PC/Pomo/New Age

Political correctness is associated with what I call "the postpostmodern mishmash," for lack of a better term (though, if we really wanted to go for broke, we could call it "the epigonous postpostmodern mismash"...)...that's to say: a mixture of recent "Continental" philosophy and literary theory including at least postmodernism, poststructuralism, and critical theory. In the paleo-PC era postmodernism seemed to be the most prominent component of the mishmash. In the neo-PC (aka "social justice") era, I'd say it's critical theory and its various even-more-PC spinoffs like critical race theory.

   But anyway, in the #paleo-PC era, we were also experiencing the "new age" phenomenon--i.e. a spasm of interest in stuff like astrology, past-life regression, ESP, crystal-rubbing, chakras and all that kinda crap. Something these two movements had in common: a decided anti-rational / anti-Western / anti-scientific bent.

   Now that PC is upon us again, I've wondered whether there'll also be another uptick in the other woo-woo stuff, the more overtly magical stuff like astrology. Sometimes I think that the New Age-iness is already baked into neo-PC. "Social constructionism" is basically a kind of magical worldview in which the mystical power of human society/agreement brings about facts (or that's its most striking interpretation, anyway). So it's already pretty ESPy. 

   Though...today I see this: "Witchcraft In The #MeToo Era" (man, that "...in the #MeToo era" template never gets old!). So...maybe the straight-up woo is back, baby! Maybe we should get ready for a new new age to go along with postpostmodernism and neo-PC. We could be in for an extremely amusing time.