Key Concepts and the basic logic of postmodernism
Postmodernism is a movement that is historically and philosophically against modernism. According to a certain cadre of leading intellectuals, the world has moved from modernism and is now in a new era – an era of revolution.
We are sandwiched between the presence and the future in such a manner that whereas we are in an era that is emancipated from the tyrannical limitations of the past, we are concurrently uncertain about the anticipations of the future. Even anti postmodernists, scrutinizing the intellectual atmosphere and not liking what they notice, attest to the fact that there is a new cutting edge.
There have been transitions in the intellectual arena regarding who is on the lead. Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, just to name but a few are the spear headers of the postmodern movement (Hicks, 2004. p.1). They not only draw the direction, but also avail necessary tools. According to its leaders, postmodernism does not embrace the components of the past such as reason, truth, and knowledge.
They further postulate that postmodernism is neither true nor does it provide knowledge. Since such suggestions would be conflicting, postmodernists must then be ironical in their use of language. They assert that either the globe or the self has a built-in nature. Since there is nothing to control or limit our thoughts or the way we feel, we are at liberty to either do or say whatever we wish.
It focuses on deconstruction of reason which sets one free from the duty of being right but requires him to be thrilling. Postmodernism then becomes a technique that can be used by an activist to oppose reason and power. It enables one to detect, confront, and oppose the political horrors in a particular time. Those horrors originate from the west where reason and power have been so established.
However, the pain that the horrors cause is unequally distributed (Hicks, 2004. p. 3). The power is in the hands of males, rich and whites who use it to oppress women, racial minorities and the needy. Postmodernism also advocates for censorship on pornography because it is viewed as oppressive to women, violent and politically repressive.
The violence is not only encountered by the needy at the hands of the affluent, but also by the developing nations at the hand of the capitalist countries. The violence of capital civilization is masked under aspects like democracy and progress, forgetting past evils, and freedom and equality as regards the law. However, the underlying essence is not fully manifested.
Although at a glance, postmodernism denies link to philosophy, it however embraces an embedded conception of reality and ethics. It is founded on premises that can allow for situation of thoughts and actions. Metaphysically, postmodernism refutes the possibility of talking about a reality that exists on its own.
It rather looks at reality from a socio-linguistic sense or constructs (Hicks, 2004. p.6). Having replaced reality with social linguistic constructs, postmodernism maintains that these constructs are supposed to be subjective, conventional, and not commensurable.
Postmodernism holds a collective account of the human nature asserting that people’s identities are greatly determined by the social-linguistic groups that they belong to. Such groups differ on the basis of race, sex, materialism, and ethnicity.
It further accounts for conflicts among those groups, which are mainly resolved through the use of force since reason is not used. Using force results to dominance, subjugation and giving in. Finally, when it comes to political and ethical themes, postmodernism seeks to identify and feel sorry for the oppressed.
Key Concepts and the basic logic of Liberalism
Liberalism comprises a greater stream within the culture of the United States. It is founded on two basic pillars: democracy and personal freedom (Garry, 1992 p.41). With its flexibility and ability to respond to the needs of the layperson, democracy causes a difficulty in social control. In a similar way personal liberty plays a vital role in promoting the power and wave of revolution in the society.
Unimpeded democracy and personal liberty pose a threat to some key conservative interests that need a regulated, inflexible social and political atmosphere. Although it is founded in enlightenment, liberalism extends into both the private and public lives of people.
It forms part of what drives the constitutional law, forms the guidelines of what should hold reason in both the government and economics and determines the political correctness within the nation. It lays a major emphasis on an individual person whose ability to either volunteer or be rational forms the basis of innate value and provides a justification to defensive rights of independence, privacy, and freedom.
Every individual is considered important, and this is based neither on his or her religion nor on his or her roles in contributing to the common good of the country. An individual’s significance is rather based on their abilities to both think and make radical decisions. The major historic achievement of liberalism has been the emancipation of Jews, blacks and women (Cochran, 1999, p.4).
