#demodernization

A Dose of Postcolonial Reality

As to the role of critical rationality in [the neoliberal] new world order, the new mindset of stunted systemic rationality, or unreason, appears to have increasingly eclipsed any form of wider human vision or values. Thus, scientific thought, planning, imagination, creativity, dis- covery and, to a great extent, human well-being and progress – key touchstones of the Enlightenment vision – have been largely subordinated to the organizational and finan- cial imperative, as all effort and thought are applied to the narrow goal of commercial profit, or in support of it, while those who are other directed are considered out of touch with the ‘real world’. Through the power of corporate and financial sector interests, and the media moguls that have extended this credo – as well as the politicians of all hues who have conceded to their doctrines – a hegemonic and monolithic culture of finance, business and consumerism has constituted an all-encompassing reality of acquisition and financial status as the keystones of human existence, while the starkness and ‘real’ proper- ties of this contemporary lifeworld have been concealed from the public behind an enchanted Disneyfied veneer. This is installed in the consciousness of the masses as they are subjected to a mediated ‘loop tape’ reinforcing the ‘normalcy’ of the neoliberal consumer society and the alleged accessibility and attrac- tiveness of its emotionally charged ‘prizes’.