By David Truman
Herbert Marcuse was a member of the Frankfurt School which developed Cultural Marxism. [SEE SEPARATE ARTICLE What is Cultural Marxism?] In 1965 he produced an infamous essay “Repressive tolerance” in which he calls for the withdrawal of toleration of speech and assembly from groups and movements on the Right, and the aggressively partisan promotion of speech, groups, and progressive movements on the Left.
The tactic he spells out has become a defining text for today’s destructive Marxist left, complemented by Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” [See SEPARATE ARTICLE on Saul Alinsky.]
Sound familiar? We see exactly this all the time now on Australia’s totally left-controlled ABC, and in continual attempts by leftists in universities and elsewhere to deplatform conservatives. The tactic is running riot in the United States and much of the West. In Britain, the BBC is just as repressive as the ABC in refusing to air opinions that depart from the Left’s narrative. Look how the BBC “disappeared” David Bellamy.
Marcuse argued that Western society was radically repressive and therefore a tolerance for all viewpoints actually contributed to social oppression. He claimed a pervasive network of assumptions and biases implicitly privileges the viewpoint of the powerful, so that seemingly “equal” presentations of opposite opinions actually end up benefiting the viewpoint of the powerful.
Of course! That’s what a CULTURE is: shared beliefs, shared understandings, shared observances, shared values. Marcuse wanted to tear all that down.
Given their social programming, most inhabitants of a given society automatically favour certain values. So, Marcuse argued, the lack of a level ideological playing field means that seemingly equal presentations of ideas are not really equal.
His “remedy” was the withdrawal of toleration of speech and assembly from groups and movements which promote aggressive policies, armament, chauvinism [translation: national defence], discrimination on the grounds of race and religion [but not including discrimination against Christianity!], or which oppose the extension of public services, social security, medical care, etc. [Translation: more and more socialism and dependence on the Big State.] Moreover, he said that the restoration of freedom of thought may necessitate new and rigid restrictions on teachings and practices in the educational institutions which, by their very methods and concepts, serve to enclose the mind within the established universe of discourse and behavior — thereby precluding a rational evaluation of the alternatives from first principles. This is called brainwashing – which is happening throughout our schools and universities.
Marcuse’s CULTURAL MARXIST strategy
Andrew Breitbart sums it up thus:
Marcuse’s mission was to dismantle American society by using diversity and ‘multiculturalism’ as crowbars with which to pry the structure apart, piece by piece. He wanted to set blacks in opposition to whites, and set all ‘victim groups’ in opposition to the society at large. Marcuse’s theory of victim groups as the new proletariat, combined with Horkheimer’s critical theory, found an outlet in academia, where it became the basis for the post-structural movement – Gender Studies, LGBT/’Queer’ Studies, African-American Studies, Chicano Studies, etc.
All of these ‘Blank Studies’ brazenly describe their mission as tearing down traditional Judeo-Christian values and the accepted traditions of Western culture. [That is exactly what CULTURAL MARXISM is.] In their stead they place a moral relativism that equates all cultures and all philosophies–EXCEPT FOR Western civilization, culture, and philosophy, which are ‘exploitative’ and ‘bad.’”
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