Church Voices

Postmodernism, or what I think of as politically-correct-liberal-feel-good-ism, is nothing new. Plato cited Protagoras as having said that any given thing “is to me such as it appears to me, and is to you such as it appears to you.”

Postmodernism is also just as much of a failure today as it was in Plato’s day. But that’s a pretty well-kept secret. One very concrete way to see this is through postmodern architecture (no pun intended). Consider two of the most famous postmodern building, Ohio State’s Wexner Center and MIT’s Stata Center. Regarding the former, Ravi Zacharias’s poinent question comes to mind:

I remember lecturing at Ohio State University, … my host was driving me past a new building called the Wexner Center for the Performing Arts. He said, “This is America’s first postmodern building.” I was startled for a moment and I said, “What is a postmodern building?” He said, “Well, the architect said that he designed this building with no design in mind. When the architect was asked, ‘Why?’ he said, ‘If life itself is capricious, why should our buildings have any design and any meaning?’ So he has pillars that have no purpose. He has stairways that go nowhere. He has a senseless building built and somebody has paid for it.” I said, “So his argument was that if life has no purpose and design, why should the building have any design?” He said, “That is correct.” I said, “Did he do the same with the foundation?”

Regardless of the foundations, a report on the latter building is also telling:

On October 31, 2007, MIT sued architect Frank Gehry and the construction company, Skanska USA Building Inc., for “providing deficient design services and drawings” which caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, drainage to back up, and falling ice and debris to block emergency exits.”

Postmodernism is all talk and no bulk. I suspect most self-described postmoderns are attention-starved, intellectually insecure, and uncreative, because postmodernism is an attempt to over-compensate in all three areas.