--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Post-modernism has cut off the present…" description: "\"Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is ofte..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba1/john-berger-1590_add_post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-f_608235.png" --- # Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures… ![“Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present.” quote by John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba1/john-berger-1590_add_post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-f_608235.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba1/john-berger-1590_add_post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-f_608235.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba1/john-berger-1590_add_post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-f_608235.png) > “Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present.” [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Post‑modernism isolates the present, while media erases past context, leaving criticism ungrounded. **In simple terms:** Modern culture separates now from past and future, weakening critique. Key Takeaway Seek broader context to strengthen critique. Themes culture media criticism history post‑modernism Mood reflective critical Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - academic analysis - media literacy - historical research - public discourse Key Concepts temporal dislocation media influence critical theory Questions to Reflect On - How does media shape our sense of time? - What can reconnect present critique with history? A Different Perspective Neglecting past and future can lead to shallow analysis. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Media](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/media/) [Modernism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modernism/) [Opinion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/opinion/) [Past](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/past/) [Post modernism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/post-modernism/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) ## Related quotes > [The collaboration which sometimes follows is seldom based on good will: usually on desire, rage, fear, pity or longing. The modern illusion concerning painting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/the-collaboration-which-sometimes-follows-is-seldom-based-on-good/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [“When we repeat the same words and phrases that appear in the daily media, we accept the absence of a larger framework.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-snyder/when-we-repeat-the-same-words-and-phrases-that-appear-in-the-daily/) [Timothy Snyder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-snyder/) > [Critical opinion on my films has always been salvaged by what I would call subsequent critical opinion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stanley-kubrick/critical-opinion-on-my-films-has-always-been-salvaged-by-what-i-would/) [Stanley Kubrick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stanley-kubrick/) > [The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads to silence,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/umberto-eco/the-postmodern-reply-to-the-modern-consists-of-recognizing-that-the/) [Umberto Eco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/umberto-eco/) > [Post-modernism is modernism with the optimism taken out.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hewison/post-modernism-is-modernism-with-the-optimism-taken-out/) [Robert Hewison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hewison/) > [Post-modernism is dead because it didn't address human needs.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-guterson/post-modernism-is-dead-because-it-didn-t-address-human-needs/) [David Guterson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-guterson/) > [“Even before the First World War there was a strain in European art and music – in Germany more than anywhere – that was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-murray/even-before-the-first-world-war-there-was-a-strain-in-european-art/) [Douglas Murray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-murray/) > [I teach art at a famous art school, and yet I don't have really the least notion what post-modernism means, but we have people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-jordan/i-teach-art-at-a-famous-art-school-and-yet-i-don-t-have-really-the/) [Lawrence Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-jordan/) > [I started thinking that if post modernism is about people opening up all their skeletons, I'm going the other way. I don't want anyone…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/billy-corgan/i-started-thinking-that-if-post-modernism-is-about-people-opening-up/) [Billy Corgan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/billy-corgan/) > [I don't like post-modernism. It's cynical, and takes no discipline - you just copy. It doesn't allow a film to be open to reality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/luca-guadagnino/i-don-t-like-post-modernism-it-s-cynical-and-takes-no-discipline-you/) [Luca Guadagnino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/luca-guadagnino/) > [“This, of course, is because today’s postfeminist era is also today’s postmodern era, in which supposedly everybody now knows everything about what’s really going…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/this-of-course-is-because-today-s-postfeminist-era-is-also-today-s/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [“Isn't post-modernism really one big cover-up for the failure of the French to write a truly interesting novel ever since a sports car ate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-leonard/isn-t-post-modernism-really-one-big-cover-up-for-the-failure-of-the/) [John Leonard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-leonard/) > [Post-Modernism was a reaction against Modernism. It came quite early to music and literature, and a little later to architecture. And I think it's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/larry-wall/post-modernism-was-a-reaction-against-modernism-it-came-quite-early/) [Larry Wall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/larry-wall/) > [Postmodernism was a reaction to modernism. Where modernism was about objectivity, postmodernism was about subjectivity. Where modernism sought a singular truth, postmodernism sought the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/miguel-syjuco/postmodernism-was-a-reaction-to-modernism-where-modernism-was-about/) [Miguel Syjuco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/miguel-syjuco/) > [I don't much like post-modernism, because post-modernist has become the basket in which every mediocre person can shuffle things and pretend to do something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/luca-guadagnino/i-don-t-much-like-post-modernism-because-post-modernist-has-become/) [Luca Guadagnino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/luca-guadagnino/) ## More by John Berger > [When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/when-we-read-a-story-we-inhabit-it-the-covers-of-the-book-are-like-a/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [The impulse to paint comes neither from observation nor from the soul (which is probably blind) but from an encounter: the encounter between painter…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/the-impulse-to-paint-comes-neither-from-observation-nor-from-the-soul/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [Oil painting did to appearances what capital did to social relations. It reduced everything to the equality of objects. Everything became exchangeable because everything…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/oil-painting-did-to-appearances-what-capital-did-to-social-relations/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [Landscapes can be deceptive. Sometimes a landscape seems to be less a setting for the life of its inhabitants than a curtain behind which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/landscapes-can-be-deceptive-sometimes-a-landscape-seems-to-be-less-a/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [We live in a dominant culture of ceaseless Departure and Progress that has so far lasted two or three centuries.