasis on balancing societal needs with the concern for individual self-fulfillment.

Gitlin suggests that post-industrial society may be most marked by a new, somewhat initially dislocated lifestyle and attitude (what he calls "postmodernism"). Quoting from a leading European theorist, Gitlin states "One listens to reggae, watches a Western, eats McDonald's food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo, and "retro" clothes in Hong Kong. However, it goes beyond the personal or superficial into broader ranges. Gitlin sees this change as being, ultimately, "a way of seeing, a view of the human spirit and an attitude toward politics as well as culture. It has precedents, but in its reach it is the creature of our recent social and political moment. In style, more than style is at stake. Gitlin then summarizes six theories which each emphasize a different aspect of postindustrial style:

1. The global shopping center -- global capitalism accounts for an ideology which stresses high consumption, ceaseless transformation of style, and an emphasis on surface, packaging, and reproducibility. Even "lifestyles' become commodities to be marketed. Thus, the modern consumer is encouraged to live in the immediate present garnished by nostalgia binges.

2. The scientific method -- However, the advance of science has been accelerating for centuries, yet postindustrial style is no more than two decades old.

3. the television generation -- For those who grew up watching TV and who therefore now simply take it for granted, TV has had a powerful impact on the style and content of the flow of information

4. American eclecticism -- Quotes the essayist Randolph Bourne (1916) "There is no distinctively American culture. It is apparently our lot to be a federation of cultures." Alexis de Tocqueville described American culture 150 years ago as a "marketplace jamboree with amazing diversity striving for recognition", implying that no style, no subject is intrinsically superior to any other.

5. The post-'60s syndrome -- the 60's exploded our faith in progress, which underlay the classical faith in linear order and moral clarity. Old verities crumbled, but new ones have not settled in. Self regarding irony and blankness are ways of staving off the anxieties, rages, terrors and hungers that have been kicked up but cannot find resolution.

6. The yuppie factor -- Such currents run especially deep among people born in the 1950's and 1960's. Pomo as "yuppie outlook", reflecting an experience that takes for granted not only television, but suburbs, shopping malls, recreational (but not religious or transcendent) drugs, and the towering abstraction of money. To grow up post 1960's is to experience everything as having apparently been done. Therefore, culture is a process of recycling; everything is juxtaposed because nothing matters.

Gitlin's conclusion: Postmodernism which is disdainful of history turns out to be all too embedded in it. Because such a variety of forces have funneled together to nourish pomo, it's likely that the tendency will be with us for some time to come.

However, he argues for developing a workable political viewpoint for the postindustrial era, one protective of the environment, and protective of the individual and the social group from domination by larger groups. He last states "The ideal toward which politics strives is conversation -- and conversation requires respect for the other. The fundamental value is that the conversation continue toward the global culture." (Gitlin, Utne Reader 7/8-89: 52-61)