This, apart from its role, is continuing to lobby for everybody’s equal rights as well as justice in public policy. Liberal rights are regarded as self-evident regardless of the position that one might choose to take, having a preference of either property rights or civil rights.
Individual and innate rights are esteemed so highly and are always suspected to be under the threat of the government of the day, sporadically by science but hardly by business. Similar to other living creeds, liberalism does not only focus on the political spectrum, but it also takes varying forms and manifests in several kinds of intricacy (Almeder, 1998. p.181).
The aspect of human cloning is seen to undermine the principles of liberalism. This is because this anxious scientific practice clearly defies the intensely acknowledged American belief that every individual is unique in his or her own capacity. It begs a related question of as to whether it is possible to replicate something that is special. For something to be regarded as precious and unique, it should not be possible to copy it.
Even when it comes to artistic objects, the value of an object is not transferable to its replicas. In addition, if it is not possible to make a distinction between a copy and its original, then the value of the latter is compromised. Therefore, cloned individuals seem to have lost the unique worth that liberalism acknowledges in everyone.
Liberalism was formulated as a political plan that was meant to be a social guide begin from England and the United States and then to Europe and other parts of the world. However, in the entire world, the proponents of liberalism never succeeded in bringing their agenda to maturity (Mises, 2002, p.24).
Liberalism is a doctrine that is directly aimed at the conduct of men in the world. It is concerned with the advancement of their external material benefits and does not aim at fulfilling their internal spiritual needs. It does guarantee men satisfaction and happiness but only the most possible satisfaction that the things of the outer world can make them meet.
Liberalism has been criticized for its emphasis on what is material and worldly. Liberalism is concerned with the fact that that which is both highest and profound in a man cannot be touched by any external regulation.
It seeks to enhance external welfare because it acknowledges that inner spiritual fulfillment cannot be accessed by man from outside but rather from his own heart. It aims at creating the external environment for the cultivation of the inward life (Mises, 2002, p.28).
Globalization is a curse to the US middle class workers
Based on liberalism
Globalization is a continuous interdependence between nations and their citizens. It not only complex, but is also multifaceted. It is driven by technological, cultural, and political changes (Fischer, 2003 p.3). It is really resulting to a very close interdependence between the United States and other countries. It is perceived to have affected the current decline in home wages (Polaski, 2007, p. 1).
The middle class are people who are neither rich nor poor but contribute towards the development of market economy and democracy. The middle class workers can be looked at from perspectives. One is based on the fixed time and space element that bases them on a combination of education and the job they do.
Another approach refers to the middle class workers as those households that can be found at the middle of the income distribution within a given state (Birdsall, Graham and Pettinato, 2000, p.3). In Latin America, there are huge differences between the income of those at the top and the middle class. This in turn has really contributed towards the poverty level of the middle class workers.
Since liberalism, lays emphasis on materialism, the middle class workers can hardly gather enough based on their meager pay. This is as a product of policies whose roots are deeply found in political and economic interdependence between the United States and other nations since in most developed nations the middle class do get income that is way below average (Birdsall, Graham and Pettinato, 2000. p.5).
It is further argued that national policy choices, technology, and other effects of stagnation have contributed to the static effect in most of the United States incomes.
It is also argued that the United States trade and globalization has not contributed to the material welfare of the middle class workers in several ways. It has lowered their standards of living by undercutting their social, environmental, customer safety and other protections concerned with public health.
It has also increased their debts with foreign nations, undermined the security of the nation, and at the same time put them in a situation where it is difficult to be innovative in such a manner as to enhance one’s future progress (Sq Researcher, 2009. p.17).
It is there fore plausible to conclude that if the negative impacts of globalization are to be reduced in the United States to allow it access less skilled and less secured labour, income will have to be minimized especially for those employees who do not have a university degree.
Therefore, the worth of most Americans should be based on their level of education, which negates the tenets of liberalism that recognizes an individual as useful and unique without necessarily being made to be so by education or any other factor.
And so, America’s real economy cannot therefore be reconstructed effectively or be used to elevate the living standards of the middle class if at all the relevant authorities cannot be able to find out how to use revenue, currency, commerce and investment policies to recompense efficient domestic production rather than the foreign one. This is not in any way to assert that trade and globalization are harmful.
