A faded, jaded mandarin

There are certain points in the history of ideas which attract words like "ferment" and "melting-pot". Established truths were questioned (i.e. found not to be true, so why then call them established truths?). Something held up a mirror to something else. Paradigms shifted. Ground was broken. That sort of thing.

I wonder what a future popular historian will make of the early years of the twenty-first century. On the one hand, there does seem to be a certain degree of fermentation going on in the melting-pot, and there is plenty of skepticism towards meta-narratives, and indeed skepticism toward skepticism toward meta-narratives. Nothing, we are told, can be the same in a post-Cold-War, post-9/11, post-Bush era. This leaves us in a paradoxical situation where nothing can be the same, but at the same time, nothing is new.

In the Blue corner, we have the religious right, talk radio, family values, free enterprise, George Bush and the end of history. In the Red corner, we have anti-globalism protestors, cultural studies majors, Michael Moore and the end of meaning.

Oh well, maybe I'm just tired from reading too many blogs.