What is Modernity?

Bismi-Llah, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammadin wa Aali Muhammad. As-salamu alaykum to anyone who may be tuning in to this short video and welcome also to anyone who may be passing by.

And in today's video, I am going to be talking a little bit about modernity and what it is, because I have addressed the issue of modernity in quite a few of the videos on this channel. And someone made the point about, well, how do you define modernity? So today I am going to be looking at a few points on modernity and also referring to the particular book that I have mentioned before, Marshall Berman's "All That Is Solid Melts Into Air", which was written, I think, in the '80s or published in the '80s. And this is a whole study on the nature of modernity, which is apparently what we're living in this day and age.

So let's take a look at a definition of modernity written by Sharon Snyder, which says that: ultimately modernity is a time period, whereas modernism refers to trends in art, culture, and social relations characterized by the development of the modern world. Modernity, the self-definition of a generation about its own technological, innovation, governance, and socio economics. To participate in modernity was to conceive of one's society as engaging in organizational and knowledge advances that make one's immediate predecessors appear antiquated or at least surpassed.

So this is what I have mentioned in previous videos, this attitude to the past, which is like, Oh, it is old fashioned, it is backward. We don't do that anymore. I have mentioned it in other videos as well, like a favorite term is, Oh, that's so Medieval. Like, Medieval is supposed to be really backward. And this is applied to Islam. Oh, it is so Medieval, as in that word by definition implies that we don't do that anymore, like, grow up, move on, catch up. That's what the general attitude is, an understanding.

And it mustn't be forgotten that this attitude has been inculcated in people. This mentality has been nurtured in people over decades. So it just hasn't come out of nowhere. So Victorians thus appeared old fashioned to a new generation of ''moderns' at the beginning of the 20th century, and the motto of poets of the time was to "make it new". More specifically, modernity was associated with individual subjectivity, subjectivity, scientific explanation and rationalization. So by subjectivity, we can see that the subject of subjectivity was somewhat dealt with in the romantic era in the early 19th century, as in one's own personal feelings and impressions about life, about existence, the prominence of the individual, the importance of the individual.

And this was seen as part of this idea of someone's personal genius. This is when the individual genius of somebody started to be celebrated. And we still see that today, in today's culture where individual talents are celebrated, individual gifts are celebrated. But this wasn't always the case in all cultures and in all periods of history. So let's have a look at a little bit more at this definition. So we see the rise of nation states, the increase in financial exchange, and communication. And this definition can be found on Britannica.com/topic/modernity. Right.

So moving on to Marshall Berman's opening discussion on the modern era or modernity. He starts by trying to address our attitude to modernity and our approach to modernity. And he is trying to say that we shouldn't give it a narrow definition, but we should be open to whatever new definitions come into the picture. And he calls this 'the broad and open way'. So he says: the broad and open way is only one of many possible ways, but it has advantages. It enables us to see all sorts of artistic, intellectual, religious, and political activities as part of one dialectical process and to develop creative interplay among them.

So, this is where, I mean, we can immediately pick up on this point that Marshall Berman is making that he has in his mind that everything that is done today: all creative activities, thinking, discoveries, artistic endeavors, and so on and so forth are all part of one harmonious process. And here he calls it the dialectical process. So the word dialectics has different meanings or connotations depending upon whether it is used in the sociological context or whether it is used in the philosophical context. But if we have this idea of a general definition of dialectics, then what is meant here is an interplay of different aspects. An interplay of different influences, of different discussions, ideas, and everything is being interwoven. Everything is participating in one arena.

And through this dialectical process, which could also be called in philosophy, the Socratic method, through this dialectical process, people are step by step getting closer to the truth. Or maybe, as the postmodernists like to say, you can never really reach the truth, you can only reach a truth. So this dialectical process where people are constantly seeking out what is real, what is authentic, to use a popular word today, all of this comes together in the search for a greater understanding and in the desire to get closer to the truth, or to get closer to a truth. And so we are all participating in this dialectical process.

Now I already have an issue with Marshall Berman's point here, because I don't know whether he is applying this idea to the entire world. Is the entire world and it is social, political and artistic, literary endeavours, philosophical endeavours, is the entire world engaging in all of these fields with the same view of what the world is, with the same view of what our era is? With the same objective? Does everybody have in their mind that this is what we are all participating in? We are now all participating in what could be called the modern era.