The United States globalization policies in the recent past years focused so much on the development of those mobile large-scale industries that are based in many nations. This was done at the expense of home manufacturers. At almost the same period, the projections for equitable, retainable, and democratic growth were downplayed. This was a great violation of one of the key pillars of liberalism; democracy.
In order to make progress, it is therefore imperative to realize that the current policy framework on globalization and trade has not been able to fulfill its promises especially to the middle class workers (Sq Researcher, 2009. p.17).
Based on postmodernism
Although a majority of black men and women form the most of middle class workers in the United States, they are still accorded less value on the basis of race. To fully understand the state of a group that is oppressed on the basis of race requires a conceptualization that can clearly reveal how both class and race interface to change the way people live.
Most Afro-Americans that entail both the working and middle class are narrowed to occupations that are of low pay and least impressive as compared to whites within the same working category (Dill and Zinn, 1994, p.115). Most workers based on race were not allowed to secure positions in the industrial, clerical, and marketing sectors. These dockets were set aside for the whites. Black ladies and gentlemen were to secure occupations that had been left out by the whites.
The first half of the century saw most black women secure domestic jobs before they were eventually able to secure jobs as service workers, factory employees, sales persons, and clerics. In the past, men and women of a black race that were serve in professional dockets attended to their fellow black people.
These responsibilities are often avoided by whites and even lately, most middle class black workers provide teaching, medical, professional and management based services to other blacks. Gender also contributes to the access of professional job opportunities in the United States.
Job ceilings have been playing a significant role in hindering the economic mobility of some target groups (Bose, 2001, p.6). This is a type of economic repression that perpetuated either formally or informally. The outcomes are non-changing such that most black people are not permitted to undertake some occupations even if they are competent enough to deliver.
This is because employers believe that such specific duties are not open to the black people. Throughout the years, blacks have been anticipating positive changes regarding this situation. For instance, the period between the second world war and depression saw a bigger percentage of the negro population become embroiled in the least paid, manual, risky and unattractive jobs.
Policies related to employment from individual organizations, trade-union limitations, and racial segregation in both training and promotions made it very hard for them to access jobs in management, clerics, sales and other related positions. Some industries had policies that favored only whites. Examples of such firms include the city financial institutions, offices, and electric production industries (Drake and Cayton, 1993, p.112).
Chicago did not have a different case of the job ceiling. It was part of the labor market in the rural and city areas. Its existence banned the black people from experiencing job mobility trends that were accessible by both native and immigrant white people who could with time change from less paying jobs to prestigious factory jobs.
With this developed system inaccessible to them, black men and women were to find a way of getting out of their meager paying jobs. They therefore started changing to household duties, housekeeping and caretaker services, laundry work, among other occupations where they could be employed. They strived to attain education, mainly in conventional black colleges.
For most blacks, an education was the key to competency that could make one secure middle class occupation (Dill and Zinn, 1994, p. 117). Through this way, some middle class black employees could find their way beyond the job ceiling to a better place. For women who were black, a college education could only enable them secure either domestic or alternative low remunerative jobs.
Despite advancement in college education, most black women encountered another host of impediments on their way. Both race and sex hindrances barred them from securing well paying and satisfying professional employment.
Before World War II, both gender and race were determinants of the kind of jobs that women could do. Black women undertaking college-based education were made to secure jobs as primary or secondary school teachers, nurses, social workers and librarians. This is evidenced especially in the Newark metropolitan region.
Black women with a college education were given a different professional treat. They were not allowed to pursue male oriented professionals but were led to undertake female professions (Hine 1989). For example, women could not secure automobile related jobs that strictly believed as belonging to men.
Despite the positive economic viability of such companies like Ford Motors, they were no provision of jobs to black women from such firms (Hine, 1989, p. 135). Women faced a major hurdle in securing jobs for both themselves and their children.
The devastations of underemployment, compulsory job layoffs, and sexual exploitation in the labour force during the economic crises of the 1930’s compelled most middle class black women employees to resort other sources of livelihood to survive.
