The Risky Journal

Last Monday, November 30, 2010, was a shocking day in the world. Nearly hundreds of thousands US bilateral documents were uploaded by wikileaks. In the leaked documents, it was uncovered that many Middle East leaders pledged US to strike Iran in response to the growing and long lasting issue of nuclear issue. As we all know. Iran insisted on developing nuclear power and it was argued that the development was for the sake of alternative energy. Iran's plan to develop nuclear in fact turned the world to be more alert. US, as one of the world leader strongly refused this plan since US surely would suspect the nuclear development used in the army enhancement. However, a surprising fact is exposed by the leaked documents i.e. the pledge by Arabian leaders to strike Iran. Surely, it makes the international relation of the countries mentioned in the documents tense. But, how is this phenomenon seen from postmodernism perspective? Postmodernism ,as explained in the previous post, is m...

This second post about postmodernism will consist of two greatest postmodernist thinkers and their contribution to postmodernism. 1. Jean François Lyotard. Lyotard is a French philosopher. He opened the discussion for postmodernism in social theory with his groundbreaking publication ‘ La Condition Postmoderne’ (The Condition Postmodern). His works stress the decline of meta-narratives or grand-narratives, as some scholars refer it. Meta-Narratives as defined in the previous post are sets of ideas governing what is right and wrong. For example, religion defines how to live a good life. By doing so, people who do not appeal to the characteristics of good man as defined by religion will be considered unfaithful, as bad people. Lyotard argues that this way of legitimating declines in a postmodern society. What is considered good can no longer be clearly separated from what is considered bad. Lyotard The decline of meta-narratives was triggered by communication development. Traditio...

Postmodern Architecture? In finishing my thesis, I was actually forced to learn about a thing that I had no previous experience in it. This irritating subject –but finally, I love to study it– is called Postmodernism . What is this? It sounds so cool (yeah indeed). To define this term, I tried to read books, articles from academic journals as well as online articles. However, to my surprise, I really got no satisfying answer of what postmodernism is. It is not a simple matter to define this. It is not like defining two pluses two equals four. It is not like defining US’s current president is Barrack Obama. All literatures that I read, when it comes to definition, give ambivalent and unsatisfying definition as examples I gave to you. But at least, I want to share to you about this term with my own perspective, in a simple way. Postmodernism surely stems from the word ‘post’ and ‘modernism’. Thus it means, ‘after modernism’ or ‘after modern’. What is then modern? Modern is not old-f...