Thank you for your reply. In its essence, the term ‘Cultural Marxism’ is a term of abuse that describes ‘Critical Theory’ the product of ‘The Frankfurt School’?.That ‘School’ was founded by Felix Weil, a millionaires son, and called the ‘Institute for Marxism’, that evolved into the ‘The Frankfurt School’ and its two most famous members Adorno and Horkheimer. See this portion of a review of the the Rolf Wiggerhaus book* :
The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories and Political Significance. By Rolf Wiggershaus. Trans. Michael Robertson Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994), 787 Pp.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8675.1995.tb00031.x
The question that seems to me as the most pressing is why not use the term ‘Critical Theory’ ? the most obvious answer is that this seemingly benign term lacks the propaganda potential of ‘Cultural Marxism’.
What is erased from this propaganda catch phrase is that Hegel and Freud were the other two thinkers, who were of equal import to both the eventual thought leaders Horkheimer/Adorno. On Adorno see:
Theodor W. Adorno: One Last Genius by Detlev Claussen
What Mr. Claussen makes crystal clear is Adorno’s opposition to the German student Leftists, who idolized him as a precursor, and looked to him for support. Adorno was an intellectual not a ‘revolutionary’ nor a ‘political subversive’ that that catch phrase ‘Cultural Marxism’ conjures ! For a useful introduction to the thought and career of Adorno that adds philosophical depth to Claussen’s biography :
The Melancholy Science: An Introduction to the Thought of Theodor W. Adorno by Gillian Rose
https://www.versobooks.com/books/1555-the-melancholy-science
My reply will not lay the question of ‘Cultural Marxism’ to rest, but it will add a necessary depth, to place this term in its proper historical/political context: as a propaganda device with which its users inflame the continuing debate, that has at its center the question of rhetorical/political legitimacy.
Regards
StephenKMackSD
*I’m looking at my copy, as I write this.
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‘Fluffy academic views of Marxism…’ Bravo! you are in the territory of Mr. Ganesh’s contemptuous, supercilious feuilletonism: though yours deserves special notice: a rancid poisoned bon bon.
As for the death camps, look to the Middle East’s only ‘Democracy’ and Israel’s open air Death Camp of Gaza! Or America’s genocide against Native Peoples: Benny Morris, in his notorious Haaretz interview, used this as his historical template, for dealing with the recalcitrant indigenous populations of Palestine. Consider the imprisonment of Asylum Seekers , who have guaranteed legal status, at America’s Southern Border. The separation of children from parents , advocated, but not used by Obama, and endorsed by Clinton. And the death of two of those children. America is ‘A Nation of Immigrants’ the title of a book by John Kennedy, now long forgotten in the politica present, in The United States of Amnesia!
In the historical wake of the Armenian Genocide, the Gulag, the Shoah, what ever happened to John Donne’s declaration of human solidarity: Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind ?
Your final sentence doesn’t deserve consideration nor comment!
Regards,
StephenKMackSD
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