Reset Modernity (some mixed feelings)

How do I feel (me, a part of the Greek petit burgoisie, though partly educated in the USA, having obdained a PhD there-therefore a chimera, an amalgam (like the faulse problems), a Frankestein of a person) , now after reading most of the book that accompanied "Reset Modernity!" (there were parts especially parts related to economics that was difficult for me to comprehend) and having followed this whole movement of ideas, pondering about it, some time now?



First, it intensifies in me the feeling that I am not a pure modern. The stories that participants draw from, the images in the book, the authors I read when trying to follow some of the (very interesting ) lines of thought that were appearing from time to time, all these come from a different world. The history of the post Carolignean Catholic Church is not my past, Renessence is very lightly (there were interactions with the Eastern Romans), Reformation and Countereformation is not, etc. I mean they are not part of my history in a visceral way (intellectually we can all talk about the "European family" and things like that). I also understand that things change in time (the 1821-1828 war of Greek independence most probably was not visceral history for my Anatolian great grand parents but it is part of mine) and things may be quite different for my great grand children.
I think that there are many people in the Balkans and also Turks and Arabs, for all their contact with the western moderns over centuries, that they probably feel similarly (although Greece is a unique case for many reasons: The war of independence happened quite early, there were lot of Greeks connected through land and navy merchandise with Western Europe, quite some Greeks got educated in France, Germanym the Austrian empire and came back wanting a Greece that would be European, there was a great philhellene movement in Europe -probably connected to Europe's sense of identity and Romanticism- , Greece's independence from the Ottomans had a lot to do with British-Russian confrontation in the Ottoman regions)

According to my opinion it is also the case  in Greece (I would expect that this is similar in other partly modernized places) that the larger, more afluent, more influential part of the intellectual elite at this point cannot imagine any kind of future outside the EU (after participating in AIME etc the expression "more royalist than the king" is the expression that comes in mind. ). Indeed it seems that they cannot immagine of any Greek people of any worth outside the possible salvatory influence of Western Europe. (Recently a well respected Greek political scientist wrote that "[Geek] society is split between "native" nationalists and those who want an open society" (http://www.kathimerini.gr/875336/opinion/epikairothta/politikh/na-tane-to-eikosiena-xronia-do3asmena), a quite black-and-white approach in my opinion about Greece)

So where am I left? I am left with mixed feelings.

I feel grateful for a project like AIME and Reset Modernity! Because understanding better the moderns (with less of what to my ears sounds as fanatism, as it happens when some of my compatriots praise the moderns), is a way to better understand, me, my compatriots, my country, my coutry's place in the system of things. (I could add also "and imagining alternative futures" but I would feel idiot because, aside from European projects and intellectual movements, there are the realities of power politics). I feel all this as a demystification project: de mystifying the moderns (which is a very modern attitude , but thankfully so)

It also intesifies my feeling of being an outsider: Not only these people (the western moderns) have a different history but they also decide without us (although "for our own good as well" and in this case for the good of non-humans too- that is they skyrocket themselves in infinite towers of moral soft power superiority relative to all the others, who seem as if they are not fully developed humans: what percentage of the human population can pariticipate in any meaningful way in AIME-like discussions? What percentage even from those that are considered intellectual elites and opinion leaders?). Indeed the moderns, (and this is more general than the people that run AIME and Reset Modernity!) take care the "salvation can only come through the western moderns" (their languages, theis currencies, their institutions, their discourses). Just imagine the EU or the British goverment or the fedearal USA government to give funds so that more Chinese learn Russian (and the opposite) or more Indians learn Chinese or Arabic (and the opposite). Why would that be peculiar if peace was the name of the game? ("It is but who can guarantee peace outside from us?" )

This brings to my mind the way religion is often dealt with in the rm! book. To be called religious is, for some of the authors,  like the "kiss of death", especially for monotheistic religions. "small is beautiful" religiouswise (ie if you are an Amazonian Indian). But there is an elephant in the room which is the big articulate religions and traditions (of which the monotheistic ones are not an isnignificnat part). It is not only that we are speaking about a lot of people. It also holds that these people have great litterary traditions and great histories. According to modernity all these are just stagnant traditions that at most can provide raw material for modernity (which is what is common wisdom for the Greek moderns as well and the reason perhaps for their distaste some of them feel for "postmodern rubbish"). But this is just the view of modernity and we don't have to buy it. So one would consider conductive to peace (and to a "civilization to come") the support of the inter-communication among these traditions, based on mutual means (not always passing through the moderns and their means). This is not much of the case  through their own innitiative (a case of Luke 16:8 perhaps) and it is not supported by the moderns (Perhaps as an application of Mazarin's comment in de Vries article in the rm! book: "Act with your friends as if they were to return one day as your enemies" (Security of the self at the cost of life.)

I also have a subversive feeling (wanting to take advantage of a better knowledge of the moderns, feeling them alien, trying to protect myself and my own from their constant discourse broadcasting) but also a feeling of brotherhood (they, the particular people in AIME and rm! do have good intentions, they do try within the universe of their interests, dicourses and experiences). Then I also feel like preparing for war against people for whom it feels as if  "we the others" are just opportunities for their growth, for exercising their moral muscles, for participating in intellectual Olympics. At the same time feel the crushing power that they have in their hands.

Many contrasting feelings.

And I also feel like moving between two points of view.

• Putting myself in their shoes as far as I can, getting "inside" the moderns I feel as if there is an inteconnected universe of networks that goes to all kinds of places. It is as if academia produces an accompanying reality that seems as if it can take you anywhere (if you pay the price). This is the AIME world. It seems like the whole universe.
•  But then there is the view from the outside, taking a stance from places in the Earth that things are not that affluent and organized, people not as well disciplined and trained in "civilized talks" . Where participants in the talk may have not eaten well, or maybe they fear of a war or about the future of their children. From this side all this  talk in AIME and rm! is included in the moderninst "sphere" . A "sphere" that is now experienced from the outside (the ventilating system that produces a nice cool atmosphere inside is the same that produces heating outside), from  the side of the back alley.

From the second point of view the talk in AIME and rm! about "negotiations" is a little bizzare. "We are in negotiations but I see you are a bit nervous, afraid , hungry. Then you are silenced, perhaps dead, or wandering about your children. So bad you have to leave early from our negotiation table!" Yes there is a flow of human and non-human actors but some human actors take care that some non-human actors take care of other human actors. Middle ground is meaningful where all parties have ground to stand upon. Otherwise negotiations become like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o2nq_2WBRE (after 4:50)

And how else could it feel when moderns reset their modernity without much interest about the direct response of the others (only the responses mediated by moderns -mainly French?- seem to be important)? How more clearly can the moderns express "who the real boss is?" And what a great opportunity the environmental crisis has been in this respect! Who can wait for the clumsy, the disorganised, the corrupted others, to make their thing work? It is the moderns who need to take the lead in such times of urgency, isn't it?

And yet Reset Modernity! and AIME is perhaps the best we can get at the moment from the moderns. The most respectful move we can have from them. From the point of view of pragmatism they are precious.