TDL's MAN OF THE YEAR, 2008
TDL nominates Italian marxist Antonio Gramsci.
Who is Antonio Gramsci? The appropriate question is who was Antonio Gramsci. He died in 1937. Over 71 years after his death, however, his influence is ascendant. Heck, he helped elect the next president of the USA.
Gramsci was a marxist thinker who differed from the orginal marxists in one key way. Whereas men like Lenin believed that the lower classes would revolt against the upper classes when given some power in the form of arms, Gramsci posited that it was not just police and military (i.e. overt force of arms) that kept the lowly proletariat in its place. Instead, Gramsci theorized that an additional factor was at work- a factor which he dubbed 'cultural hegemony'.
'Cultural hegemony', in the definition of Gramsci, means simply that the upper classes have created a society and a system of values/morals which are supported by that society's institutions. These institutions include the church, education system, political system and media. Due to the institutions, the lower classes do not recognize that they are being oppressed- thus preventing their revolt.
Gramsci theorized that the proletariat would only truly revolt against the upper class once the 'cultural hegemony' instilled by the institutions was broken. The institutions of the upper classes would have to be infiltrated and the values they promulgated- regardless of merit- would have to be undermined. Once the institutions where undermined, a new system of values would be instilled in the public. These values would be in inherent conflict with the old values, which they would strive to destroy. Gramsci called this systematic takeover of institutions of capitalist society "the long march through the institutions". He recognized it could take decades.
Antonio Gramsci died in prison under Mussolini. To the Western world's everlasting detriment, the evil genius was not shot before he could put his HIV-in-writing to paper.
Eventually, a group of marxist theorists called the Frankfurt School came into possession of Gramsci's writings, which heavily influenced them. When the Nazis took over Germany, many of the Frankfurt school fled to the United States, where they were seeded in universities such as Columbia in New York. Undoubtedly they received funding and support from Soviet secret services. They also had support of influential Americans such as Edward R. Murrow, who was already in a very powerful position within the news media. Soon enough, Gramscians were seeded throughout the universities, where they used tenure as a means to protect themselves as they slowly promulgated their ideas.
The real coup, however, was the infiltration of the news media which began in the late 1950s through the mid 1960s. This was to be expected, as the Gramscians were teaching journalism students. In fact, the genius of the Gramscians was in infiltrating institutions without ever mentioning Gramsci's name or his theories. Soon, a whole generation of college graduates were inoculated with Gramsci's ideas- ideas specifically designed to bring about the downfall of society- without even knowing it. To these people, most of whom meant well, they were doing the moral and good thing. This persists today.
One needs only look objectively at what's going on today to see the success of Gramsci. For example, if one were to think of the opposite of 'Cultural Hegemony', the first things to come to one's mind would be 'Diversity' or 'Multiculturalism'. Today, Diversity and Multiculturalism are sacred cows beyond reproach or question in public, and they were invented by Gramscians in order to subvert Western institutions.
As we all know, 'diversity' and 'multiculturalism' as forwarded by the modern Left stand for the principles that anything that is of the Western male tradition is wrong and tainted by oppression, racism, and guilt. Diversity is sold to impressionable college students as a good thing because it exposes us to 'different perspectives', however it doesn't take a genius to see that those interested in diversity don't want to hear any viewpoints that differ from their own. 'Diversity', in fact, strives to create people all of the same perspective with different shades of skin.
The giant lie that is diversity is doggedly protected by the leftist intelligentsia, which cleverly hide its real intentions with the shield of 'racism'. To the left's foot soldiers- i.e. those who have been inoculated with the left's thought patterns but don't realize or understand how or why they're being used- anyone who attacks diversity is either uneducated or a horrid Nazi racist KKK member who would as soon murder 6 million people in ovens or lynch blacks. No one is allowed to consider that multiculturalism and diversity might be a bad thing for a country without a common ethnic identity like the United States. The fact is that multiculturalism and diversity were invented by academic marxists in order to destroy the United States as it existed by undermining the elements of common culture that drew us together- namely the concept of Western civilization. This is also why amongst universities it has been the trend to drop Western Culture core classes from the curriculum.
In any case, I credit Gramsci as being the man of the year for 2008 because his ideas leading to infiltration of our institutions have been so successful and nearly impossible to stop. Our news media, universities, and politics are rotten to the core. Just the fact that a lightweight such as Obama was even considered for election is proof enough.
Our institutions are thoroughly infected by leftists, most of whom don't even know they've been carefully manipulated by marxist maniacs. These people think they're fighting for equality and freedom, but in reality they are hastening the collapse of Western power and the downfall of our societies. This, after all, is what the ultimate goal of Gramsci was- the destruction of the West so that the perfect socialist Utopia could be created in its place.
Unfortunately for all of us, the socialist utopia will never come because it is impossible. Human nature assures that. Instead, the future will belong to those countries that have not been infected with Gramscism- ironically countries such as China. The Chinese pay lip service to Communism but really they are an ultra-nationalist fascist state. They need just sit back and let us kill ourselves, and then feed from our corpse.
I sigh as I see thousands of Europeans protest Israel for defending itself against unprovoked rocket attacks..... is there any hope for the West?
