Modernity can be defined by the widening orbit between powerful and powerless

Evidence

Roy’s radical, controversial move was to view the Indian government’s nuclear and hydrological hubris as two versions of a single mindset rather than divide them into a purely malign and a purely benign spectacle of modernity. Her conjoining of her antinuclear and antimegadam polemics suggests this explicit pairing can help shift our perspective on what qualifies as modernity. This—at least implicitly—is one alternative definition of modernity: “The orbits of the powerful and the powerless spinning further and further apart from each other.” — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 444

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The definition of modernity as the spinning apart of power orbits is a genuinely reorienting criterion that resists one-line summary and reconfigures how development is judged.
• XREF: connects to: Modernity’s ‘disenchantment’ is an ideology constructed by the powerful; Modernity is a deliberate power project, not a natural unfolding — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 375; Modernity’s reflexivity rests on cultural commitment and power, not pure reason — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 407 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Modernity’s ‘disenchantment’ is an ideology constructed by the powerful #complicates (0.82)
• Modernity’s admired and genocidal faces belong to one inseparable body #corroborates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 54
• Modernity is a deliberate power project, not a natural unfolding #corroborates (0.75) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 375
• Modernity’s global crises originate from structures that used the Other as instruments #complicates (0.75) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 470
• Modernity’s reflexivity rests on cultural commitment and power, not pure reason #corroborates (0.72) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 407
• Modern power gained force by moving from brute architecture to the subject’s own perception #complicates (0.72) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 315
• Postmodernity extends modernity’s egalitarianism to subaltern others #complicates (0.70) — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited, 506