Watching his staunch defence of Modernism, I'm left wondering to what extent my own ideas appear to be reactionary--by proclaiming Modernism to be obsolete, do I appear to be turning back to some previous principle--to Romanticism, for instance?

In my case, what I find most striking about intellectual discourse today is that everyone seems to assume that all political options and stances must fall into some point on the spectrum of right to left. Similarly, no one can see anything after modernism--you can't go forward from where we are, you can only wallow in postmodern regurgitation, or indulge in romantic yearning for some Arcadian society of the past. Brin often comments on how similar the positions of the far right and far left are; that's because both Right and Left are romantic movements.

So, here's our apparent choices:

• Move to the right.
• Move to the left.
• Remain Moderns.
• Go back to something else. (Either through the postmodern xeroxing of old tropes, or through spasms of romanticism, such as Nazism.)

No one--not even Brin--is suggesting that there might be a way forward. In his own way, he is being conservative: he is advocating that we stay the course, that we cleave to the proven principles of the Enlightenment and rationalism. I don't disagree; but I don't believe we should be cleaving to those principles as a defensive action against the tearing hands of the irrationalist mob, nor do I believe that we are at the summit of human potential and need only protect our position. On the contrary, I think it's time that we started to articulate what our next creative step is going to be. If all you're doing is treading water you'll eventually be dragged under. We have to build on the enlightenment and go forward, rather than staying where we are or going back.

It's probably too soon to be saying this. We are so thoroughly immersed in our time, as a culture, that it's literally unthinkable to most people that something else might follow us. Hence the tendency to paint everything in terms of right and left, modern or reactionary; we live in a kind of flatland where those are the only dimensions we are aware of.

I applaud David Brin for torpedoing the outrageous lies of the left and the right, and for his defense of the Enlightenment values that have given us nearly everything we count as worthwhile today. While we're doing that, though, let's start admitting the possibility that there might be other dimensions--something new built upon the foundations of Modernity rather than previous models--because until we find a new way to move forward, we're just going to keep fighting these old battles over and over again.

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