Imagine a world where "Moctezuma the victim" and "Colon the genocidal villain" have replaced history books filled with complex narratives. Instead of the rich interplay of cultures and motivations that shaped the past, we're fed a simplistic moral fable: oppressed versus oppressor, villain versus hero, with all nuance cast aside. In this world, woke mantras like “Patriarchy is to blame for everything” have become gospel, and anyone who dares question them is branded a reactionary, or worse—a white, heterosexual male, the very embodiment of the oppressive class.
Welcome to the world of "woke" or -to put it in more philosophical terms-, postmodernist neo-Marxism, where reason and evidence are mere tools of patriarchal control, and history is rewritten through the lens of oppression and victimhood.
According to this worldview, Christopher Columbus becomes a symbol of everything evil about the West—genocide, imperialism, and white supremacy.
Moctezuma, a powerful emperor presiding over human sacrifices and making pyramids with victims' skulls, is recast as a hapless victim of European colonial violence, stripped of agency, his own brutal practices conveniently erased.
In the name of justice, postmodern "woke" revisionism demands an endless apology from anyone deemed to have inherited the privileges of Western civilization.
In the name of "equality", gender, skin color, and sexual preferences become the basis for a "caste" system where people are irredeemably split into oppressors and oppressed, engaged in an endless "caste struggle" that replaces the old class struggle.
In a "newspeak" that turns speech into an Abbot and Costello parody of Orwell's dystopic '"1984", we twist ourselves into verbal pretzels to avoid offending the imagined sensitivities of an increasingly narrow audience.
Gender-neutral pronouns aren't enough; now, entire languages are up for debate. After all, who are we to claim that biological sex, or even linguistic structure, reflects any kind of reality? Reality itself is up for grabs, they say, just another social construct that the enlightened few are here to dismantle.
And let’s not forget the brave new frontier of sex reassignment surgeries for prepubescent children.
Postmodernist "woke" ideology, championing subjective "lived experiences" over biology, argues that children as young as 10 should be allowed to make life-altering decisions about their bodies—decisions once reserved for fully mature adults. After all, why should biology or developmental psychology stand in the way of "authentic" self-expression? In the postmodern utopia, feelings trump facts every time, and questioning this trend is tantamount to bigotry.
At the heart of this movement is a deep hatred for white, heterosexual males, caricatured as the eternal patriarchal oppressor.
These men are vilified not for their actions but for their mere existence—symbols of the oppressive system that postmodern "woke" Neo-Marxism seeks to dismantle. Yet, it’s a system built on the very achievements of reason, science, and individualism that postmodernism dismisses as tools of oppression.
Once champions of Enlightenment values like reason, science, and universal principles, how did progressives become advocates for relativism, irrationalism, and identity politics? In Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, Stephen Hicks tackles this intellectual transformation, tracing the roots of postmodernism to early modern philosophers and their eventual shift toward undermining the Enlightenment project.
Stephen Hicks and the Rise of Postmodernism
Hicks, a Canadian-American philosopher known for his work on the history of ideas, aims to clarify the puzzle of postmodernism, its intellectual appeal, and its political implications. In Explaining Postmodernism, he doesn’t just describe postmodernism; he dissects it, tracing its origins back to the counter-Enlightenment thinking of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and following it through to contemporary thinkers like Michel Foucault.
Hicks argues that postmodernism, with its skepticism toward objective truth and its embrace of cultural relativism, is a reaction to the failures of socialism. Faced with the collapse of Marxism’s scientific pretensions, leftist thinkers abandoned reason and embraced relativism, attacking the very foundations of rational discourse.
Woke posmodern ideology keeps the "oppressor-oppressed", "zero-sum" logic of marxism where you are either oppressor or oppressed and what you have must come from someone's else (or what you lack being appropriated by someone else).
But instead of the concept of economic class -made obsolete by free societies' mobility- woke, postmodern ideology tries to impose -there is no exception even for newborns- the much more rigid and ethnic concept of caste. You are either oppressed "color minority" (in a hierarchical totem pole of skin colors) or you are a white-skinned "privileged racist oppressor".
The Ten Criticisms of Postmodernism
Hicks’ critique of postmodernism is as sharp as it is comprehensive. Here are ten of his main criticisms:
Rejection of Objective Truth: Postmodernists argue that truth is socially constructed and contingent on language. Hicks counters that this leads to intellectual chaos where any claim can be equally valid, regardless of its empirical grounding.
Quote: "If there is no objective truth, then knowledge becomes a mere function of power, and the quest for understanding is replaced by the struggle for dominance."
Irrationalism: Postmodern thinkers often reject the primacy of reason, favoring emotion or will. Hicks argues that this undermines the very tools that led to human progress, particularly in science and technology.
Skepticism Toward Science: Postmodernism casts science as just another narrative, no more privileged than myth or superstition. Hicks, however, defends science as a self-correcting method of inquiry that, despite its flaws, has improved human life dramatically.
Relativism: In postmodernism, all cultures and values are seen as relative. Hicks criticizes this as moral and cultural nihilism, noting that it makes it impossible to criticize atrocities or injustice in any meaningful way.
Focus on Power and Oppression: Postmodernists often reduce all human interactions to dynamics of power and oppression, which Hicks argues leads to an overly simplistic and divisive view of society.
Quote: "By obsessing over power, postmodernism turns every relationship into a zero-sum game, leaving no room for mutual benefit or cooperation."
Denial of Individual Autonomy: Postmodernism shifts focus from individuals to groups (especially minorities), seeing people as mere products of their social and cultural environment. Hicks contends this robs individuals of agency and personal responsibility.
Identity Politics: Closely related to the above point, postmodernism encourages a fragmented, tribalistic worldview where identity groups compete for victimhood status. Hicks suggests this exacerbates social division rather than fostering genuine dialogue.
Cynicism Toward Western Civilization: Postmodernism tends to focus on the failures of Western culture—colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy—without acknowledging its achievements, like democracy, human rights, and technological progress.
Incoherence in Theory and Practice: Hicks notes that postmodern theorists often contradict themselves. They decry capitalism but enjoy its material benefits, or they claim to reject power while manipulating academic and political institutions.
Political Nihilism: Postmodernism, according to Hicks, offers no constructive political vision. It attacks liberal democracy but offers no viable alternative, leaving a vacuum that breeds cynicism and inaction.
The Dead End of Postmodernism
Stephen Hicks concludes that postmodernism is not just an intellectual dead end but a philosophical and political trap. It offers no solutions, only endless critiques, and its rejection of reason and science ensures it will be left behind by a world increasingly shaped by empirical knowledge and technological innovation. As science and reason continue to drive progress, postmodernism clings to outdated ideas of skepticism and relativism, dragging those who follow it into irrelevance.
Hicks’ Explaining Postmodernism is a clarion call for those who still believe in the Enlightenment ideals of reason, individualism, and the pursuit of objective truth. In a world increasingly fragmented by identity politics and irrationalism, Hicks reminds us that these ideals remain the foundation of any meaningful human progress.
References: Hicks, S. (2011). Explaining postmodernism: Skepticism and socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. Ockham's Razor.
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