Postmodernism is a belief forged in the fires of destruction.  After WW II many people, disgusted with the mayhem and destruction created by our advancing technology, sought a new lifestyle, one that would seek to counteract the old ways that led to the massive violence and destruction (Potash).  That lifestyle was Postmodernism, this belief rejected all of the old beliefs in an attempt to protect the world from destruction (Potash).  In this rejection, however, they created destruction, this time in the form of ideals and culture.  The Fountain, Fight Club, and Wikipedia all illustrate the destruction of ideals, which are beauty, culture, and truth respectively.  While Catch-22 depicts the Postmodernist opinion of war and violence in regards to destruction as well as the destruction of logic and sense.

Fountain by Marcel Duchamp

               Fountain depicts a urinal placed onto its side.  The point of which was a critique of the standard of beauty in art.  Fountain lays a claim that any and all art can be beautiful as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  The idea of relativism of art is a Postmodernist ideal that stems from the Postmodernist belief of rejecting the grand narrative.  In order to reject the grand narrative, relativism was adopted by Postmodernists, to embrace subjectivity and question objectivity. The relativistic view of beauty creates a slippery slope for ideal of beauty and creates a paradoxical scenario (Potash).  When anything and everything becomes beautiful, nothing is beautiful anymore.  The idea of beauty is destroyed when the standard begins to disappear (Scruton).  Relativism of beauty, a Postmodernist practice, causes the destruction of beauty.  Just as the other Postmodernist works characterize the destruction of the period.

Catch-22

               Catch-22 is a novel written by Joseph Heller that utilizes satire and irony to discuss WW II (Heller). As with many Postmodernist works it aims to denounce war and is staunchly opposed to it. It is an absurdist novel that greatly hyperbolizes the insanity of war and its consequences. In Heller's goal to enlighten his reader's about the pure insanity of war he coined a term, the namesake of the book, Catch-22. A Catch-22 is, "a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules" (Catch-22(logic)). This paradox created in this Postmodernist work causes an entire breakdown of logic in its attempt to illustrate the absurdity of war. By utilizing hyperboles and creating a world even more absurd than our own Catch-22 destroys logic and creates problems with rules and regulations.  This is another example of Postmodernists creating destruction in their attempts to enlighten individuals, this time with War rather than the previous beauty.

Fight Club

               " The things you own end up owning you."  A line from the movie Fight Club spoken by Tyler Durden, a character made up in the mind of the unnamed narrator in an attempt to escape from his dreary existence.  A Postmodern film in respect to its rejection of society as a whole and every aspect of it.

(Robert Phares on YouTube, from Fight Club)

                The clip demonstrates the anti-consumerist beliefs that are layered within Fight Club.  The goal in the plot of Fight Club is the destruction of everyday society.  To do this they attack culture through violence.  This is one of the purest examples of how Postmodernism leads to destruction.  In their quest to negate the society that led to the awe striking destruction of WW II, they are blinded by their self-righteous goal and inevitably create destruction themselves.  This is evident through the other pieces as well in which in an attempt to reject society they created destruction of the ideals, beauty, logic, and finally society, they sought to reject.

Wikipedia

(see sidebar)

               Postmodernism was formed to combat the culture that caused the massive destruction of WW II.  This rejection of culture ironically caused untold destruction itself, this time of culture and ideals rather than of human lives.  This is a direct result of, "What a relativist really believes (or believes he believes) is that 1) there is no such thing as a value and 2) there is no such thing as truth" (Kimball).  With complete denial of values, such as beauty or culture, and truth Postmodernists caused a collapse of modern society and life.  This is largely a result of the ironic fact, "that relativism and tyranny, far from being in opposition are in fact regular collaborators" (Kimball).

               After a certain period of time a sect of Postmodernists, enraged by the destruction of society, split from Postmodernists and developed their own belief, Post-Postmodernism.  Post-Postmodernism behaved exactly as Postmodernism did to society.  In an attempt to correct the injuries inflicted on society, Post-Postmodernists rejected Postmodernism and embraced society and its values.  This movement quickly gained traction and spread throughout the world until Postmodernism was eliminated from the Earth.  Post-Postmodernists brought a revival of Art and Science and all the associated values.  The Post-Postmodernist time period is also commonly referred to as the Second Renaissance.

Works Cited

"Catch-22 (logic)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22_(logic)>.

Potash, Brett. "Characteristics of Postmodernism." Postmodernism. Webb. Webb Schools, Claremont. 28 Aug. 2013. Lecture.

Cohen, Noam. "Wikipedia serves as essential Internet news source on the Virginia Tech shootings." New York Times [New York City ] 23 Apr. 2007: 1. Print.

Fight club. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1999. DVD.

Hafner, Katie. "Corporate editing of Wikipedia revealed." New York Times [New York City ] 19 Aug. 2007: 1. Print.

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22, a novel.. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961. Print.

Kimball, Roger. "The New Criterion." Introduction: The dictatorship of relativism by Roger Kimball -. The New Criterion, n.d. Web. 15 May 2014. <http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Introduction--The-dictatorship-of-relativism-3981>.

Naqoyqatsi. Dir. Godfrey Reggio. Perf. None. Miramax Home Entertainment :, 2002. DVD.

Phares, Robert. "You're Not Your Fucking Khakis." YouTube. YouTube, 23 Apr. 2009. Web. 15 May 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo-wkv8gW6k>.

Potash, Brett. "We live in a Wikiworld. Should our students?." International Schools Journal 28.2 (2009): 62-69. Print.

Potash, Brett. "Problems of Relativism." Postmodernism. Webb. Webb Schools, Claremont. 20 Mar. 2014. Lecture.

Scruton, Roger. "Beauty and Desecration." City Journal 19.2 (2009): 15. Print.

Smith, John. "Philip Glass - Naqoyqatsi - 01. Naqoyqatsi." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Dec. 2010. Web. 15 May 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8GCM-OH-q4>.

Glass, Phillip. “Naqoyqatsi.” Naqoyqatsi. 2002. CD.