Hacking at the Leaves while Stumbling over the Roots: Modernity, Assimilation, and RLDS Mimicry of Oldline Decline

Alan Goff
Humn. 417—The Emergence of the Modern Era
Term Paper
Hacking at the Leaves while Stumbling over the Roots:
Modernity, Assimilation, and RLDS Mimicry of Oldline Decline
Introduction
As Western societies move from modern epistemologies to postmodern ones, it is worth reflecting what we are beyond if we live in a postmodern world. Modernity has endured pretty rough handling by postmodern thinkers, so we ought not to be naïve in acquiescing to modern assertions. The Enlightenment version of modernity has taken the heaviest casualties in recent thought. The Enlightenment asserted several consistent propositions: (a) human reason is supreme over religion and tradition and is up to the task of understanding nature and guiding society, (b) human nature isn’t fixed and depraved but is progressive and susceptible to education and improvement, (c) the most important unit in society isn’t the family or the community but the individual (society exists to expand individual...