And I think, no, in a word. No, not every single part of the world, not every single human being is living their life, is engaging in some creative process as part of this one dialectical process, as part of an engagement with other people who are involved in the same process. If you go to a remote forest or a remote desert or a remote mountain and you see how people have lived for centuries in those regions, do they have in mind that what they're doing is part of this one dialectical process? If you have a fisherman working off the Coast of one of the Indonesian islands, and he's catching fish for his family, and he's trying to earn enough to pay his electricity bill, does he have in mind that his fishing activities are part of this one dialectical process? No, I don't think so.

So my comment about Marshall Berman, and his very brilliant book, is that and he has perhaps got this rather nice idea of modernity in his life, but it is an idea that seems to exclude what I have long considered is the underbelly of modernity. So, the culture of modernity that we have today and from whom many people benefit, is a culture that is prevalent in certain regions of the world, although it is spreading its tentacles ever further all the time. But it is prevalent in certain areas of the world, and that tends to be what is fashionably called in Academia, the Northern Hemisphere or just the North. And it is the Southern Hemisphere or the South, as it is called in Academia. It is the South that is paying the heavy price for this amazing, exciting new era called modernity at which the North is engaged in.

So this has been part of my personal observations about modernity that I hate to use the word 'privilege' because that is an overused word today as well, and it is being abused by many people. But I would say that, yes, modernity and the experience of modernity, in the somewhat optimistic sense that Marshall Berman uses, is an experience that is had by people who are privileged enough to experience it. I mean, again, if you are living in a favela in Latin America, where there are people running guns and drugs and you fear for your kids going out on the street, then a mother who is trying to raise her children in that environment, does she consider herself as taking part in one dialectical process of modernity? I don't think so.

So that's one point that I have to say about Marshall Berman's definition of modernity and his idea of modernity. And then he says that: certainly this is not the only way to interpret modern culture or culture in general, i. e., the broad and open way that he has just referred to. He says, But it makes sense if we want culture to be a source of nourishment for ongoing life rather than a cult of the dead. So what he is saying here is that if you don't embrace, in fact, he uses the term modernism or modern culture, so the aspects of modern culture, if you don't embrace that, then culture becomes, as he has used in his own words, the cult of the dead.

Well, that is his idea that pre-modern culture is the cult of the dead. That is quite a broad brush with which to paint pre-modern culture. And again, he is making a very clear breaking point, or a very clear division between modernism and the modern era, and the pre-modern era and the culture of the pre-modern era. I don't think there is this clear cut division between pre-modern and modern.

Every nation has its traditions that have been passed on for centuries. And of course, now we have many traditions that people don't understand. I mean, they don't understand why they are carrying out a tradition, but that tradition may be very important for them because it is a way of connecting them back, not just to their ancestors or not just to the dead, the people from the past, but it is a continuation of one's existence. It is acknowledging a reality, which is that, yeah, we are a continuation of the previous generations.

And also, I think it is a little bit deluded to think that we are somehow special and different and more modern and advanced than pre-modern cultures or the pre-modern age, because every age has gone through dramatic upheavals. Every age has seen itself as advancing ahead of the previous age, and sometimes there have been revivals of past eras, but every age has gone through its own modernization or period of modernity.

So he says that if we think of modernism as a struggle to make ourselves at home in a constantly changing world, we will realize that no mode of modernism can ever be definitive. Okay, so he is saying that, kind of ironic because he is giving a definition, but he is saying that no definition can be definitive. Anyway, so his definition is that we think of modernism as a struggle to make ourselves at home in a constantly changing world. Yes, I would say that our sense of uprootedness, and this is what I have addressed in previous videos, our sense of being uprooted and disconnected from our past, our loss of some sense of identity. And again, the topic of identity itself warrants many videos.

But for again, want of a better way of putting it, our loss of identity, our loss of a sense of who we are apart from just being floating monads in a trash culture, a cheap trash modern day culture does arise from this sense that the world is changing rapidly. So there is a sense of that we are standing on quicksand. We don't know what is the right way. We don't know how to live, who to be, what is the best approach to life, what is the best approach to existence. And we can see that people are crying out for answers.

