Post-modernism. It's all around you.
The small stories. The best example is perhaps literature, where truly epic stories are becoming rarer and rarer. LOTR, War and Peace, The Stand,... - last remnants of a dying race. And even then.
Present-day postmodernistic books rarely transcend the indivdual: the vast majority of them focus on the 'small' stories of the individual, the small struggles that each and every one of us face.
But it is not confined to literature, however. You can see it all around you - everybody becomes more and more obessed with its own small story, or the small story of his own community. The death of idealism.
Politics, for example. The times of the great ideals are all but over - the political world is infested by day-to-day politics, where the great ideals that once the very reason of the party's founding become more and more obsolete. Just take the ruling coalition in Belgium, for example: Liberals and socialists. Idealistically, they should be at eachother's throats 24/7. But do they? No.
Why? Because ideals don't matter that much anymore. All everybody is trying to do, is to change the world around him so he himself might lead a better life. Society as a whole is something that fewer and fewer people care about.
And what about the anti-globalists, you might ask? Well, in a way, they also tell a small story. They ask the right questions, yes, but they do not provide the answer. No great ideal. No big 'story' to change the world.
So what do you think? Is this a good thing? Agreed, living by small stories might improve your own, personal life; and it might save lives in the short term (after all, all 'great stories', or all great ideals that have been put into realisation usually cost the lives of many a person); but what about the long term? Is humanity falling back into decadence - the very same thing that caused the downfall of many a great civilisation? Or will it all sort itself out in the long run?
Are small stories a good thing?
The small stories. The best example is perhaps literature, where truly epic stories are becoming rarer and rarer. LOTR, War and Peace, The Stand,... - last remnants of a dying race. And even then.
Present-day postmodernistic books rarely transcend the indivdual: the vast majority of them focus on the 'small' stories of the individual, the small struggles that each and every one of us face.
But it is not confined to literature, however. You can see it all around you - everybody becomes more and more obessed with its own small story, or the small story of his own community. The death of idealism.
Politics, for example. The times of the great ideals are all but over - the political world is infested by day-to-day politics, where the great ideals that once the very reason of the party's founding become more and more obsolete. Just take the ruling coalition in Belgium, for example: Liberals and socialists. Idealistically, they should be at eachother's throats 24/7. But do they? No.
Why? Because ideals don't matter that much anymore. All everybody is trying to do, is to change the world around him so he himself might lead a better life. Society as a whole is something that fewer and fewer people care about.
And what about the anti-globalists, you might ask? Well, in a way, they also tell a small story. They ask the right questions, yes, but they do not provide the answer. No great ideal. No big 'story' to change the world.
So what do you think? Is this a good thing? Agreed, living by small stories might improve your own, personal life; and it might save lives in the short term (after all, all 'great stories', or all great ideals that have been put into realisation usually cost the lives of many a person); but what about the long term? Is humanity falling back into decadence - the very same thing that caused the downfall of many a great civilisation? Or will it all sort itself out in the long run?
Are small stories a good thing?
