Page 51 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

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legitamation to which Bauman refers is meta-narrative of development. For example,
narrative of development was accepted unquestionably causing exploitation of natural resources,

resulting in a current ecological crisis. Inherent within this meta-narrative was the belief that the

development of science would solve human problems, a belief now proved to be untrue. The

meta-narrative of development was robust in the 1960s through 80s, and it is responsible for the

success of a variety of development projects. While the older generation forsook self-loving and

self-amusement by the meta-narrative of development, the younger generation plays with

different “petites histories [little stories].” 100

The residence of pluralism within postmodern thought maintains that all knowledge

suffers from historic and cultural entanglement. Hence, nothing is known apart from its Sitz en

Leben. Cculture, society, and religion “become a universe unto itself with its own rules, values,

and structures for evaluation.” 101 Such a fact has confirmation by research performed by

sociologist Jae Hong Park. Park points out that the new generation is consumer-oriented,

individual-oriented, and antiauthoritarianism-oriented. 102 What the younger generation seeks is

individualism, diversity, and openness.

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For meta-narrative discussion, consult Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern
Condition; A Report on Knowledge, trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi, in Theory and
History of Literature, vol.10 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984), xxiv;
Hutcheon, L. “Beginning to Theorise Postmodernism.” Textual Practice 1 (1987), 10-31.

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Ihab Hassan, in Natoli and Hutcheo, Postmodern Reader, 51
41
Adams “Possibility for Theology,” 92.
102
Jae Hong Park, “An Appraisal Study,” 655.