top of page

Beyond Postmodernity: Questioning Everything, Creating Value Systems and Embracing Understanding

Prathamesh Kulkarni

Strap in because this will be a long one. Here, I will be combining three blog topics into one, and I can’t really split them since they run together. On a top level, we’ll be dealing with ultra-rationality, avoiding conformity, and how we can use that, taking examples and applications from my own journey in dealing with these topics.


To understand this, we need to first understand my overall behaviour in general. I have been an extremely logical person since childhood. Emotions weren’t really my thing. My whole thought process evolved into hyper-rational thinking. Then, I was exposed to science, and unlike other kids, I wasn’t into cartoons, I watched Nat Geo and Discovery, and my fun was reading encyclopedias, and world maps, and learning about animals. Funny enough, there was a point where I considered taking up zoology as a profession, but let’s keep that story for another time. The point is, I was always a nerd. That identity solidified even more in my college years. In school, I was an average kid, but during my college and university years, I became more conscious and was a topper throughout. But during this, emotions took a back seat. My “working with logic” strategy was working flawlessly. But I used that to become spiritual. Everything was going great, nerdy and grounded is a powerful combination.


Then came relationships, which turned my understanding of reality, logic, and strategy upside down. As I faced more and more reality with consciousness, I started realizing that my strategies were failing badly. That took me on a whole other tangent of understanding emotions and realizing them thoroughly. I became a more compassionate and empathetic person because of it. I could move in and out of conversations easily because of that understanding. But as that arc of understanding was finalizing, I started realizing two things: my core instinct and personality is that of a logical being. The more emotional I tried to be, the more it drained me. So, I understood that I could keep my logical part alive, all I had to do was blend in those emotional components to bring that equilibrium that was lacking.


Now that we’ve set some context, let’s get into the meat of the topic.


This logical thinking, combined with deep spirituality and years and years of nonstop thinking about psychology and philosophy, allowed me to understand the world, people, and the subtleties in nature. My appreciation and fascination with these concepts grew tremendously. What this allowed me to do was, accidentally or better yet, unintentionally, understand the concept of “Construct Awareness.” I started recognizing these “constructs” very early in my teenage years. The reason? I questioned everything. This eternal “why” was always in my mind. With each “why,” I went deeper into these “constructs.” I questioned Hindu culture, systems, and values, and then moved on to all other aspects one could think of. In a way, I felt like a rebel when it came to adopting Hindu traditions, at least to my parents. They didn’t force me and let me explore these questions. Thanks to them, I didn’t “conform” to any one idea. This made me extremely fluid in grasping knowledge, cultures, systems, and values. Who knew I was a postmodernist before I even understood the term, let alone its meaning?


This allowed me to approach the world in a non-judgmental way. For a normal person, I was both with them and in opposition. I was exploring topics and concepts in all shades, good, bad, and in-between. This helped me form my own value system. But then you might ask, why even stick to your own value systems? After exploring all possible paths, you have to choose one that aligns most with your soul. Some might say that not choosing is cooler than settling for a specific value. But here is where we transcend postmodernity. We logically analyze all pathways and settle for one, it gives grounding. The exact grounding that postmodernists lack. As I was exploring these concepts, I was climbing up the spiral dynamics stages.


So, what’s the conclusion? What exactly do I want you to do? I want you to ask questions. Question concepts. Explore the ways your “conformity” works and see if you can break free from those conformities. Create your own value systems, ones that feel right for you. It’s like a pendulum. You swing from conformity to non-conformity and back to conformity. The difference is that the initial was an unconscious version of conformity, which is not the case with the latter.


But all these exercises led me to become what I call a “Conservative-Liberal.” Let’s explore this with an example. I started exploring the idea of gender and sexuality early on but kept it on the back foot because I wasn’t ready to deal with all aspects of it, nor did I have enough data. In my master’s degree, I was exposed to a lot of LGBTQ communities. So here’s the gist and conclusion I came up with: After analyzing all the paths and concepts of gender, I am still on the side of conservatives. I still subscribe to the idea of “Man” and “Woman” as the only genders. But, there is a big but, I don’t reject LGBTQ just because I don’t subscribe to that concept. A postmodernist might question, “What is even a ‘Man’ or ‘Woman’?” In that regard, I am with them as well. But for my grounding, I chose to subscribe to the conservative narrative. I am the antithesis of people like Donald Trump, who impose the “Man” and “Woman” concepts with brute force.


A liberal would question me: Are you for or against LGBTQ? And suddenly, the water becomes muddy. But what I want to say is, that most people blindly take sides because it looks cool. There is stupidity involved. I want to question these so-called heterosexual people, have you ever given solid thought to what gender fluidity is? What does it mean to be queer? Have you explored that possibility yourselves? No, right? I have. We need to push hard and actually give it a try. What does it mean to be gay? I have given it a solid thought. I have even approached gay people, genuinely pushing my boundaries. I even tried getting the number of a trans woman I was attracted to. Did I? No. I was repulsed. But in that repulsion, I understood my heterosexuality and the struggles the LGBTQ community faces. This is just one example, and mostly I align with the conservative narrative being a liberal. I also realised for survival, we need to take sides. 


That is the true essence of hyper-rationality, to question everything, to experiment with everything, to be curious about everything, and then finally ground yourself in concepts and values that align most with you. But you know what? It really takes guts to explore. I remember the horror (not literal horror, but I was afraid) of approaching that trans woman. That boundary-pushing, that “let’s see what happens” behaviour, has taken me a long way in understanding psychology and philosophy.


This was an example, drastic, yes, but my way of explaining postmodernity, post-rationality, and grounding, is to go beyond postmodernity. If I wasn’t able to get the point across, I will improve on it in the future. It also means my thoughts are not clear enough.


Finally, what is the byproduct of all this mental gymnastics? A deep and thorough “Understanding” of people and reality. Of course not all reality in its truest form, but you start grasping reality in a completely different approach. And I think, exposure to things, people, culture plays a huge role in all this. Because every new thing will make you question the last thing and slowly and steadily all the puzzles start coming together. And when you make the full picture, that is the instant you reach “Understanding”. For example, have you really understood the concept of “Death”? What it means? What does it feel like? Have you touched it? Have you actualized it? Have you experienced it? I have spoken a huge deal in my other blogs about the concept of “Death”. 


I warn you, if you think all this thinking will give you a mental orgasm, that’s not the case. There’s a chance you might end up in limbo, a nihilistic void. That is why grounding is necessary, to subscribe to values that suit you. Otherwise, you’ll be left questioning everything and reaching nowhere, floating in space.


This blog was inspired by videos from my guru, Leo Gura. A lot of these concepts were borrowed from him, but I have added my journey to it. Also, I was not able to cover all the “Constructs”, my goal was to give a condensed version. Also if you felt some of these topics felt incomplete, I am sorry. 


Resources:


Recent Posts

See All

© 2024 by Prathamesh Kulkarni.

bottom of page