Our postmodernist government

Victor Davis Hanson explicates the postmodernist philosophy that animates our government today:

One of the chief tenets of postmodernism is relativism — the notion that neither morality nor wisdom is absolute and definable, but instead simply predicated on what those with power and advantage say they are.

In response, the postmodernist sees “competing truths” and “rival moralities” that are of at least roughly equal merit. Indeed, those marginalized often have a higher claim on truth and knowledge by the very fact of their prior exploitation that becomes a force multiplier of their more authentic ideas and empathetic beliefs. Those who disagree, and “privilege” a timeless, abstract truth or morality, can easily be “deconstructed” or “unpacked” to reveal a particular selfish agenda that involves the perpetuation of power and privilege.

These canards are as old as the sophistic movement in ancient Athens, but they became popular again in the 1980s and 1990s in the academic world. And now we are beginning to see their emergence into the highest levels of government — which in the age of Obama is almost entirely comprised of those who learned their technocracy in our nation’s elite universities.

Hanson uses statements by Justice Sotomayor and President Obama to illustrate the tenets of postmodernism. His one mistake, in my opinion, is saying that President Obama is our first postmodernist president. Actually, as I have written before, President Clinton (“that depends on what the definition of “is” is”) was our first. But still, Hanson’s points remain.

A larger issue raised by Hanson has to do with what happens when all of the college student indoctrinated in postmodernist ideology are turned loose upon the world. We are seeing the impact in politics, law, and education. What other consequences might we expect?