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/we-live-in-a-dominant-culture-of-ceaseless-departure-and-progress/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [My heart born naked was swaddled in lullabies. Later alone it wore poems for clothes. Like a shirt I carried on my back the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/my-heart-born-naked-was-swaddled-in-lullabies-later-alone-it-wore/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [ There's the artist's intimacy and truthfulness to himself, but an equal intimacy to the Other \[the one drawn\]. Picasso drawings are like that... the… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/there-s-the-artist-s-intimacy-and-truthfulness-to-himself-but-an/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [Traditional Chinese art looked at the Earth from a Confucian mountain top; Japanese art looked closely around screens; Italian Renaissance art surveyed conquered nature…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/traditional-chinese-art-looked-at-the-earth-from-a-confucian-mountain/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/never-again-shall-a-single-story-be-told-as-though-it-were-the-only/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [In drawing after drawing, pastel after pastel, painting after painting, the contours of Degas's dancing figures become, at a certain point, darkly insistent, tangled…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/in-drawing-after-drawing-pastel-after-pastel-painting-after-painting/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/we-never-look-at-just-one-thing-we-are-always-looking-at-the-relation/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [We can become anything. That is why injustice is impossible here. There may be the accident of birth, there is no accident of death.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/we-can-become-anything-that-is-why-injustice-is-impossible-here-there/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [Capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as narrowly as possible. This was once achieved by extensive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/capitalism-survives-by-forcing-the-majority-whom-it-exploits-to/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [The camera relieves us of the burden of memory.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/the-camera-relieves-us-of-the-burden-of-memory/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) > [“Today we see the art of the past as nobody saw it before. We actually perceive it in a different way.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/today-we-see-the-art-of-the-past-as-nobody-saw-it-before-we-actually/) [John Berger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) [Explore all 214 John Berger quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/) ## More Add quotes > [Most marriages don't add two people together. They subtract one from the other.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-fleming/most-marriages-don-t-add-two-people-together-they-subtract-one-from/) [Ian Fleming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-fleming/) > [Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed; and it is consolatory to think, that although we can seldom…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-boswell/friendship-the-wine-of-life-should-like-a-well-stocked-cellar-be/) [James Boswell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-boswell/) > [Life as we know it is fundamentally unsatisfying. I think most folks feel this to be true. They know that a life of aimless…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-yates/life-as-we-know-it-is-fundamentally-unsatisfying-i-think-most-folks/) [Michael Yates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-yates/) > [Give me a platter of choice finnan haddie, freshly cooked in its bath of water and milk, add melted butter, a slice or two…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/craig-claiborne/give-me-a-platter-of-choice-finnan-haddie-freshly-cooked-in-its-bath/) [Craig Claiborne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/craig-claiborne/) > [Writing adds up to the conscience of our times.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-firrell/writing-adds-up-to-the-conscience-of-our-times/) [Martin Firrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-firrell/) > [A 'modern' man has nothing to add to modernism, if only because he has nothing to oppose it with. The well-adapted drop off the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elias-canetti/a-modern-man-has-nothing-to-add-to-modernism-if-only-because-he-has/) [Elias Canetti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elias-canetti/) > [Observation and theory get on best when they are mixed together, both helping one another in the pursuit of truth. It is a good…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-eddington/observation-and-theory-get-on-best-when-they-are-mixed-together-both/) [Arthur Eddington](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-eddington/) > [I may add that we have more than once stated our willingness to conclude nonaggression pacts with the states neighboring our own!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-hitler/i-may-add-that-we-have-more-than-once-stated-our-willingness-to/) [Adolf Hitler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-hitler/) > [The American Constitution declares 'All men are born equal.' The British Socialist Party add: 'All men must be kept equal'.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/winston-churchill/the-american-constitution-declares-all-men-are-born-equal-the-british/) [Winston Churchill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/winston-churchill/) > [New generations of humans inherit the acquired discoveries of generations past, allowing cosmic insight to accumulate without limit. Each discovery of science therefore adds…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-degrasse-tyson/new-generations-of-humans-inherit-the-acquired-discoveries-of/) [Neil deGrasse Tyson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-degrasse-tyson/) > [Thirty days is just about the right amount of time to add a new habit or subtract a habit - like watching the news…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-cutts/thirty-days-is-just-about-the-right-amount-of-time-to-add-a-new-habit/) [Matt Cutts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-cutts/) > [In presenting a mathematical argument the great thing is to give the educated reader the chance to catch on at once to the momentary…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-edensor-littlewood/in-presenting-a-mathematical-argument-the-great-thing-is-to-give-the/) [John Edensor Littlewood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-edensor-littlewood/) > [The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, 'Let no one be called happy till his death;' to which I would add, 'Let no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-barrett-browning/the-greeks-said-grandly-in-their-tragic-phrase-let-no-one-be-called/) [Elizabeth Barrett Browning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-barrett-browning/) > [Mostly we just add to the piles of rainbow glass that's been blown off the exteriors of the cany-colored buildings.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/suzanne-collins/mostly-we-just-add-to-the-piles-of-rainbow-glass-that-s-been-blown/) [Suzanne Collins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/suzanne-collins/) > [Global is a unifying bond for people. Once they get outside their own heads and their own communities and see themselves in a broader…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kathy-calvin/global-is-a-unifying-bond-for-people-once-they-get-outside-their-own/) [Kathy Calvin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kathy-calvin/) Browse all 2,710 Add quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "John Berger" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-from-all-futures-the-daily/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Add" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-from-all-futures-the-daily/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba1/john-berger-1590_add_post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-f_608235.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba1/john-berger-1590_add_post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-f_608235.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba1/john-berger-1590_add_post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-f_608235.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the…” — John Berger", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "John Berger", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-berger/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Post-modernism has cut off the present...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-from-all-futures-the-daily/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-berger/post-modernism-has-cut-off-the-present-from-all-futures-the-daily/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```