Modernity, the child of the Enlightenment, failed when it became apparent that the good society cannot be achieved by unaided reason.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Naturalism aimed at giving the primitive wishes full play but failed because these wishes are too primitive, too infantile, too inconsistent with themselves to be satisfied even by the greatest license.
The enlightenment is under threat. So is reason. So is truth. So is science, especially in the schools of America.
The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society.
A society that does not correctly interpret and appreciate its past cannot understand its present fortunes and adversities and can be caught unawares in a fast changing world.
To me, the failure of liberalism - the tradition I come from - was not recognizing there has to be justice across the generations.
The moral turpitude of the boys of today appears to center in their failure to concentrate on any particular objective long enough to obtain their maximum results.
The idea of modernity is beginning to lose its vitality. It is losing it because modernity is no longer a critical attitude but an accepted, codified convention.
I don't believe that human beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment, because humans have flaws.
But we look back now, and we realize the Great Society was not a success.
The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.