If there is anything I can take away from the postmodernist bullshit artists it is that we should be aware that there are meta-narratives shaping the way we talk and think about culture and history.  In particular we should be skeptical of the narratives about progress.  I don’t want to be one of these bright-eyed techno-optimists that think that we will just innovate our way out of every problem.  We should be asking “What Money Wants” when we look at the development of tecchnology.  What research is getting funded,etc.

I am going to write a translation of the translation. Here is my first crack at decoding postmodernist nonsense into Yankee clarity:

Life used to be about being, then it descended into having, now it’s just about appearing to have.

Human beings descended to human havings and have become human appearing-to-have’s