Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why There Is A Culture War - Gramsci and Tocqueville in America
Policy Review ^ | John Fonte

Posted on 04/21/2005 10:25:26 PM PDT by Peelod

http://www.policyreview.org/dec00/fonte_print.html

Why There Is A Culture War

Gramsci and Tocqueville in America

By John Fonte

As intellectual historians have often had occasion to observe, there are times in a nation’s history when certain ideas are just "in the air." Admittedly, this point seems to fizzle when applied to our particular historical moment. On the surface of American politics, as many have had cause to mention, it appears that the main trends predicted over a decade ago in Francis Fukuyama’s "The End of History?" have come to pass — that ideological (if not partisan) strife has been muted; that there is a general consensus about the most important questions of the day (capitalism, not socialism; democracy, not authoritarianism); and that the contemporary controversies that do exist, while occasionally momentous, are essentially mundane, concerned with practical problem-solving (whether it is better to count ballots by hand or by machine) rather than with great principles.

And yet, I would argue, all that is true only on the surface. For simultaneously in the United States of the past few decades, recurring philosophical concepts have not only remained "in the air," but have proved influential, at times decisive, in cultural and legal and moral arguments about the most important questions facing the nation. Indeed: Prosaic appearances to the contrary, beneath the surface of American politics an intense ideological struggle is being waged between two competing worldviews. I will call these "Gramscian" and "Tocquevillian" after the intellectuals who authored the warring ideas — the twentieth-century Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci, and, of course, the nineteenth-century French intellectual Alexis de Tocqueville. The stakes in the battle between the intellectual heirs of these two men are no less than what kind of country the United States will be in decades to come.

[more]

(Excerpt) Read more at policyreview.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: criticaltheory; culturewars; diversity; gramsci; longmarch; pc; politicalcorrectness; tocqueville
Tie these thoughts into B16's comments on the "dictatorship of relativism". B16 is a Tocquevillian. I suspect that he will be more aggressive than JPIIm in this cause. The American MSM will attempt to characterize him as a medieval advocate of a stratified, European aristocracy. The European MSM will probably take the National Socialist tack to discredit him. The Vatican PR machine will have them squealing in outrage.
1 posted on 04/21/2005 10:25:26 PM PDT by Peelod
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Peelod

BTTT


2 posted on 04/21/2005 10:34:08 PM PDT by swilhelm73 (Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. --Lord Acton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Peelod

Thank you!!! I have forwarded to all my contacts. Great find!


3 posted on 04/22/2005 1:04:09 AM PDT by wildcatf4f3
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: djreece

marking


4 posted on 04/22/2005 1:05:39 AM PDT by djreece ("... Until He leads justice to victory." Matt. 12:20c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Peelod

I'm pinging this for later. Too early, need more coffee!


5 posted on 04/22/2005 2:10:05 AM PDT by jocon307 (CVCVMELLA CAFEARIA CLAVSA EST)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Peelod

Is Gramsci still alive?.

Too bad if he is.


6 posted on 04/22/2005 5:13:00 AM PDT by x1stcav (Hooahh!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: x1stcav

No.

http://www.zabalaza.net/texts/anarchism_guerin/italy.html


7 posted on 04/22/2005 5:47:00 AM PDT by Peelod (Perversion is not festive)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson