The March of Progress

The March of Progress

The March of Progress

A comparative list of how our cultural life has changed in the progression from the modern age to the postmodern.

Norman Mailer
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This list is, of course, open to debate. A hundred, if not a thousand, couplings could be offered in their place. I will say that the last two pairings are quintessential to the premise behind these categories. Originally, they were first on the list.

MODERN      POSTMODERN
steel plastic
Picasso Warhol
Pullman & Coach First Class & Economy
romance narcissism
pot roast vegan
FDR GWB
Hitler Hussein
Churchill Blair
Zionism Israel
USSR People’s Republic of China
consumption cancer
Gone With the Wind The DaVinci Code
drought flood
blizzard global warming
steak salad
beer lite beer
dessert No-Cal
tycoons CEOs
typewriters PCs
Off-Broadway Off-Off-Broadway
bebop rap
shoes sneakers
library Internet
epistles blogs
Gallo Pinot Noir
bourbon single malt
the Depression the 1990s
corner stores malls
Sinatra Eminem
farming agribusiness
slums projects
highways superhighways
Sears, Roebuck Wal-Mart
antiseptics antibiotics
heart attacks bypasses
concentration fragmentation
war terrorism

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Norman MailerNorman Mailer has won the National Book Award, two Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Foundation’s Award for Distinguished Service to American Letters. Nation Books has just published his latest work, written with his son John Buffalo Mailer: The Big Empty: Dialogues on Politics, Sex, God, Boxing, Morality, Myth, Poker and Bad Conscience in America.


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