Modernity is defined by an permanently unfinished, self-transcending orientation toward the unrealized

Evidence

Modern modality of being is characterized first and foremost by its endemic unfinishedness; by its orientation towards a state of affairs not yet in existence. To speak of modernity as an unfinished project is to commit a tautology. Modernity is by definition forever in the running, always (and incurably) not yet accomplished. What is “modern” about any project is precisely its being a step, or two, or a hundred steps, ahead of reality; what is “modern” about modernity is its built-in capacity to self-transcend, to push back the finishing line in the course of running, and so to bar itself from ever reaching it. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 430

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Bauman’s redefinition of modernity as constitutive ‘not yet accomplished’ negation — the very engine that feeds endless social reengineering, of which racial formation is a prime instance.
• XREF: Echoes and sharpens the vault’s framing of racial formation as an ongoing, never-completed process rather than a settled state. — connects to: Baudelaire defined modernity as half transient and half eternal — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 105; Ancient philosophical formation built universality from concrete experience; modernity finds it ready-made and truncated. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1016; Modernity’s future is a teleology already accomplished, at once open and closed — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1279 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 430