Modernism/modernity

According to Peter Gay, modernism/modernity is a great movement from ancient to modern ways in all manner and elements of life, including the social, economic, political, and cultural foundations of human life. Furthermore, modernism can be defined as a broad-spectrum movement with an atheistic component that began with the turn of the twentieth century. This shift affects concepts in philosophy, politics, and ethics. This study will thus provide insight into numerous areas where modernity has been implemented.Since the field is broad, the paper will narrow down into picking specific examples depicting modernity in scientific progress, transport, and communication, economic development, urbanization and conquest of nature. In general, modernity has come with more good as opposed to its setbacks.

To begin with, science and technology is one field that has undergone radical development since time memorial. If life in the current society is more comfortable than before, then all is the making of the advancement in the field of science and technology (Gay, 2008). Technological innovations, to mention a few, have propelled a revolution in the field of industry. Scientific knowledge in chemicals, metallurgy and all aspects of engineering has made it necessary to expand the industries and the factories which operate in advanced working patterns as opposed to the past. The rate of production in the modern factories can be a shock to a new individual (Anna, 2016). It is sometimes beyond human comprehension and imagination how machines in the present day factories can produce masses of textile, coal, and iron. It would be practically impossible to dress in the current world if the traditional ways of cloth making would still prevail. The demand from the growing population gives it a signal that indeed modernity in this regard has done a lot in mass production of human wants, clothing included.

Still, in modernity and scientific innovation, transport and communication are one field unquestionable as far as modernism is a factor. Moving from one continent is a matter of hours in the modern world as opposed to the past when people used to move by foot or animals because of the limited number of vehicles and unaffordability. Transportation vehicles, ships, trains and most of all airlines are marked the boundary line between the past and the present (Sánchez-Palencia, 2015). Life is being now easy; the business transaction is swift and productive. Delivering information from one place to another was until the time of Alexander Graham Bell a nightmare. Graham Bell first introduced the use of telephone booth which still had its limitations regarding inaccessibility. The present communication is characterized by myriads of social networks ranging from text messages, Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp applications (Sánchez-Palencia, 2015). Modern society has come to be referred to as a global village. Communicating with family and friends is as good as orally talking mainly when teleconferencing is involved. These are all elements and fruits of modernity.

Closely related to transport and communication is the economic development. The growing global population demands that there is growth in the individual country’s economy to be able to comfortably sustain the citizens concerning their needs. Modernity has paved the way for economic development in some ways. The present days are characterized by broad knowledge in commerce, economics, and business (RomeroSánchez-Palencia, 2016). The growing population has forced people to look into alternative ways to make a living. Diverse approaches to doing every other work while employing technological knowledge allow for rapid growth in the economy. The ease with global business can be done due sophisticated means of transport enable to participants earn high revenues within a short span of time. Modernity has also encouraged mutual ties between countries. Singapore, for example, has business and trade ties with South Africa. This allows for quick development because of the shared economic knowledge as well development ideas. The speed at which money is transferred in the modern global society is so high that businesses, agriculture and other transactions involving money will always have triumphed just in time (RomeroSánchez-Palencia, 2016). Rapid economic development and its packages have thus come with modernity.

Besides economic development, modernity is associated with urbanization. Industrial development, security, education and other facilities that have developed in the modern world as opposed to the past is making some people move into the cities and urban areas. The present-day urban centers are well equipped with social amenities such as hospitals and sporting grounds. There are many schools and colleges along with many other institutions of learning. The presence of industries, businesses and many other facilities create employment which attracts people from remote areas. It is also prestigious living in urban places considering security and nearness to almost all the services. Declining jobs due to mechanization in agriculture will also force guys to migrate into the cities to look for better jobs (RomeroSánchez-Palencia, 2016).

Advancement in technology in the twentieth century as well came with the idea to exploit natural resources for the betterment of human life. As opposed to the past, mining is a modern transaction keeping many countries alive, especially those that are enriched with petroleum and precious metals such as gold. Countries in the Middle and the Far East are known to have developed basically because of the enrichment of oil fields in the dry areas and the islands of the Indian Ocean (Williamson, 2016). The technological knowledge, a characteristic of modernism is making it possible to do safe and effective mining with a complete processing of the products for sale and domestic use. Space exploration and astronomy is one other aspect of modernity that was not the case in the past. Nature has continued to be explored, and knowledge continues to increase in the modern world more and more than in the olden days.

In a nutshell, modernity came with impact in nearly all aspects of human life and development. There are associated setbacks such pollution, but such are no comparison to the merits and benefits drawn from it. Ranging from economic to social aspects of human life, modernity has come to outdo the past. Modern transportation and communication systems have made life simpler and comfortable. The social networks keep families and friends living in diverse cities and places across the globe as close as though there are in a village. The rapid economic development and urbanization in a modern world are giving people diverse opportunities for jobs, schooling and social interaction. For all these reasons and many others, modernity is what we all need to embrace considering the kind of benefits and advantages associated.

References

Anna, S. P. (2016). Neo/modernism–philosophical awareness in art. Art Inquiry. Recherches sur les arts, 18, 23-36.

RomeroSánchez-Palencia, C. (2016). The unity of plurality: Literary effects in the 19th and 20th centuries. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 6(6), 1137.

Sánchez-Palencia, C. R. (2015). Different Interpretations of the Modern Era: Modernist Continuities and Discontinuities. International Journal, 3(1), 30-34.

Williamson, G. S. (2016). Peter Gay (1923-2015). Central European History, 49(1), 4.

Gay, P 2008, Modernism: The lure of heresy: From Baudelaire to Beckett and beyond, WW Norton & Co, New York, p.103-179