Learning and a Liberal Education: The Study of Modern History in the Universities of Oxford,... Book

Well before Big Data there were ominous whispers. That is how I recall this book's bark at my door: fear tinged with the excitement of change Sometime between the collapse of the Wall and the Towers, I was forever fearful of a mis-step. The world was tumultuous and I lacked all grace. I was late to the Theory party. I was blind drunk on my Nietzsche, sort of mumbled through the grotesque parts of Foucault (though it was his biographies that have resonated) with Derrida and the Rhizome Twins (D and G) just too cool for school. Out of that rave this text resonated. It simply asked, theoretically what can we adhere towards, lacking a legitimate metanarrative, we are orphans, without a heritage or metaphysical hope. Of course it was stagecraft, we -- readers of Lyotard -- weren't being hunted in streets nor blasted by unmanned weapon platforms. The Postmodern Condition is a placeholder. It works best temporarily. Planned ignoring is suitable strategy after the fact.