***focus on Marx’s social critiques rather than his economic theories
-claim that social structures cause the systemic oppression of minority groups
-their critiques center on race, sex, and gender, rather than economic class
2008 financial crisis:
-Marx’s economic theories returned to prominence and combined with the Cultural Marxist theories are part of the American political and cultural movements today
-Marx pushes for making every person equal economically but focus has changed to his cultural theories instead
-Cultural Marxism is more for genuine human liberation from all the constraints of the past
-complete destruction of Western country
-Socialism is a discredited construct
-Socialism is not appealing model
-but Marxists went into academia to take over promotion of Cultural Marxism
1950’s goal was how to make Marxism friendly:
-Orthodox Marxism is rejected
-Marxism was looked at as junk science,
Marxist Humanist:
-Erich Fromm (member of the Frankfurt School 1900-1980)
-can’t argue that capitalism doesn’t produce goods-economically
-capitalism is inferior because it alienates human beings from their true humanity
-Marxist Humanism is a social critique on capitalism and laid aside the economic parts of Marxism
Critical theory:
-Frankfurt School in Germany in the 1920s on
-influenced Marxist thought attempt to modify and/or add to it
Frankfurt School:
Influencers:
- Max Horkheimer 1895-1973 institute for social research
-Theodor Adorno 1903-1969 musicology
-Eric Fromm psychoanalyst
-Herbert Marcuse 1898-1979 philosopher
-they engage in a new kind of research
-why did the Soviet Union become so oppressive?
-Why does Communism lose the battle against fascism in the streets?
-in these modern western nations the workers have been bought off
***combine Marxism and Freudian study of the mechanisms of oppression
-How do you get someone to work all day long?
-not by coercion or necessity, but there are psychological measures that can be taken to indoctrinate of the workers in society
-root of morality has deceived masses captivated by the myth of success even more than the successful are
-ideology that enslaves them
***add in Freudians like Wilhelm Reich (Austrian Psychoanalyst 1897-1957
-he thought the solution would be the critical theory becomes a political theory philosophy
-designed to preserve the current power structures,
-those current power structures that exploit sub-groups compared to other groups
Demonize life under Capitalism:
-alienation occurs
-people are divorced from community
-liberalism was involved in social planning
-destroyed spontaneous creativity that was part of human nature
Western liberalism-1950-1960
-economically it was a dehumanizing existence,
-portrayed working and being tired by the time
ex. you get home and too tired even for sex so attacked this way of robotic way of life
Marcuse; Eros and Civilization:
-argues against the just work day
-and then “white privilege” vs. the wretched of the earth
-the oppressed 3rd world peoples of color
-women oppressed by the patriarchy
-oppressed by gender
-advocates polymorphism diversity to overthrow the old social morays
Marcuse and Critical theory in applications:
-legal studies in the 1970’s
-politics in the 1980’s-90’s
-1930’s transgender operations experimented in Germany, John Hopkins changes men into women ran by Cultural Marxists
-influenced Christine Jorgensen (U.S. Transgender Activist 1926-1980
-Marcuse came to the US
-he worked within the CIA
-he became an important figure in our government
-then went on to become a famous university professor
-writing books on Cultural Marxism
-cut sex off from anything to do with stability, order, or tradition
-women complete separation from man
-complete separation from morality
-complete separation from religion
***critical theory = free female body-put motherhood in a test-tube
-looked at which groups are the ones that wield power
-and which ones are the oppressed
-and how can we change those power dynamics
“Equality of right under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the united states or by any state on account of sex”
-this was peddled in academia
-Liberalism is the the what we know to be Marxism
-also known as Cultural Marxism
-the way of criticizing the culture of western liberal society
-looks back at humanistic writings of Marcuse
Critical Theory, Poststructuralism, Postmodernism, Sociological Relevance:
-not just economic science in s socialist country, but critique of western liberalism on humanist grounds
-feminist women’s liberation-patriarchal oppression is economic oppression
-more fundamental than class oppression
***all modern radicals today, want to talk about class oppression, how large corporations have too much power, involved in the oppression of workers, and priorities that and genderism
-no longer economical but Cultural Marxists are about relationships
-everything is fluid
