There's something interesting about the way intellectuals use 'post-'. We aren't able to describe what comes next in any terms other than it not being what went before.

I don't think capitalists spent much time discussing post-feudalism, and Marxists knew what was going to happen after capitalism.

Is this a sign of an overly self-referential society? I was really struck when the RSA declared a 21st century enlightenment. The new thing is the same as the old thing.

Post-liberalism is interesting too, although in think in that case the post- is an attempt to gloss over the illiberal aspects of this philosophy.

Basically: have we always done this, or is it a sign of our specific intellectual decadence?