I think the foundational assertion of a Modernist, and I am generalizing here, is that Truth is relative. [...]
I think that there's a lot of truth to all of this but the idea that the modernists have even a claim to "truth for oneself" is mistaken. They can take this position because it's tough to assert that somewhere deep in the subconscious of the "artist" there's something that rings true about Pile of Garbage XXVII, but it is quite clear that the "artists" didn't remotely believe in the ideas of nihilism and extreme skepticism that they claimed to have. If they did, they would have considered money no more important than an old sandwich wrapper and going through a red light rather than a green one as nothing more than an arbitrary choice. They wouldn't have survived for five minutes if they actually believed the irrational and nihilistic nonsense that they claimed was "true for them".
--Brian
