The concept of being “modern” has always caused certain debate in my mind and has been bothering me for a while now. The reason for this is because after being away from home for almost three months (in Boston, Santa Barbara and Miami Beach) for the first time, my mom told me I came back “more modern” and she clearly wasn't happy about it. By saying I had “become more modern” she meant that I had changed in a negative way. I grew up in a very rigid catholic society and went to an only girls opus dei high school where you are almost forced to believe in Catholicism (and of course, God). After leaving my bubble and getting to experience different cultures, beliefs, ideologies, traditions, I realized that many things I had been taught were not true. I came back with a more open mind, and my mom was very unhappy with the fact that I was now “too modern”.
Habermas says that "the term "modern" again and again expresses the consciousness of an epoch that relates itself to the past of antiquity, in order to view itself as the result of a transition from the old to the new" (p 3). So: was my new mentality the result of the transition from the antique beliefs and doctrines I was forced to believe in and participate on, to a more tolerant and open mind after learning and experiencing real life? Why did she see this as a bad thing? She thought I was loosing my roots and I was going to end up in hell (which she still believes and worries about).
In my opinion, being “modern” is not necessarily something bad! This is were I agree the most with the author: "the idea of being "modern" by looking back to the ancients changed with the belief, inspired by modern science, in the infinite progress of knowledge and in the infinite advance towards social and moral betterment" (p 4). I believe “modern” is some kind of beneficial advance or progress, as opposed to just something new.
This reminds me of our previous discussion about what is considered original or authentic because: what is new anymore? Furthermore, what is modern anymore? Is modernism a combination of the old and the new? Today’s fashion trend goes back to the 70’s. We are wearing crop-tops and high-waisted jeans. Could this type of ‘modernism’ be considered radical eclecticism?
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