-promotes sexuality outside of heterosexuality and marriage
***principal idea of Cultural Marxism is unlike the political changes that are required by older orthodox Marxists is to change society at the level of culture, so you start from the private
***the schools instead of revolutionary violence (ex. Marxist student federation)
Critical Race Theory (CRT):
Defined:
-not socio-economic classes but in terms of race and gender, struggle between whites and blacks which is the primary reality of the American experiment that everything that has happened in terms of the adoptions of the institutions in the united states from its founding to today has been intended to keep down the black and brown people and take advantage of them by white people and similarity to have men take advantage of women in the patriarchy
-generation of younger teachers-public schools-this is their worldview
-all of life and all of history and all of society in strictly involved in a power struggle
-those power struggles needed to be changed
World Health Organization (WHO):
-WHO: diversity, equity, and inclusion needs to be pushed in schools, corporations, military, and workplaces
-goal to raise Marxist consciousness
-promotion of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
-implement DEI in your classrooms and libraries
-lectured and nudged and performance judged through this lens
***DEI goals is Marxist Cultural Ideology
-educated in CRT that their goal is to fundamentally change socio-economic relations in the US to change those power rules and relations
-every version of Socialism has that utopia outcome in the end
-a more just and better world is the goal
-the only way to achieve that better world and goal is through massive application of government power
***the utopian promises they are making is a substitute religion as it provides a sense of meaning and purpose to the children of the upper middle class and the wealthy, but it falls hallow, there is no real transcendence
-promise of Marxism is you will be free from oppressive moral restraints
-latest attempt at socialism
Ex. “You can't have capitalism without racism.” Malcolm X
“The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and racism” Dr. King Jr.
Workers World Party:
“Forced motherhood is female enslavement”
“Get our tiny hands off my reproductive rights”
The Marxist voice of labour and youth-socialist appeal
Marxism reignites with the financial crisis in 2008:
-capitalism will make everyone wealthy but with the crash Marxism remerges
-economists: fundamental critique on capitalism that it led to monopolies as proven true
-one problem with the free market is it becomes an end of itself so growth in wealth will match growth in happiness but don’t clarify who are going to get wealthy and that the wealth will then trickle down to all
Milton Friedman (1912-2006):
-we don’t need to prosecute anti-trust anymore, the only trust that should be broken apart is the labor unions
Robert Bork (US Attorney General 1973-1974)
Alan Greenspan (Chairman of the federal reserve 1987-2006)
-late 70’s under Reagan in the 80's-rise of finance capitalism
-creation of monopolies in every sector of the American economy
Older Generation and Founding Fathers: B
claims they made against the British:
-the British had restricted them in certain fundamental rights through the creation of monopolies
-restricted the colonies as means of resources for production that would benefit their country
-Question is why real wages had not increased for average American
-Question is the divide between the have and have-nots
-the divide between the 1% and the 99% had gotten larger
Drastic economic change 2008:
-millennials had never lived through a crisis like this before
-they started seeing their parents losing their jobs, homes, etc…
-unleashing of dissatisfaction of the economic system
-takes form during the occupy wall street movement
-Marx argued that capitalism would tend to the growth of monopolies
What is an antitrust?
Antitrust laws prohibit business practices that could lead to higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation. The goal of antitrust laws is to keep markets competitive and ensure that businesses play fair.
State governments may also enforce their own antitrust laws for commerce that occurs within their state's borders
The enforcers are the Federal Trade Commission
Department of Justice unable to enforce antitrust:
-usual defense of the monopolies is they provide good and services solely for profit and it is government that is bad and government needs to get out of business
-problem with that is the businesses and corporations and government are the same entity
Google is the government, Facebook is the government
Marx prediction:
-governments use the monopolies as platform to control speech and censor dissonance
2008 Bailouts:
-who was bailed out after the great recession in 2008?
