There have been numerous attempts, particularly in the field of sociology, to understand what modernity is. A wide variety of terms are used to describe the society, social life, driving force, symptomatic mentality, or some other defining aspects of modernity. They include:
Bureaucracy–impersonal, social hierarchies that practice a division of labor and are marked by a regularity of method and procedure
Disenchantment of the world–the loss of sacred and metaphysical understandings of al facets of life and culture
Rationalization–the world can be understood and managed through a reasonable and logical system of objectively accessible theories and data
Secularization–the loss of religious influence and/or religious belief at a societal level
Alienation–isolation of the individual from systems of meaning–family, meaningful work, religion, clan, etc.
Commodification–the reduction of all aspects of life to objects of monetary consumption and exchange
Decontexutalization–the removal of social practices, beliefs, and cultural objects from their local cultures of origin
Individualism –growing stress on individuals as opposed to meditating structures such as family, clan, academy, village, church
Nationalism–the rise of the modern nation-states as rational centralized governments that often cross local, ethnic groupings
Urbanization–the move of people, cultural centers, and political influence to large cities
Subjectivism–the turn inward for definitions and evaluations of truth and meaning
Linear-progression–preference for forms of reasoning that stress presuppositions and resulting chains of propositions
Objectivism–the belief that truth-claims can be established by autonomous information accessible by all
Universalism–application of ideas/claims to all cultures/circumstances regardless of local distinctions
Reductionism–the belief that something can be understood by studying the parts that make it up
Mass society–the growth of societies united by mass media and widespread dissemination of cultural practices as opposed to local and regional culture particulars
Industrial society–societies formed around the industrial production and distribution of products
Homogenization–the social forces that tend toward a uniformity of cultural ideas and products
Democratization–political systems characterized by free elections, independent judiciaries, rule of law, and respect of human rights
Mechanization–the transfer of the means of production from human labor to mechanized, advanced technology
Totalitarianism–absolutist central governments that suppress free expression and political dissent, and that practice propaganda and indoctrination of its citizens
Therapeutic motivations–the understanding that the human self is a product of evolutionary desires and that the self should be assisted in achieving those desires as opposed to projects of ethical improvement or pursuits of public virtue
“අපට මෙම වර්තමාන වැඩපිලිවෙල ගැන විවේචනයක් නැතුව නොවේ. නමුත් වෙන කරන්නට දෙයක් නැත.” This is the most absurd but most commonly heard excuse from the so called “liberal leftist” ‘intellectuals these days. I am utterly disappointed and in a way sad to hear the same from Deepthi and Mahesh and to know that this is the position of Deepthi’s party.
“Rajapaksha Phobia” is no excuse and in any sense it is absolutely NOT a logical reason to keep this utterly malfunctioning government in power.
“දිනාගත් දෙය අතහැර” I find it utterly ridiculous that anybody would think there is anything achieved/won over the past three years of this pathetic government. I am really interested in knowing what are the top three – and please don’t mention the RTI and other dysfunctional commissions. And don’t mention limiting corruption, because we all know what is going on in the Central Highway.
If you think there is democracy, respect for rule of law I would like to, if possible revisit the video clips of how the ministers and even the idiotic Prime Minister and the Speaker behaved in parliament during key debates, particularly on the Bond Scam. They showed no respect for people’s intelligence and made us [those who were stupid enough to vote the ‘Common Candidate’ and bring this govt in to power] feel that they think we have the lowest IQ of any living thing on the planet. Perhaps they are right. May be we are!
May be that is why even Deepthi and Mahesh are coming up with these ‘logical’ reasons for keeping the ‘life support’ on for this already ‘brain dead’ government and its Prime Minster.
I do not know and I can no way understand what kind of a ‘metamorphosis’ you people have gone through but I want you to know this is pathetic, this betrays ALL of your magnificent theoretical teachings.
Also, I think I should mention here that over the years I have come to realize that despite the brilliant theoretical foundation on which Deepthi and key personalities like you have formed the philosophy of your party, your party seemed to lack a practical position on the majority-minority conflict and identity politics that feed in to the vicious cycle. Where Deepthi, you and others of your party have discussed the issue, the views expressed seemed to be nothing but ‘lip-syncing’ of the rhetoric of the group Zizek calls “psudo-leftist liberals” of the West and Sri Lanka that includes the Colombo-based NGO cult . Just as they do, your position too fail to take into consideration the ground realities and the dynamics specific to Sri Lanka. This I must tell you will prove to be a fatal mistake.
For the sake of the truly intellectual intervention based on solid theoretical reasoning Deepthi has so boldly been doing in our society up to a certain point in recent past, I hope you all will have a serious internal discussion and get back on track. I am terribly sorry to tell you this but your party seems to have gone way off track in a very short period of time and what is even worse is that it seems that Deepthi is making a desperate attempt to get in to the “game of politics” rather than engaging in a genuine political struggle as he has been doing all this time. May be Deepthi too watched “Kumbiyo” and realized he has been wasting a lot of time and a lot of opportunities.
Well, if that is how he feels I don’t blame him. May be he has done his part. In these times we live there is a limit to the sacrifices one should make. Deepthi, I think has made enough of sacrifices.
But my message to all you people is that please do not try to twist the theory to explain and justify the deviation. If you do that there will be no difference between Deepthi and Ranil Wickramasinghe who thought he can “fool all the people all the time” just because they were foolish enough to fall for the “Yahapalana” gimmick.
And if you people have the slightest ambition of making your party in anyway significant in the Sri Lankan political landscape, you have to do a serious in-depth analysis of the racism of the minority identity politics which inevitably fuel racism of the majority.
The bottom line is, even the most brilliant theories will be fodder if they cannot be customized and applied to specific situation in a specific time-frame to effectively address a specific issue and resolve it.
At this particular time frame here are the issues we need to address:
1) Over ambitious minority aspirations that seek to override the majority in sharing the limited resources
2) A failing economy that has no capacity for production and trade
3) An education system that is outdated at primary, tertiary and a higher levels
If you people are still interested in changing the pathetic status quo please stop defending a political failure and come up with some innovative solutions for these issues.
So Wasantha, what solutions do you suggest in this political junction where far-right chauvinism is emerging as a viable alternative to both leftist and liberal bourgeois political framework in Sri Lanka? While also struggling to find a theoretical framework to understand the present political drawbacks, we, as a party, have to show our political position here when the rightist populism (together with racism) is trying to dominate the political picture for the next ten years (with 2020 Gota, Basil and others). We cannot stand as ‘neutrals’, can we? We also attached a video clip by Zizek to show the failure of the left as well as of the contemporary bourgeoisie project before the popular right-wing camp. We need an alternative, a third-way or a third-space. But the leftist camp is disintegrated.
There, we have to look at the bourgeois camp and its progressive elements to identify the possible collaborations to defeat the common enemy, the ethnocentrism. The left must reinvigorate itself.
You know we are small group of people with very little financial ability. Though we wanted some kind of seminar or a meeting during the Kandy incidents (against Muslims), we did not have money to run that kind of show. Even we find it difficult to go ahead of our publications dues to those financial constrains.
I did not suggest to back up Ranil though I suggested to define him as a ‘modernist’. I also argue that he illustrates certain postmodern qualities as well which he uses for the electioneering purposes. However, what we need here is some sort of theoretical conversation. If we wanted to ‘fool’ people, Wasantha, we would have done so many things for popular purpose. We still suffer because we are honest and trying to bring out the truth.
It is easy to criticize things but hard to take radical decisions at crucial times. This is one such crucial time!
අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන් තුන්කට්ටුවකට යටත්වීමෙන් දීර්ඝ කාලයක් පරිහානියට ගොස් තිබූ ලාංකීක සංස්කෘතික, ආගමික හා සමාජීය තත්ත්වය ගොඩගැනීම සඳහා 19 වන සියවසේ පෙරට පැමිණියේ විජේවර්ධන පරම්පරාවය. නිදහස් අරගලයේ හා පුනරුද ව්‍යාපාරයේ ප්‍රබලයකු වූත් ලංකා ජනමාධ්‍ය තුළ මුල් සලකුණු බවට පත්ව ඇති ඩී. ආර්. විජයවර්ධන මැතිඳු රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිතුමාගේ මව් පාර්ශවයේ සීයාය. එස්මන්ඩ් වික්‍රමසිංහ මැතිඳු හා නාලනී විජයවර්ධන මැතිනිය මෙතුමාගේ මාපියන් වන අතර පියා වරෙක ‘රන් පෑන’ නම් ජාත්‍යන්තර මාධ්‍ය සම්මානයෙන් පිදුම් ලද විශිෂ්ට ගණයේ පුවත්පත් කාලාවේදීයෙකි. එමෙන්ම එකී ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ සූර කළමනාකාරවරයෙකි. මොහුද තම පියා මෙන්ම තිරයෙන් පිටුපස සිට විශාල ජාතික මෙහෙවරයන්ට උරදුන් විද්වතෙකි.
“අපට මෙම වර්තමාන වැඩපිලිවෙල ගැන විවේචනයක් නැතුව නොවේ. නමුත් වෙන කරන්නට දෙයක් නැත.” This is the most absurd but most commonly heard excuse from the so called “liberal leftist” ‘intellectuals these days. I am utterly disappointed and in a way sad to hear the same from Deepthi and Mahesh and to know that this is the position of Deepthi’s party.
“Rajapaksha Phobia” is no excuse and in any sense it is absolutely NOT a logical reason to keep this utterly malfunctioning government in power.
