This is linked to Berger's next point; the increase of diversity in beliefs (Macionis, Plummer, 1998). When the individual is released from the demands of conformity of the Gemeinshaft, he is influenced by the rational perspective of modern life. This is what Weber saw as the "disenchantment- of the world (Macionis, Plummer, 1998). Finally Berger notes the modern concern with time and future orientation; for the modern individual prospects of the future are more important than past events and cliché of time equals money' almost becomes a philosophy of life with daily routines coloured by strict scheduling.
Thus, one can see the modernist movement as concerned by a forward motion, equated to scientific progress and financial gain. It is a movement which seeks functionality, through sound rational scientific thought, rather than aesthetic and cultural value (Giddens, 2001). Although an obvious generalisation, this can be seen physically through the large-scale rational urban planning of the early 20th Century and the Post-war period which evoke austerity and promote functionalist efficiency above all else (Harvey, 1989). Even the impressive heights of the Sky-scrapers of the New York skyline, although inspiring in their magnitude seem to represent and glorify above all the financial greatness of various corporations while aesthetically not much more than bleak facades. Therefore, it is perhaps the apparent recent switch from this functional emphasis to a more cultural and aesthetic emphasis that can be related to the passing of "modernity and modernism to postmodernity and postmodernism- (Featherstone, 1991).
Various factors lead to the emergence of the Postmodernist movement. Among these is certainly the failure of much modernist housing projects for instance, but also the gradual process of deindustrialisation in cities (Harvey, 1989). These processes were accompanied by a change of values and the increased importance of cultural capital in urban areas as cities began to acquire more value in the architectural natural beauty they provided (Featherstone, 1991).
During the 'Plague of Athens', a devastating epidemic in the city of Athens during the Peloponnesian War in 430 BC, Thucidydes noted that people who have recovered from the illness could look after the sick without any danger of the transmission of disease1. ... In her influential essay The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies. ...
Yet the most recent offerings from Australian film makers Strictly Ballroom' (1992), Muriel`s Wedding' (1994) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' (1994) refelct a feeling of acceptance of Australia`s place on the world stage through it`s films, whilst simultaneously celebrating a new found ease of the quirky Australian national identity. ... In this way these films take the culturally weak positon in which Australia is in the supporting cast of the world stage and turn it into a strength. 5) These film reveal that parts of Australian culture are monstrous ...
Jaffa's reading is true to the text of the play and also to the impression Lear in fact makes on stage in the opening scene. Far from coming across as a pathetic old man, Lear projects a commanding presence in his first appearance, dominating the action and, for all his errors, towering over the other figures on the stage. ... Without questioning Lear's legitimate gains in wisdom in the course of the play "indeed I have discussed them at length elsewhere "I want to explore here the possibility that King Lear is tragic precisely because of the complexity of the process Sh...