Postmodernism and Neoconservatism
The relationship between postmodern culture and the rise of neoconservatism has concerned critical theorists at least since Jurgen Habermas published his essay "Modernity: An Incomplete Project" twenty-five years ago, in which he provocatively identified several strands of neoconservatism in the writings of French poststructuralist theorists. In 1992, Lawrence Grossberg made this connection from a different angle in the subtitle of his book We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture, an in-depth examination of postmodern culture by way of popular music. Other critics have addressed this topic as well, including those collected in a 1999 issue of boundary 2 devoted primarily to "Left Conservatism." This paper examines the claims for and against connections between postmodernism and neoconservatism, discussing both the high-theory arguments proposed by Habermas and his critics and also the popular-culture claims advanced by Grossberg and others. The essay concludes with a discussion of recent developments in popular politics and culture, including the increase in political pressure from conservative, religiously affiliated, anti-science groups attacking everything from evolution in biology classrooms to the scientific consensus on global warming.
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