Modernism Critiqued

The modern scenario is single­value­based. Liberty is championed for its own sake and is largely divorced from other traditional first­amendment values. Essentially, the modernist understands the first amendment as a vehicle for individualism, rather than as an instrument for any public good. The modern scenario favorably portrays society as a collection of atomistic beings­­a society in which the first amendment preserves the conditions necessary for self­interested behavior. ¹⁴⁸ In Plato's words, it is "the city full of freedom and free speech"' where there is "license"' for all modes of expression. ¹⁴⁹ As a laissez­faire theory, the modern scenario is ideally suited to the consumptive desires of a highly capitalistic and technologically driven society. ¹⁵⁰

Modernists flatly reject the notion that the "new pleasure principle"' of the commercial television culture is problematic. If anything, they view it in a positive rather than a negative light. Modernists do not imagine the Huxleyan evil as a threat to the system of free expression­­to them, acting as if it were a threat is the real threat.

The felt need of modernists to extend first­amendment protections unsparingly to commercial television reveals their hypersensitivity to the fears of Orwellian tyranny. Not surprisingly, the Orwellian fear makes the modernist acutely aware that the first amendment cannot remain static in the face of dynamic changes in modes of communication. Unfortunately, the modernist is unaware that the first amendment likewise cannot remain static when triviality and amusement threaten to become the criteria for public discourse.