Modernity is defined by its endemic, incurable unfinishedness.

Evidence

This last point needs particularly strong emphasis when the affinity between modern life and holocaust-type murder is pondered. Indeed, this point is crucial if one wishes to comprehend the true nature of modernity as modality of being rather than any particular, concrete state of affairs already constructed, projected or adumbrated. 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 on the run, always (and incurably) noch nicht geworden. 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 inbuilt capacity to self-transcend, to push the finishing line further on in the course of running, and so to bar itself from ever reaching it. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 650

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines modernity as a modality of being defined by self-transcendence and permanent unfinishedness, not any concrete state of affairs.
• DEEPTHINKING: The tautological definition that modernity is unfinished by nature, always noch nicht geworden, reframes modernity as orientation rather than achievement.
• XREF: connects to: Modernity consists in the destabilization of the subject, not mere progress; Modernity is best understood as compulsive, self-propelling modernization, not a completed state — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 651; Modernity’s core is an irreducible enigma that cannot be overcome — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 124 (+2 more)

Related

• Modernity consists in the destabilization of the subject, not mere progress (similarity 0.92)
• Modernity is best understood as compulsive, self-propelling modernization, not a completed state (similarity 0.86)
• Modernity is defined by an permanently unfinished, self-transcending orientation toward the unrealized (similarity 0.84)
• Modernity’s core is an irreducible enigma that cannot be overcome (similarity 0.82)
• Modernity is a universal maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal (similarity 0.81)
• Modernity’s fleetingness revives a longing for permanence, against which progress itself appears as self-annihilation (similarity 0.81)
• Modernity is the permanent urge to modernize, not a destination (similarity 0.80)
• Modernity is defined by the permanent compulsion to modernize, not by any achieved endpoint (similarity 0.79)
• The Holocaust is a possibility modernity contains, not its paradigm (similarity 0.79)
• Modern civilization was a necessary but not sufficient condition of the Holocaust. (similarity 0.79)
• Modernity’s ending is the loss of belief in human control over existence. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Modernity is best understood as compulsive, self-propelling modernization, not a completed state #expands (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 651
• Modernity’s core is an irreducible enigma that cannot be overcome #corroborates (0.80) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 124
• Modernity’s reflexivity makes its own rational grounds ultimately puzzling #expands (0.80) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 124