The Reenchantment of the World
- Julio Levit Koldorf
- Mar 4, 2017
- 1 min read
— The Diplomat in Spain
Julio Levit Koldorf traces the historical evolution from the decline of modern “Grand Narratives” in the 1970s to the current ideological vacuum defining the early 21st century. He situates the origins of Postmodernity in the disillusionment following economic crises, globalization, and the rise of neoliberalism under Reagan and Thatcher. This phase, marked by financialization, cultural fragmentation, and the erosion of the welfare state, reached its zenith after the Cold War, when global capitalism appeared triumphant.
Levit Koldorf argues that the crises of the 2000s—from 9/11 and the 2008 recession to China’s ascent and geopolitical realignments—exposed the exhaustion of the neoliberal order. The political rise of Donald Trump, he suggests, signaled the breakdown of postmodern paradigms and the reassertion of raw political power over market orthodoxy.
We now inhabit a transitional and dangerous phase, one beyond Left and Right, where truth itself has been replaced by narrative. In this new reality, politics is driven by media-mediated fictions rather than factual truth. Levit Koldorf warns that this narrative-based world, exemplified by UNESCO’s politicized denial of the Jewish bond to Jerusalem, marks a moral and epistemic crisis at the heart of the postmodern—and possibly transmodern—era.