“දිනාගත් දෙය අතහැර” I find it utterly ridiculous that anybody would think there is anything achieved/won over the past three years of this pathetic government. I am really interested in knowing what are the top three – and please don’t mention the RTI and other dysfunctional commissions. And don’t mention limiting corruption, because we all know what is going on in the Central Highway.
If you think there is democracy, respect for rule of law I would like to, if possible revisit the video clips of how the ministers and even the idiotic Prime Minister and the Speaker behaved in parliament during key debates, particularly on the Bond Scam. They showed no respect for people’s intelligence and made us [those who were stupid enough to vote the ‘Common Candidate’ and bring this govt in to power] feel that they think we have the lowest IQ of any living thing on the planet. Perhaps they are right. May be we are!
May be that is why even Deepthi and Mahesh are coming up with these ‘logical’ reasons for keeping the ‘life support’ on for this already ‘brain dead’ government and its Prime Minster.
I do not know and I can no way understand what kind of a ‘metamorphosis’ you people have gone through but I want you to know this is pathetic, this betrays ALL of your magnificent theoretical teachings.
Also, I think I should mention here that over the years I have come to realize that despite the brilliant theoretical foundation on which Deepthi and key personalities like you have formed the philosophy of your party, your party seemed to lack a practical position on the majority-minority conflict and identity politics that feed in to the vicious cycle. Where Deepthi, you and others of your party have discussed the issue, the views expressed seemed to be nothing but ‘lip-syncing’ of the rhetoric of the group Zizek calls “psudo-leftist liberals” of the West and Sri Lanka that includes the Colombo-based NGO cult . Just as they do, your position too fail to take into consideration the ground realities and the dynamics specific to Sri Lanka. This I must tell you will prove to be a fatal mistake.
For the sake of the truly intellectual intervention based on solid theoretical reasoning Deepthi has so boldly been doing in our society up to a certain point in recent past, I hope you all will have a serious internal discussion and get back on track. I am terribly sorry to tell you this but your party seems to have gone way off track in a very short period of time and what is even worse is that it seems that Deepthi is making a desperate attempt to get in to the “game of politics” rather than engaging in a genuine political struggle as he has been doing all this time. May be Deepthi too watched “Kumbiyo” and realized he has been wasting a lot of time and a lot of opportunities.
Well, if that is how he feels I don’t blame him. May be he has done his part. In these times we live there is a limit to the sacrifices one should make. Deepthi, I think has made enough of sacrifices.
But my message to all you people is that please do not try to twist the theory to explain and justify the deviation. If you do that there will be no difference between Deepthi and Ranil Wickramasinghe who thought he can “fool all the people all the time” just because they were foolish enough to fall for the “Yahapalana” gimmick.
And if you people have the slightest ambition of making your party in anyway significant in the Sri Lankan political landscape, you have to do a serious in-depth analysis of the racism of the minority identity politics which inevitably fuel racism of the majority.
The bottom line is, even the most brilliant theories will be fodder if they cannot be customized and applied to specific situation in a specific time-frame to effectively address a specific issue and resolve it.
At this particular time frame here are the issues we need to address:
1) Over ambitious minority aspirations that seek to override the majority in sharing the limited resources
2) A failing economy that has no capacity for production and trade
3) An education system that is outdated at primary, tertiary and a higher levels
If you people are still interested in changing the pathetic status quo please stop defending a political failure and come up with some innovative solutions for these issues.
So Wasantha, what solutions do you suggest in this political junction where far-right chauvinism is emerging as a viable alternative to both leftist and liberal bourgeois political framework in Sri Lanka? While also struggling to find a theoretical framework to understand the present political drawbacks, we, as a party, have to show our political position here when the rightist populism (together with racism) is trying to dominate the political picture for the next ten years (with 2020 Gota, Basil and others). We cannot stand as ‘neutrals’, can we? We also attached a video clip by Zizek to show the failure of the left as well as of the contemporary bourgeoisie project before the popular right-wing camp. We need an alternative, a third-way or a third-space. But the leftist camp is disintegrated.
There, we have to look at the bourgeois camp and its progressive elements to identify the possible collaborations to defeat the common enemy, the ethnocentrism. The left must reinvigorate itself.
You know we are small group of people with very little financial ability. Though we wanted some kind of seminar or a meeting during the Kandy incidents (against Muslims), we did not have money to run that kind of show. Even we find it difficult to go ahead of our publications dues to those financial constrains.
I did not suggest to back up Ranil though I suggested to define him as a ‘modernist’. I also argue that he illustrates certain postmodern qualities as well which he uses for the electioneering purposes. However, what we need here is some sort of theoretical conversation. If we wanted to ‘fool’ people, Wasantha, we would have done so many things for popular purpose. We still suffer because we are honest and trying to bring out the truth.
It is easy to criticize things but hard to take radical decisions at crucial times. This is one such crucial time!
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