Part 2: On The Evolution of Our Contemporary State
How contemporary events have developed our metamodern state
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is second in a three-part series titled On The Evolution of Our Contemporary State. To see the first CLICK HERE. The series is the work of Christopher Campbell, an intern with Saint Philip’s in the Hills, Tucson, during the summer of 2020.
What does it mean for us to live in a metamodern state? In this second part of the three-part series On The Evolution of Our Contemporary State we will look at how recent events have progressed the metamodernism state, and discuss what that may mean for us living in it.
Together we will look at some of the effects of recent events on our culture and how that may be seen both in our artistic expression and how we live our lives.
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In all of this oscillation of the pendulum of metamodernism we see one constant, that art is how we express the condition of our culture and our understanding of being. And in these most trying of times, it is art we turn to. Whether it be the irony of memes and comedy of jokes or the beauty of music and the allure of paintings, it is in art that we find both our "hope and melancholy.” But is this enough?
For however many actions of hope and compassion we experience, we see just as many presenting the hopelessness and perverse depravity of our situation. While we are able today to hold a certain irony about our situation we are trapped by our own comfortability. We can always notice danger, but only from afar, and when it finally strikes us we are unable and unsure how to react. And thus, the pendulum undulates within our society: "Enthusiasm swings toward fanaticism, gravity pulls it back toward irony; the moment its irony sways toward apathy, gravity pulls it back toward enthusiasm."
How do we understand this nature of our metamodern being? Through how we live it! We are stuck in a time where our instinct drives us apart and our nature drives us together; we must choose to follow what suits us best. We must be isolated from one another physically to stay alive, but we must come together now, more than ever, to be alive! We must truly see what Aristotle is saying when he says: "Humankind is a political animal. A human who lives alone is either a beast or a god." We need one another, not to survive, as many before us survived as beasts without another, but to live as a human we need our fellow humans, for none of us are gods.
This generation—us alive now—must find our way in a world which, perhaps always, has been broken but now seems more fractured than ever. Anxieties we have held have come to the surface and we must use this opportunity to face them. Perhaps art is the answer. Art is what draws us together now, and in our prior times of trial and tribulation it has always seemed to be. So, let us find in ourselves a communion and let's share it, however we know how.
Christopher Campbell