Posted on 09/05/2002 4:07:07 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Just how do you go about attempting to change a culture which has apparently been inextricably interwoven with Christianity for some 2000 years? Gramsci recognized that it would be necessary to do so before the Marxist-socialists could have any hope of instituting their “New World Order.” (No, President George Bush and Brent Scowcroft did NOT invent that term!)
Before Antonio Gramsci, the traditional Marxist-Leninist attitude had been hostile to all non-Communist organizations, even though those organizations might, themselves, be considered leftist such as trade unions, socialist groups, etc. Gramsci’s methods have brought about a very broad coalition of such diverse groups as “civil rights ” organizations, radical feminists, internationalists, homosexuals, radical environmentalists, anti-police agitators, a bewildering assortment of ultra liberal church groups of many different faiths, etc. Working together these disparate elements have formed a united front working to transform our once solidly Judeo-Christian culture into a mere shadow of its former self.
Gramsci taught that they must achieve a “cultural hegemony” even before achieving governmental power. He believed that Marxists must win the hearts and minds of people without their knowledge.
He went further and told the Communists that they must abandon their idea of class hatred and work to win over elements in the very bourgeois classes that they wished to subvert. He described this as “the absorption of the elites of the enemy classes.” He recognized that by recruiting the best and brightest of their enemies, they would not only gain new strength for their side, but would at the same time deprive the bourgeois societies of their natural leaders.
To achieve these ends, Gramsci admonished the Communists that, in order to gain mastery over the thinking of great masses of people it would be necessary for them OR THEIR SYMPATHIZERS to gain control over the very foundational organs of culture. These organs include churches, education institutions, newspapers, magazines, literature, the visual arts, music, etc. He could not, in the 20's, have foreseen that a tremendous weapon such as television and all the electronic media would come along to aid in the control of people’s minds.
He pointed out that you would not have to control ALL the information available to a people if you could gain control over the minds which would be interpreting and disseminating that knowledge. Once that had been achieved, he said, people would no longer be able to fully comprehend the arguments of the opponents to socialism and Marxism. The world we see today gives silent testimony to the correctness of his precepts.
The steps necessary to achieve his “cultural hegemony” were diverse but all aimed at undermining our traditional culture. Traditional church teachings were gradually transformed at the seminary level into “social justice” and ideas of “equality” until worship became entertainment and age-old doctrines were modernized to the point of irrelevancy. Our entire educational establishment was attacked, starting at the teacher college level, to “dumb down” the educational process with curricula which were slanted toward socialism and internationalism and with “standards” dramatically reduced or eliminated altogether. The mass media were to be turned into instruments of mind control of the masses and for discrediting all traditional institutions and their leaders. All morality, decency and the age-old virtues were disparaged endlessly. Theologian Harold Brown wrote that culture becomes a means of “destroying ideals and ... presenting the young not with heroic examples but with deliberately and aggressively degenerate ones.” Our greatest leaders: presidents, soldiers, explorers, thinkers, etc. are depicted as having been racist or sexist or Fascist. Our modern youth are presented with an assortment of socialist charlatans, leftist movie celebrities, rock stars, degenerate and incompetent “artists,” and the like as the people they should look up to and emulate.
Marriage and the family are continually under attack. The traditional family is held up to ridicule as being a plot by men to dominate women and children. More and more our press tells us that the state must “protect” children from their uncaring or violent parents. Thus the family, the most basic building block of a cohesive society is being destroyed so that the state may take its place. Government taxation policies enpoverish the traditional family while they subsidize the elevation of extra-marital heterosexual and even homosexual unions. Even the word “family” is gradually being replaced in our mass media with the indeterminate word “household.”
Finally, our entire system of law in this country has been gradually changed from being based on English common law and on biblical Christian principles to being based on the personal criteria of unelected federal judges. The principle of “stare decisis,” meaning that prior precedents are used in deciding new cases, has been largely abandoned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Revolutionary change in the interpretation of the Constitution has become so commonplace that our people no longer pay much attention. Where or when the Court cannot re-interpret or distort the clear meaning of the Constitution, it is simply ignored.
Does all of this mean that all hope is lost and that we should all simply give up and accede to the loss of our God-given freedoms? Absolutely NOT! In our next column, we will address the question of just how we can all work to re-establish the United States, as envisioned by our Founding Fathers, before it is too late.
That was prophetic. And it worked. How many do we have today who can't tell the differences between communism, socialism, and fascism?
I'd wager that 1 in 20 on the streets could correctly differentiate between them.
I hope you'll post that one too.
In reality, it was the Communists above all others who prevented revolution in Spain. Later, when the Right Wing forces were in full control, the Communists showed themselves willing to go a great deal further than the Liberals in hunting down revolutionary leaders.There has never been a truly communist government and never will be.[Snip]
Between the Communists and those who claim to stand to the Left of them there is a real difference. The Communists hold that Fascism can be beaten by alliance with sections of the caitalist class (the Popular Front); their opponents hold that theis manoeuvre simply gives Fascism new breeding-grounds. The question has got to be settled; to make the wrong decision may be to land ourselves in for centuries of semi-slavery.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b555c262d74.htm
Actually he (Gramsci) never recognized that at all! He was simply parroting the 18th century French Philosophe Jean Jacques Rousseau who imagined that he alone had deciphered, and understood, nature's rules of human behavior. The writings of Rousseau heavily influenced Marx, Ingels, and many others, over the years.
Beyond that, this is a FINE article and a GREAT find!
Thanks for posting it!
Regards.
You are quite correct but he did not come up with that on his own Rousseau had said those things LONG before!
That is the ONLY point I was trying to make.
My Rousseau is limited...where does he say this? Discourses on Origin of Inequality?
To be PERFECTLY honest with you I would have to find it myself but I DO know he advocated, that in order for one to be PROPERLY educated, one's mind must be first freed of such petty (to him) distractions as family and faith.
I will attempt to find more direct citations when I find time.
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