Tocqueville vs Marx

Illuminating essay on the philosphical underpinnings of the current culture war in the West:

The slow but steady advance of Gramscian and Hegelian-Marxist ideas through the major institutions of American democracy, including the Congress, courts, and executive branch, suggests that there are two different levels of political activity in twenty-first century America. On the surface, politicians seem increasingly inclined to converge on the center. Beneath, however, lies a deeper conflict that is ideological in the most profound sense of the term and that will surely continue in decades to come, regardless of who becomes president tomorrow, or four or eight or even 20 years from now.

As we have seen, Tocquevillians and Gramscians clash on almost everything that matters. Tocquevillians believe that there are objective moral truths applicable to all people at all times. Gramscians believe that moral "truths" are subjective and depend upon historical circumstances. Tocquevillans believe that these civic and moral truths must be revitalized in order to remoralize society. Gramscians believe that civic and moral "truths" must be socially constructed by subordinate groups in order to achieve political and cultural liberation. Tocquevillians believe that functionaries like teachers and police officers represent legitimate authority. Gramscians believe that teachers and police officers "objectively" represent power, not legitimacy. Tocquevillians believe in personal responsibility. Gramscians believe that "the personal is political." In the final analysis, Tocquevillians favor the transmission of the American regime; Gramscians, its transformation.

While economic Marxism appears to be dead, the Hegelian variety articulated by Gramsci and others has not only survived the fall of the Berlin Wall, but also gone on to challenge the American republic at the level of its most cherished ideas. For more than two centuries America has been an "exceptional" nation, one whose restless entrepreneurial dynamism has been tempered by patriotism and a strong religious-cultural core. The ultimate triumph of Gramscianism would mean the end of this very "exceptionalism." America would at last become Europeanized: statist, thoroughly secular, post-patriotic, and concerned with group hierarchies and group rights in which the idea of equality before the law as traditionally understood by Americans would finally be abandoned. Beneath the surface of our seemingly placid times, the ideological, political, and historical stakes are enormous.

Reader HA at Roger L. Simon comments that:

Leftists have take to calling themselves "progressives." But what are they "progressing" towards? The answer is Gramscian Marxism. As a Gramscian propaganda organ, the only news that is fit to print at the NY Times is that which advances the Gramscian transformation process. All news that serves to transmit traditional American principles is unfit to print.

The Democratic party and the MSM have reach a point of absolute moral and intellectual corruption. By this, I mean that they no longer believe in, and will no longer participate in perpetuating the American political creed. They are actively opposing that creed and in its place they are advancing the Gramscian Marxist creed that is rotting out Europe. They are tearing America apart BY DESIGN and in accordance with the latest, state-of-the-art marxist theory. God help us all of they succeed.

American democracy is in serious trouble. All of our opinion forming organizations have been take over by Gramscian Marxists. The Democratic party and the MSM are organized around the principles of Gramscian Marxism and they are in the process transforming the rest of American society around these principles. If this process is not reversed, the consequences will be devestating, not only for America, but the whole world. America is the last best hope for mankind. If the transformation of American society along Gramscian principles continues, there will be no hope.

Let's not let this be a desperate rear-guard action, that staves off darkness for just a few more years. We must revive our patriotism -- pride not just of country but also of our Western culture -- and sense of exceptionalism whole-heartedly.

Re-embrace the classics.