Modernism was founded on rationalism and reason, which allowed for the construction of a new and orderly society.  The seeds of its eventual destruction were also planted at the beginning, because it wasn't fully grounded by moral structure, especially as secularization took hold with the diminution of Christianity and the attempt by many Enlightenment philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries, especially Immanuel Kant and his categorical imperatives, at a new man-made moral structure they believed would herald an era of peace and harmony.  The only problem was, it didn't work, as evidenced by death camps, gulags, and world wars in the 20th century.

There were some, particularly Friedrich Nietzsche, who saw that with the secularization of society and the "death of God," not only were there disasters on the horizon, but the modern project was doomed to failure.

Modernism also sowed the seeds of its own destruction because it destroyed any notion of absolutism and laid the groundwork for moral and cultural relativism.  The modern era, built on the absolutes of Jewish and Christian values and traditions, were replaced, leading to the transition to a postmodern era built on the new and shifting foundations of godless ideologies.

The beginning of the postmodern era began in earnest during the sixties, when the revolt against rationalism took off with the rebellions against the Vietnam War and the existing establishment that was the last vestige of the old order built and based on rationalism. 

A godfather and major contributor to the hippie and free love movement of the sixties, which sought to tear down all of the rules and absolutes, was Jacques Derrida, the French philosopher who introduced the world to the principle of deconstruction, the first of many versions of postmodern philosophy.  Deconstructionism essentially permitted the new sensibilities that life is not just whatever you want it to be, but whatever you want it to mean.  Man as the measure of all things would be the new standard, where God and biblical morality as the old standard were out.  It was the death of objectivity and the birth of subjectivity — the heart of postmodernism. 

This pervasive subjectivism is the basis for the moral and cultural relativism that began in the sixties and has come to fruition today with the LGBT movement.  Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy had apparently been indoctrinated into the new relativistic and postmodern worldview when he joined in with the majority opinion upholding Roe v. Wade in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey and wrote the following: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."  The current LGBT movement is further evidence that the postmodern era is completely underway, which takes Kennedy at his word by literally letting anyone be whatever and whoever they might want to be in this new world social order. 

It's not all that difficult to see where this is heading.  In another 20, 50, or 100 years, will incest and polygamy be the norm?  Or how about bestiality?  There's no prohibition or stop sign in subjectivism and relativism against any of these things.  Even a well paid lawyer — a highly trained logician, if you will — should be able to tell you what the logical endpoint is to the LGBT movement, but they can't, because there isn't one. 

From The New Politics of Sex: The Sexual Revolution, Civil Liberties & the Growth of Governmental Power:

What distinguishes true civil rights movements from today's sexual militancy is that the sexual agenda is open-ended. It demands a liberation from sexual restrain that is limitless — not only from specific, legally imposed barriers like chattel slavery or segregation statutes but from any moral disapproval arising from the traditional values, religious faith, or political opinions of private citizens who disagree. 

So the future of postmodern society doesn't look pretty, at least not by today's standards.  But that's exactly the problem with subjectivism and why the future looks bleak: it continuously defines standards and traditions down, turning yesterday's taboos into today's normal behavior.  That makes for a very ugly future.

Image via Good Free Photos.