-Obama pushed for bank rescues
-JP Morgan and Saks bailed out
-no average American no reprieve
-no bail out jobs for average person
-power of Orthodox Marxism has been shown and probably will never go away
-Marxism has infiltrated international commerce
Rise of Democratic Socialism:
-Bernie Sanders and AOC has become the buzzword
-get to a society that will emulate those socialist economic aspects
-vest more control over economic decisions, what gets built, what doesn’t
-but the flip side of Socialism is deprivation of individual freedom
-it is an idea that sounds good, but is unworkable and full of all kinds of injustice (ex. United voices of the world)
-UVW: members-led, campaigning trade union of migrant & precarious workers
***Marxism leads to totalitarianism as it views society as fragmented by different classes that have no obligations to morality or justice to one another
-Marxism in one way is very persuasive because it address questions : divide between the few and the many (Aristotle)
-Marxism is so appealing because of the radical inequalities of wealth that are being disputable today
-how can you defend mere capitalism if it leads to the destruction of the family because it opens up a market for every form of degradation that helps destroy the family
Libertarian:
-libertarian position that was adopted by conservatives in the 80's when we introduce all the things that intend to destroy the family where the state has to come in and play a role that the family used to play
-you can’t defend the order model of family if you adopt a libertarian agenda
founders had the answers to this dilemma:
James Madison
Federalist 10: the threat to any political regime is faction
Faction:
-is a real problem because you have citizens who no longer see one another as deserving the same natural rights under the law or under the civil law
-founders designed a system where they wanted to multiply the interest groups in society as well as to expand the republic
-we are not talking about a society that is so fragmented that it has nothing in common
-Madison is clear you want to have all kinds of interests in your political order but you need to have some things in common
John Jay:
Federalist 2:
-describes that you have common people, rooted by same ethnicity, use a common language, have the same religion,
***point is if you need people to sign up and even die then you need them to have something in common that is more important than life itself, one united people, one united heart in a country, attached to same design of government, similar in manners and customs, joint arms, councils, and efforts fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war to gain their liberty and independence
Founders:
E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one)
-states very different from each other but needed to form one identity
-difference in property ownership, wealth, etc…
-there was a certain natural law that they could appeal to certain view of ethics and morality that world inform the citizens
John Adams:
-what breaks the cords of our constitution made by moral and religious men?
-the founders looked at the potential of faction and knew they needed to deal with it
-Marx looked at the modern regime and all he saw was the faction
-the thing the founders found to be a problem and tried to control into the future where Marx wanted to take it and run with it to lead us to a global society
***core of the constitution republic established by the founders VS. Marxist classless society
-both seek to fundamentally address the issue of faction and class divides
-the question is which will prevail? the founders or Marx? Can faction be subordinated to the common good for all the members of a society
-can the rights of all be protected by a government that preserves liberty
-or was Marx right that class conflict was a historical inevitability that all societies is merely a constantly shifting power dynamic of oppressor and oppressed
***the irony for all these socialists is that the goals they are trying to achieve can actually be achieved through liberty through simple economic political freedom
-American founders believed if you stress the rights of citizenship and they were informed by the right ethical moral political teaching that you can stave off class divides that Marx assumed would be part of every single society
***what we observe is that every time we actually go with true liberty where it is up to each one of us individually what we make of ourselves that there is a remarkable triumph of human energy and human ingenuity that leads us to creating a better society
-we are in a situation where we are following Marx’s guide to try to overcome or abolish human nature and it is not going to work for us anymore than it did for Stalin
-there will be a reassertion of natural inclinations and instincts of human beings
-the most brutal repressive wildest utopian schemes are Marxist
-Communism failure of the Communists experiment shows that the more decisions government takes from people the less freedom they have
-liberty inevitably leads to a better society
-actual Socialism denial of private property and rights doesn't work economically and produces human misery in every other way
***Socialism, Marxism, and Communism is always fundamentally the negation of liberty