I think many of us here have the sense that things are starting to break our way; that the decades-long Gramscian march of anarchist and leftist ideologues through our institutions has at last begun to stimulate widespread disgust — and not a little fear — in the body politic. Signs are appearing that Gramsci was wrong; that cultures are more resilient than he imagined. By occupying a society's institutions, the Gramscian ideologues dominate only the institutions. The underlying society in fact does not follow. A culture may appear to be following, in the same way that Iraqis could be made to chant, "We redeem you with our blood, O Saddam" — but only so long as sufficient institutional power is arrayed against them. But this is thuggery. It is despotism. It is not capturing the "hearts and minds" of anyone. We could expect disgust with the societal effects of Gramscian culture-meddling to be distributed on a bell curve, as most things involving large populations are. Those of us who gravitate toward forums like Free Republic are outliers; most of us have been disgusted for years by the erosion of even common human decency in the society we call 'home.' What your essay hints at, and what I think we all sense, is that conditions in the society are now moving up the steep slope of the bell curve. The level of digust, and the fear of what is so obviously coming if this continues, is rising very rapidly in the culture as a whole. For the first time, Gramscians are seeing parallel institutions forming to counter those they have so successfully occupied. Many of these are still small, almost lone voices crying in the wilderness. But others are becoming quite powerful, attracting huge followings. More significantly, this resistance and digust is no longer coming only from the devoutly religious, a segment that until now the Gramscians have successfully contained and marginalized. Now the engineers of a 'better society' are facing very large swaths — apparently approaching a majority — of the underlying culture that is disgusted with what is happening and fearful of where it leads. It might be time to erect a monument to Gramsci, perhaps a 50-foot bronze statue on the Washington mall. We're going to need something symbolic to tear down when this reign of quiet terror that is "political correctness" ends. |
First rate piece. Thank you.