Week 1: Modern/Postmodern jibberjabber

I was very interested as I read through the introduction section of our reading this week and saw the separation between "the media" and the "public forum" and then also between "modernist" and "post-modernist" perspectives. It caused me to question what should be valued in our society as far as what we consume through media and how we differentiate between equality and unity. Often there is a war between modernists who want everyone united behind universal political ideas and post-modernists who support the fight for equality from minority groups as Mckee points out in the reading, "They argue that it's a bad thing that women, for example, group together to fight for women's rights, because it takes away their attention from the rights that every human being needs to fight together for (usually class rights, in terms of access to jobs, pay and material conditions of citizenship) (Mckee 28)".
As we discussed in class on Thursday, it is becoming harder to find causes that we are all united behind, for example health care. Aliyah mentioned that she is a young uninsured mother who is very engaged in the health care debate because she wants help in providing the preventative health care necessary in order to raise a child and feels that the government should step in to do so. There are many others who have lost interest in the debate because it does not effect them as much due to either the help they already receive from Medicare or affordable insurance provided by their employer. I have to stand in agreement with the post-modernist perspective that the individuals concerns should be valued and addressed because obviously minority's exist in every society whether it be the young and uninsured or the pre-diagnosed who are denied by Medicare such as Riley pointed out in class that she was because of her diabetes. Those voices should be heard and addressed in some way and not hushed in silence because they do not represent the majority as Modernists would have it be.

Mckee did a great job of presenting the material that he would be discussing throughout the course of the text and I feel that I am likely going to support him as he represents post-modernist thinking. I would like to better understand why modernists are set upon silencing identity politics and why they feel that they devalue society and bigger political agendas.