Nov 3, 2020
On today’s episode of the Resistance Library Podcast Sam and Dave
discuss Antonio Gramsci and exactly what is
“Cultural
Marxism.”
You may have heard the terms
“Cultural
Marxism,”
“Critical
Theory” or
“Frankfurt
School” bandied about. And while you might have an intuitive
approximation of what these terms mean for America in the 21st
century, there’s a good chance that you don’t know much about the
deep theory, where the ideology comes from, and what it has planned
for America – and the world.
The underlying theory here is a variant of Marxism, pioneered by
early-20th-century Italian Marxist politician and linguist Antonio
Gramsci. Gramscian Marxism is a radical departure from Classical
Marxism. One does not need to endorse the Classical Marxism of
Marx, Engels and others to appreciate the significant differences
between the two. He is easily the most influential thinker that you
have never heard of.
Marx's original idea was that Communism was a historical
inevitability, an evolutionary transition that would lead to a
bottom-up eruption of revolutionary violence sparked by the
Proletariat’s frustration and fury over having been used and abused
by the Bourgeoisie for long enough that
“the
revolutionary subject”
(Marx’s
term for the broad working class) would overthrow capitalism and
usher in socialism.
Gramsci, on the other hand, held that such a revolution was
unlikely – particularly in the West, where general prosperity and
the lassitude of relative contentment would tend to dull the
working class’ passion for a bloody, bothersome overthrow. In
successful Western nations, a Marxist state was far more likely to
develop through a slow, patient process of incrementalist takeover
of the cultural institutions – the arts, entertainment, and news
media, and most especially the schools and universities. As such,
the weapon to be used for revolution was not the economic might of
an organized working class, but a
“long
march through the institutions”
(a
phrase actually coined by German Marxist Rudi Dutschke), whereby
every institution in the West would be subverted through
penetration and infiltration.
For Gramsci, culture was more important than either economics
or politics.
Gramsci’s divergence from Classical Marxism was nothing short of
brilliant; certainly, the results speak for themselves when one
considers the social unrest that is gripping America and the West
today. In a sense, we are living through the endgame of a Gramscian
revolution.
Throughout this article, we will use the term
“Cultural
Marxism” as a catchall to refer to this phenomenon, because it is
the most all-encompassing and does not limit us to discussing any
one specific variation
(Gramsci,
the Frankfurt School or what have you). Finally, we should briefly
echo the words of Dr. Jordan Peterson on
“the
bloody postmodern Neo-Marxists,” because he has helped raise
awareness of the phenomenon:
“It’s not obvious by any stretch of the imagination why
postmodernism and Neo-Marxism or Marxism proper would be aligned
because postmodernism is an anti-grand narrative philosophical
movement and Marxism is a grand narrative. The fact that these two
things seem to coexist in the same space needs some explanation,
because it’s a very tricky thing to get to the bottom
of."
Because Cultural Marxism is ideologically distinct from
postmodernism and deconstruction, we will not touch on either in
this article, though they certainly have been influential on the
international left.
You can read the full article “Cultural
Marxism's Origins: How the Disciples of an Obscure Italian Linguist
Subverted America” at Ammo.com.
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