An Appreciation of a Postmodern Political Economy

What differentiates a postmodern political economy from a modern one? The modern political economy is defined by fixed geopolitical borders, an autonomous legal system, a societal narrative, and the evolved institutions necessary to secure these elements. The postmodern political economy is defined as a functional unit of human material existence engaged in rational optimization as expressed in a market and its purview which encompasses all products and services whose relative value is directly established by that market and is the effective range of its value calculus or currency/currencies and the narratives, conventions, and institutions necessary to ensure contract performance.
The actual result of each of these political economies resemble each other but the orientation of each differs enormously. Modern orientation is irrational and ad hoc. Postmodern orientation is rational, inscrutable, and systematic. They are different intellectual universes and they are in coincidence which causes much confusion. Even as the theoretical basis of the postmodern political economy comes into being, the narratives of the modern political economy are shown to be insufficient to conserve humankind and the universe in a satisfactory manner.
The essential difference between these two systems is their view of markets. Modern political economies consider markets incidental and temporary necessary evils to the good of the Triumph of Reason. Postmodern political economies consider markets the demiurge that creates order out of chaos. People who engage in market behavior do so in a manner of rational optimization to some end. That does not mean markets are rational. As any market maven will tell you, they do not always behave rationally. They are inscrutable.
Certain research points out that there appears to be deterministic chaos in the behavior of markets. That is no reason to write them off. That would be as hallucinatory to the human condition as considering the Invisible Hand of the market to be the hand of God. The reality is that existence is a shifting dynamic of order and chaos. Sometimes markets are models of rationality. Sometimes they're not.
The defining difference between these two lies in their intellectual cultures. The Grand Narrative of Western Civilization is in abeyance, having been found wanting in World War 1. It is inadequate to modern technology. The science that has replaced it is heuristic and ad hoc and unsatisfactory to the nature of the universe that it is in the process of uncovering. The intellectual culture of postmodern political economies holds narratives to be incidental strategies in game play. To repeat myself, these are different universes.
To engage in postmodern economics is to deny the Triumph of Reason as a human possibility and to accept the inscrutable nature of a reality forged from chaos. It is to consider society a system of individuals engaged in such tasks through the magic of markets and, like all federalist systems, subject to checks and balances.
This is a Great Age of Transition and while it is likely that we will lose our way, it is important that we keep our eyes on the prize of the greater good for the greater number while respecting human life and liberty,