I HAVE often discussed why I completely reject the wildly reductionist notion of 'Cultural Marxism,' one of the Right's more dishonest attempts to make excuses for the multifarious ills of capitalist society, but whilst left-wing think-tanks such as the Frankfurt School clearly have a lot to answer for and, undoubtedly, played a crucial role in both the ideological formulation and eventual praxis of the Left during the course of the twentieth-century, it is far too simplistic to imagine - even for one moment - that there has ever been an unbroken chain of socio-cultural decay that is directly attributable to the Frankfurt School alone or to Marxists in general.
Yes. Cultural Marxism' is meaningless. Not even the most new Marxist would relinquish that the economy is at least equal in imprtance with other elements. Althusser, who dismised the early existentialist Marx of the early manuscripts, and was dominat in the European libertarian Marxists I knew or read from the mid 1970s, was adamant that the economic base was determinatn in the last instance. The fact that some Marxists became Post modrnist; and then some or many Postmodernists became woke is classic caese fo the undistributed middle if I understand the term? So maybe some Marxists lapsed or renounced Marx for wokism. But to call the woke social/justice revolution Marxist is nonsense. And then to lump Marxists with liberals...? To insist on clear definitions and logic in a practical debate is not pedantry - it is essential.
Yes. Cultural Marxism' is meaningless. Not even the most new Marxist would relinquish that the economy is at least equal in imprtance with other elements. Althusser, who dismised the early existentialist Marx of the early manuscripts, and was dominat in the European libertarian Marxists I knew or read from the mid 1970s, was adamant that the economic base was determinatn in the last instance. The fact that some Marxists became Post modrnist; and then some or many Postmodernists became woke is classic caese fo the undistributed middle if I understand the term? So maybe some Marxists lapsed or renounced Marx for wokism. But to call the woke social/justice revolution Marxist is nonsense. And then to lump Marxists with liberals...? To insist on clear definitions and logic in a practical debate is not pedantry - it is essential.