AHC/WI: No Postmodernism

I fully realize that "postmodernism" is vague and ill-defined, with multiple conflicting definitions. What I mean by postmodernism is the intellectual and cultural tradition of pessimism and cynicism towards modernity which emerged in the twentieth century and continues to influence large segments of the humanities to this day. The intellectual movement which critiques or outright rejects all universalist ideas about objective reality, knowledge, science, reason, social progress etc.

So, with a point of departure no earlier than 1900, what could have prevented the rise in prominence of postmodernism?

I imagine a less bloody twentieth century may have helped (no world wars, no holocaust, fewer wars & genocides in general).

And without postmodernism, what would the intellectual landscape look like today?
 
Postmodernism thrives in universities and, in particular, those faculties (such as those of the humanities and social sciences) that lack strong connections to institutions involved in practical endeavors. (That is, postmodernism is more likely to thrive in departments of English or Philosophy than is departments of Engineering or Pharmacy.) Thus, one way to prevent the proliferation of postmodern thought would be to reduce the number and extent of such faculties.

For example, in the United States of our time line, the growth of such faculties was fostered by the movement, begun during the Great Depression, to greatly increase enrollment in high schools, which led to greater demand for high school teachers; the GI Bill of Rights, which greatly increased university enrollments after World War II; the National Defense Education Act, which, while aimed at the promotion of the natural sciences also provided a great deal of funding, both directly and indirectly, to other faculties; Selective Service policy, which made drove many who wished to avoid military service towards the universities; and the 1971 court case (Griggs versus Duke Power Company) that led to the widespread use of university degrees as a substitute for aptitude and intelligence tests in employment screening, thereby leading a large number of people who would not otherwise enroll in university to do so. So, if we eliminate any one of these contributors to the growth of faculties of the humanities and social sciences, we reduce the number of potential homes for postmodernism. Similarly, if we eliminate most of them, then we would find ourselves in a situation in which postmodern thought is, quite literally, homeless.
 
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