Studies reveal that most black women have resorted to domestic roles in the United States were enslaved Africans. They worked in field where they grew food and cotton. They also cared for the families and children of the plantation owners who were mainly middle class whites (Ammot and Matthaei, 1996, p.16).
During the entire industrialization, women’s responsibility was neither visible nor acknowledged, reflecting how politically oppressive the Congress legislation was towards them.
In a bid to resolve this, we have had the emergence of women liberation movements whose aim has been to champion for the entry of middle class white women in most occupations. The work performed by women, whether based at home or in public is continuously seen as either less skilled or of little worth (Mercado and Poo, 2007, p.1).
Globalization is a blessing to the US middle class workers
Based on liberalism
The criticism leveled against globalization is comprehensible but mislaid. Despite rising concerns about deteriorating income allocation, wage stagnation and lack of secured occupations, most in depth studies in economy reveal that globalization has really led to an improvement in the United States economy and particularly that of the middle class.
Serious study shows that the United States economy registers an annual increment of about $1 trillion as a result of economic globalization for the last fifty years. These profits emanate from low – priced imports, additional well paying export jobs and a rapid pace in productivity.
The American economy is highly likely to grow by fifty percent annually if the remaining impediments are taken off the transnational exchange of commodities. In addition, this will go to an extent of improving the standards of living of the middle class employees.
The United States cannot prevent globalization in any way but it can only avail social safety valves for those affected while ensuring that its employees and companies can compete according to global economic standards.
The congress under the leadership of president Obama have already began laying down these safety valves as seen through the financial stimulus allocation. Insurance that may benefit the unemployed has already been unveiled. Restructuring of the health care has commenced.
All trade affected employees and communities have already been covered through the expansion of Trade Adjustment Assistance. Additionally, globalization has pulled numerous people out of poverty. Most nations that have attained sustainable modernization have incorporated globalization. Latest examples are both China and India (Sq Researcher, 2009. p.17).
Based on Postmodernism
On the other hand, the professional destiny of black men was also determined by gender. Based on this, most of them could end up as teachers, medics, business people and dentists. Blacks were permitted to exercise their professional duties within a community that is racially discriminative. Generally, education prepared black men to undertake occupations within black oriented institutions.
For example, dentists could only attend to black patients, and in big communities, they were able to succeed economically. As clergies, black men were allowed to attend to the needs of a black gathering. For larger gatherings, the minister’s economic security was guaranteed.
Other black men took the initiative to avail insurance services to their fellow blacks, which went a long way to benefit them in many ways. Additionally, black women who undertook domestic based roles have been reported to contribute Marjory towards the development of financial and social life in the United States.
The utilizability, strengths and weaknesses of liberalism and postmodernism
Liberalism has been criticized mainly for its focus on the social policy that concentrates on the material aspect of human kind while it downplays the importance of the inner spiritual aspects that form the source of ones satisfaction and happiness (Mises, 2002, p.27). In the discussion about the effects of globalization to the middle class, it brings out the aspect of how the affluent are denying the needy their liberty and democracy.
This has been entrenched in the economic policies and their implementation continues to render the middle class workers poor. However, it helps us to see the way out of this morass in a practical sense as seen in the latest initiatives laid down by the Congress government as already discussed.
On the other hand, the shortcomings of postmodernism are that, it exaggerates the problems we undergo while living together, it presents manipulates us with an antithesis that suggests the subjectivity of all knowing, when applied to moral settings, it concentrates more on the need to live with integrity and be selfless than on any other aspect (Carson, 2003, p.6).
Its strength is that it provides us with a vivid picture of oppression based on gender, race, and ethnicity. In the discussion above, the postmodernism perspective focuses at the impacts of globalization to the US middle class workers from a broader dimension as compared to liberalism which only highlights the how their outward aspects have been affected. The former should therefore be preferred over the latter in tackling this issue.
References
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Cayton, H. R. and Drake, C. (1993). Black Metropolis: A study of Negro life in a Northern City. New York: University of Chicago Press. Web.
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