The Birth of Modernity

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the philosophy of modernism embraces practical ethics and values as the mechanisms for managing the complex forces of society in which each class participates in a particular way to provide for the good of the whole; the government acts as a regulating factor in assuring that the needs of each element of society is met. The author points out that the class struggle that resulted from the growth of the corporate segment in the Gilded Age brought into the forefront the newly formed Populist Party which promoted the welfare of the portions of society that had been omitted from the previous two-party political base. The paper concludes that, while modernism does not preclude the fostering of traditional societal values, it makes way for a continual evolution of ideology to fit contemporary needs.

From the Paper:

"The Populist Party Platform in 1892 is a manifesto of modernist ideas, developed in response to conditions at the time. "Our country finds itself confronted by conditions for which there is no precedent in the history of the world." The preamble cites an inadequate currency supply, the impoverishment of the producing class and a system in which the total annual agricultural productions must be exchanged in a few months for commodities consumed in their production. While totalitarian philosophies would have addressed the same concerns with government regulation so extensive as to eliminate the personal freedom of the populace, the modernist philosophy held that the solutions to these problems required the intellectual development of new policies without regard to previous systems."

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