The Global Pluralistic Condition

Abstract

This chapter argues that the postmodern deconstruction of many modern ideals has paved the way for a new era. If postmodernism was the process of tearing a building down block by block, the global pluralistic age is the new building that was constructed out of those old blocks. The global pluralistic age is not an outright rejection of modernity, but a nonlinear trajectory that considers multiple narratives while balancing multiple modernities. We are in a post-historical age that is no longer progressing in a linear fashion toward some artistic telos. Instead, we live in a radically pluralistic world that acknowledges and values global expressions of art, and makes room for all the artistic discoveries of bygone eras. Consequently, this new lateral emphasis has caused the West to open itself back up to a globalized, cosmopolitan, pluralist present.