Modernism
Why everyone was secretly miserable in the 1920s
According to Modernist poet TS Eliot:
The ordered, stable and inherently meaningful world view of the nineteenth century could not, wrote T.S. Eliot, accord with ‘the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history.’.. rejecting nineteenth-century optimism, [modernists] presented a profoundly pessimistic picture of a culture in disarray.”
In other words...
Everything sucks. After World War I, many people (youth specifically) became disillusioned with the budding conventions in technology, rising population, growing profound changes in transportation, architecture, and engineering; a growing sense of mass markets often made individuals feel less individual and more alienated, fragmented, and at a loss in their daily lives and worlds.
disillusionment: dis·il·lu·sion noun \ˌdis-ə-ˈlü-zhən\ Definition of DISILLUSION : the condition of being disenchanted : to free from illusion; also : to cause to lose naive faith and trust
Pre-Modern World (e.g., Romantic, Victorian Periods)
Ordered
Meaningful
Optimistic
Stable
Faith
Morality/Values
Clear Sense of Identity
Modern World (early 20th century)
Chaos
Futile
Pessimistic
Unstable
Loss of Faith
Collapse of Morality/Values
Confused Sense of Identity and Place in World
Flight of the Conchords - I'm not crying
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great American Dreamer part 1