Who is Antonio Gramsci? The appropriate question is who was Antonio Gramsci. He died in 1937. Over 71 years after his death, however, his influence is ascendant. Heck, he helped elect the next president of the USA.
Gramsci was a marxist thinker who differed from the orginal marxists in one key way. Whereas men like Lenin believed that the lower classes would revolt against the upper classes when given some power in the form of arms, Gramsci posited that it was not just police and military (i.e. overt force of arms) that kept the lowly proletariat in its place. Instead, Gramsci theorized that an additional factor was at work- a factor which he dubbed 'cultural hegemony'.
'Cultural hegemony', in the definition of Gramsci, means simply that the upper classes have created a society and a system of values/morals which are supported by that society's institutions. These institutions include the church, education system, political system and media. Due to the institutions, the lower classes do not recognize that they are being oppressed- thus preventing their revolt.
Gramsci theorized that the proletariat would only truly revolt against the upper class once the 'cultural hegemony' instilled by the institutions was broken. The institutions of the upper classes would have to be infiltrated and the values they promulgated- regardless of merit- would have to be undermined. Once the institutions where undermined, a new system of values would be instilled in the public. These values would be in inherent conflict with the old values, which they would strive to destroy. Gramsci called this systematic takeover of institutions of capitalist society "the long march through the institutions". He recognized it could take decades.
Antonio Gramsci died in prison under Mussolini. To the Western world's everlasting detriment, the evil genius was not shot before he could put his HIV-in-writing to paper.
Eventually, a group of marxist theorists called the Frankfurt School came into possession of Gramsci's writings, which heavily influenced them. When the Nazis took over Germany, many of the Frankfurt school fled to the United States, where they were seeded in universities such as Columbia in New York. Undoubtedly they received funding and support from Soviet secret services. They also had support of influential Americans such as Edward R. Murrow, who was already in a very powerful position within the news media. Soon enough, Gramscians were seeded throughout the universities, where they used tenure as a means to protect themselves as they slowly promulgated their ideas.
The real coup, however, was the infiltration of the news media which began in the late 1950s through the mid 1960s. This was to be expected, as the Gramscians were teaching journalism students. In fact, the genius of the Gramscians was in infiltrating institutions without ever mentioning Gramsci's name or his theories. Soon, a whole generation of college graduates were inoculated with Gramsci's ideas- ideas specifically designed to bring about the downfall of society- without even knowing it. To these people, most of whom meant well, they were doing the moral and good thing. This persists today.
One needs only look objectively at what's going on today to see the success of Gramsci. For example, if one were to think of the opposite of 'Cultural Hegemony', the first things to come to one's mind would be 'Diversity' or 'Multiculturalism'. Today, Diversity and Multiculturalism are sacred cows beyond reproach or question in public, and they were invented by Gramscians in order to subvert Western institutions.
As we all know, 'diversity' and 'multiculturalism' as forwarded by the modern Left stand for the principles that anything that is of the Western male tradition is wrong and tainted by oppression, racism, and guilt. Diversity is sold to impressionable college students as a good thing because it exposes us to 'different perspectives', however it doesn't take a genius to see that those interested in diversity don't want to hear any viewpoints that differ from their own. 'Diversity', in fact, strives to create people all of the same perspective with different shades of skin.
The giant lie that is diversity is doggedly protected by the leftist intelligentsia, which cleverly hide its real intentions with the shield of 'racism'. To the left's foot soldiers- i.e. those who have been inoculated with the left's thought patterns but don't realize or understand how or why they're being used- anyone who attacks diversity is either uneducated or a horrid Nazi racist KKK member who would as soon murder 6 million people in ovens or lynch blacks. No one is allowed to consider that multiculturalism and diversity might be a bad thing for a country without a common ethnic identity like the United States. The fact is that multiculturalism and diversity were invented by academic marxists in order to destroy the United States as it existed by undermining the elements of common culture that drew us together- namely the concept of Western civilization. This is also why amongst universities it has been the trend to drop Western Culture core classes from the curriculum.
In any case, I credit Gramsci as being the man of the year for 2008 because his ideas leading to infiltration of our institutions have been so successful and nearly impossible to stop. Our news media, universities, and politics are rotten to the core. Just the fact that a lightweight such as Obama was even considered for election is proof enough.
Our institutions are thoroughly infected by leftists, most of whom don't even know they've been carefully manipulated by marxist maniacs. These people think they're fighting for equality and freedom, but in reality they are hastening the collapse of Western power and the downfall of our societies. This, after all, is what the ultimate goal of Gramsci was- the destruction of the West so that the perfect socialist Utopia could be created in its place.
Unfortunately for all of us, the socialist utopia will never come because it is impossible. Human nature assures that. Instead, the future will belong to those countries that have not been infected with Gramscism- ironically countries such as China. The Chinese pay lip service to Communism but really they are an ultra-nationalist fascist state. They need just sit back and let us kill ourselves, and then feed from our corpse.
I sigh as I see thousands of Europeans protest Israel for defending itself against unprovoked rocket attacks..... is there any hope for the West?
posted by The TDL News Team at 11:23 AM
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