To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world -- and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.
Here, Berman explores the breathtaking complexity of modern living. He explains that modern living is exciting because it is constantly changing. This constant change promises us all that Berman describes—adventure, power, and transformation. If one is to truly live a life of modernity, then these promises are essential. One cannot truly live in the modern age if they are not willing to chase adventure, explore new avenues, and grow and transform in response to modern stimuli. As Berman notes, however, a modern existence is complex; it is a give-and-take existence. Just as modernity has the potential for exploration and growth, it also has the potential to destroy everything we know—and with it, destroy our very selves. In this way, Berman suggests that, if one wants to truly live a modern life, they must walk the line carefully because modernity has a potential danger to destroy everything we know to be true, right, and just.
There is a mode of vital experience -- experience of space and time, of the self and others, of life's possibilities and perils -- that is shared by men and women all over the world today. I will call this body of experience "modernity."
Modernity is, without a doubt, one of Berman’s primary themes of concern. He spends much of the novel exploring the complexity of modernity and modern living. Here, he offers readers a baseline understanding of his definition of what modernity precisely means. For Berman, modernity is the shared collection of experiences that all men and women undergo together. In this way, modernity is a living term, one that changes with these experiences and is defined by the way humans share experiences differently. In other words, Berman simply defines modernity as the constant ebb and flow of human experience.
To be modern is to live a life of paradox and contradiction.
In this quotation, Berman continues to explore the complexity of modernity. He explains that modernity is a difficult experience to define, due to its paradoxical nature. He references bureaucratic systems in relation to modernity and offers this system as evidence for the paradoxical nature of modern living. He suggests that modern living is contradictory because modern peoples are easily overpowered and controlled by bureaucratic organizations that have the power to destroy lives, but yet are undeterred in our ability to stand up to these brutal forces and fight for our beliefs. To be modern, Berman argues, is therefore complex, because modern living entails an adhesion to both sides of these coins; to be both controlled and the controller.
Faust’s unfinished construction site is the vibrant but shaky ground on which we must all stake out and build up our lives.
Throughout the course of his book, Berman assesses and critiques the works/ideologies of other great philosophers and authors. Here, Berman focuses on Faust specifically. In this short quotation, he both commends and criticizes Faust. He suggests that Faust’s constructions and ideologies lay a wonderful base-level groundwork for philosophy and living. In other words, Faust’s most basic ideas are a great foundation upon which we begin to build up and live our own lives. However, Berman argues, Faust’s more complex ideas break down and become a bit “shaky.” In other words, these more complex ideas are not to be trusted and we should not base our lives off of them. In short, Berman uses this quotation to suggest that we should challenge ourselves to consider where we fit in the puzzle of life. He urges us not to take other people’s beliefs at face-value; he wants his readers to take a hands-on role in their own construction.