But one thing that he omits to mention when he says, we are trying to make ourselves in a constantly changing world, is that who is doing the changing? The world is not just changing by itself. Human beings are changing the world. And so we need to look at who are the human beings who are changing our world? Who are the current designers of the world as we know it today?

So the way that Marshall Berman puts it is that we are somehow on the receiving end, passive recipients of these changes that are happening, and we're trying to find our way through these changes. But what he is emitting from this view, is that these changes have been actively designed by people. And most often, many of those changes have happened because of people seeking profit. Industrialization, people seeking profit, people seeking to gain more, get back more for what they put in production, and to enrich themselves through that.

A lot of changes have happened because people want to benefit humanity. So I have full respect for the scientists who have been considering the welfare of humanity, and who have sought to improve our lives globally, and who have innumerable inventions by means of which our lives have been transformed. But not all of modernity or not all of the modern era is good and beautiful. It is a mix of the good and the bad. So we don't have to accept it all, and take it all on unquestioningly and just struggle to find our place in it.

I will just conclude with this one final point from Marshall Berman about the characteristics of modernity or one of the characteristics of the modern age. So he says that one of the characteristics of the modern age is the importance of communication and dialogue. And he says there may not seem to be anything particularly modern about these activities, which go back to indeed, which helped to define the beginnings of civilization, and which were celebrated as primary human values by the prophets and Socrates more than 2,000 years ago. But I believe that communication and dialogue have taken on a new specific weight and urgency in modern times because subjectivity and inwardness have become at once richer and more intensely developed and more lonely and in track than they ever have before. In such a context, communication and dialogue become both a desperate need and a primary source of delight. In a world where meanings melt into air, these experiences are among the few solid sources of meaning we can count on.

So here he's not painting the condition of modernity in an entirely rosy light. He is saying that with this increased individualization and the celebration of the individual, the going within, perhaps even the development of things like psychology, inner analysis and so on, that people are becoming more lonely, and more isolated from each other, and then conversely, they desperately need that connection. Hence why we see people addicted to social media, that it has answered a primordial need within the human being for that sense of connection, and oneness, and belonging, and brotherhood, which we have lost in a lot of our industrialized cultures and which other parts of the world are also rapidly losing because their economies are changing.

Then he says, In a world where meanings melt into air. Okay, so that's not totally clear what he means by that. But I guess we can say that today people are struggling to understand where meaning lies in society. And again, I am not talking about the whole world. There are certain societies and communities where they know what's what. They are perfectly fine with what things mean to them. And meanings are not melting into air for them. So meanings are melting into air for people who are living in industrialized or post-industrialized societies that are highly commercialized and that are dominated by entertainment and trash culture. It is in those societies that meanings tend to appear to melt into air.

And so he is saying that communication is one of the among the few solid sources of meaning. Okay, well, that's what he has declared. That's what he has put out there as a truth. But do we agree with him? Do we just get meaning from communication? Or are there other sources of meaning? Do the prophets still have something to offer in terms of how we connect to meaning in this day and age? Have we lost a sense of meaning in this day and age because we have lost the knowledge that the prophets came to transmit to humanity?

No doubt in the day and age that they were living in, people were also struggling to find meaning. And the prophets came to help to connect us to meaning. Meaning is connected to truth. Truth is transmitted into the material realm via the prophets. And so they helped to provide framework for meaning that enables us to understand those meanings.

And so this is where I would say that Marshall Berman, as a modern thinker, while he does pay respect to the prophets, is making a categorical statement about how we are all desperately scrambling for because that is one of the few sources of meaning that we have left. Well, that is for people who have departed from the past, the teachings of the past. That is for people who have made this clear distinction and division between past, obsolete, present, make it new.

So he is addressing these statements to the very people who have grown up in an environment where the knowledge and wisdom of the prophets has disappeared. Therefore, of course, they are scrambling around searching for meaning. So this is just a few points that I am making about what we mean by modernity. And I am referring to Marshall Berman's "All That Is Solid Melts Into Air", just as a starting point to help us to grasp what we mean by modernity.

What are your thoughts on modernity? Please write below this video, and InshaAllah, we will see you in the next one. As-salamu alaykum.