new sincerity

here's another throwback treat, the very first proposition I chalked up on New Sincerity circa late-Fall 2005...

The New Sincerity is the cultural and philosophical movement that is taking root and follow postmodernism. It is an age of compromise that negotiates between the two significant movements prior to it, modernism and postmodernism.

Within modernism it was believed that through science the answers that we sought to find could be found. The Enlightenment gave emphasis to reason and the new wonders of scientific explanation. Nature was a hierarchical system that could be deciphered into a logical, linear structure. In this context, the Enlightenment and modernism was an era that empowered the rational human mind. We are beings that have an inherent tendency to problem solve, collect information, and delineate status structures. Modernism gave us the confidence that through the developments of science we could answer all questions and know concretely our place here. In this sense, we felt not only empowered, but as if we had divine purpose to answer these questions and improve society, modernize. The term 'modern' or 'modernity' is defined as having a conscious understanding of time as ever-shifting. Basically, it is an understanding of a past, present, and future. In modernism, our purpose was to gather the necessary information and knowledge in building toward Utopia. However, as reason and the powers of science became predominant, art was left vulnerable to questioning. What is art? How is it defined, constructed, scientifically criticized?

With postmodernism, our collective empowerment of the rational human mind was deflated by the discoveries of Einstein, Plack, and modern science. The feeling of divine purpose was blunted as many of the answers we thought we knew were invalidated. So, with this came a decentralizing reaction. Nature and our place within it are naturally chaotic and there are no concrete answers, only the illusion of such. This new perspective deemed that there were no true answers and thus, there is nothing that is true or sincere or real. Everything down to the last grain of an idea is constructed, contrived. In accordance, with this, if there is no Great Truth and we have no ultimate equation to solve, what is left to be done? We have no purpose, why should we care about the improving society when the concept of improvement itself is unreal? Everything is socially constructed, ideas of morality and values have no true definition, have no true place. Everything was still in question, but we had no answers, the search deemed futile. We became skeptical of, ourselves and each other, and because of our collective letdown, cynical. In modernism, we may have had foolish pride and ignorant arrogance, and in any case, when that pride is debased, cynicism and angst will surely manifest. In postmodernism, sarcasm and a sense of lofty intellectualism arose. We were too smart, or perhaps, too scared of feeling foolhardy again to search for true meaning or anything infinite, using instead sarcasm to veil ourselves from vulnerability.

This leads me to New Sincerity. As beings that strive for status (in the most broad sense), living in a condition of purposelessness, stagnation becomes quickly uncomfortable. We yearn for direction and purpose. we want meaning in our lives, and the mundane existence of not having such is something that wholly contradicts us. New Sincerity has its roots from the circumstances of 9-11. In this moment when our nation fell victim to a devastating reality, we united with a common empathy for one another. This is where the seeds of New Sincerity were truly bore, put into motion. We began our transition from an aggressive society to one more sensitive. In this way, New Sincerity grows from the depraving irrelevance of postmodern esteem, or lack thereof. Yet, it also understands that the righteousness of modernism and the emphasis on rational mind as sole guide was also problematic. Yes, perhaps we may never find true answers, but that doesn't mean searching is a lost cause. This is an age of compromise in which both of the previous movement's experiences are coalesced. It is a cautious optimism. It is our yearning for genuine meaning in our lives.

New Sincerity privileges non-ironic human expressions and concerns itself with reemphasizing the concept of beauty in consideration to social construction and aesthetics. I remember after 9-11 many pundits declared that it marked the end of sarcastic humor and in our everyday lives. This is slowly occurring. Many believed that the effects of the millennium would be reflected in Y2K, or technologically, but perhaps, it is 9-11 that is the precursor of Millennialism. Although we understand that there may not be a presiding God, we choose to find our own interpretation of spirituality. And, as religious institutions have gradually lost social credibility, we may yet find true spiritually through amalgamating the truths of all religions. Perhaps, destiny does not exist, but maybe there are forces at work to go along with the individual's will. God is in the individual, and this sense of destiny will guide us to a greater self. There are many factors that interacting and aiding this collective shift, but most important is mass media.

Throughout civilization, art has been the harbinger for social change. What is art? Simply, it is the human expression. The mass media is the channel that captures and disseminates this, and as such, it is the main catapult of the hegemony. Yes, I believe in good and evil, light and dark, and to a greater extent, I believe that this may be a moment in time that will surely exemplify that these two forces exist in unexplainable form. There are forces beyond our recognition, beyond our will that guides us. We are the chosen species among living organisms. We are the controllers of our time here.

I will try to focus my attention on the mass media to elaborate on New Sincerity. First of all, let me preface by saying I will continually reference matters in a biblical context. I am not one of religious background, and have no preferences. In fact, at the peak of my adolescence I was atheist and naively anti-religion. That being said, I will constantly use Judeo-Christian references only because I was raised in a Western culture that manifested such. In accordance with the Holy Trinity, I believe that the number 3 is a telling number, and within the patterns of time and reality, is a significant number in recognizing the context of our future. Thus, there is a three step process in explaining the transitions of our society: the inception, the conflict, and our ultimate redemption.


...I forget if it was Fellini or Gandhi that said it, but in any case, he said that although his perception and writings have changed, that if you return to any of his most early works, the roots are no less different.

The same goes for this piece, which I never quite finished. This reflected me, as well as an early stage in New Sincerity, and as should, I have gained experience and grown. Since I wrote this, the notion that New Sincerity is like the 'New Christianity' has arisen. Which I find now quite interesting on several levels. At its foundation, New Sincerity is the rebirth of faith. New Sincerity is the process, not the result, and as processes go, it is in constant fluctuation and evolution. In many of my past writings, I have correlated 'New Sincerity' with 'The Age of Humanity", but only recently have I realized that The Age of Humanity is the next transition and perhaps, the culminating embodiment.