Yesterday 02:31 AM
(This post was last modified: 5 hours ago by C C.)
Well, this is a twist. Usually it is the political right that depicts the umbrella category of Neo-Marxism in a conspiratorial context. Routinely denoted by its use of the pejorative term "Cultural Marxism".
But here it is the opposite of a left oriented philosopher (Gabriel Rockhill) asserting that the Frankfurt School was in league with or a tool of national security agencies in the United States. Part of a deliberate plan to undermine and dilute classic Marxism or communism.
If nothing else, this is a refreshing balance. Both traditional collectivists and traditional capitalists are separately projecting their inferences of stealthy intrigue upon 20th-century literary intellectuals and current humanities departments. A break from the usual one-sided monotony.
And nice to know that advocates of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" might still be about, hoping to topple the bourgeoisie elite.
Although there is little chance of recovering the proles from MAGA, since the only viable candidates with a shot at election are just more of those non-revolutionary or betraying Reformists belonging to organizations with "democrat" or "democratic" appended to their socialism-named clubs (like NYC-DSA).
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Which Way, Western Marxism? (review)
https://dissentmagazine.org/article/cult...rt-school/
EXCERPTS: [...] Gabriel Rockhill’s Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?, by contrast, offers a left-wing inversion of the right-wing conspiracy, in which the prominence of the Frankfurt School is explained as the result of a plot to destroy truly revolutionary (“Eastern”) Marxism.
[...] Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? starts from a wholly incorrect premise and does not improve from there, arguing that Western Marxism is a deviation from true dialectical and historical materialism. “Since it has not been possible to simply eliminate Marxism,” Rockhill writes, “due to its broad public appeal, clear explanatory power, and proven ability to transform the socioeconomic order, the managers of bourgeois society have been faced with the dilemma of how best to deal with its existence.”
[...] Let us take this claim as seriously as possible. After all, there was a conspiracy of sorts. [...] There were, relatedly, a number of real connections between the Frankfurt School scholars and the U.S. national security state.
[...] But the book’s strong version of this thesis—that the Frankfurt School’s prominence is the result of a deliberate conspiracy to advance Frankfurt thinking as an alternative to successful, revolutionary Marxism—doesn’t come close to being sustained by the book.
[...] But when he tries to argue that the OSS-CIA-Rockefeller patronage network (which “served the interests of the world’s leading imperialist state while traducing communism”) is the reason that the Frankfurt School version of Marxism became so prominent, he does fall into conspiracy, seemingly unable to read evidence in context.
[...] Rockhill is angry that Adorno appeared in the CCF magazine Encounter in 1969. But what appears there is the translation of an interview Adorno granted to Der Spiegel, and there is no evidence that Adorno even approved it.
[...] Rockhill’s infelicitous interpretation of evidence is systemic, driven by his inability to imagine that someone might have principled objections to Soviet communism. ... Here and there, Rockhill has found interesting documents... (MORE - details)
But here it is the opposite of a left oriented philosopher (Gabriel Rockhill) asserting that the Frankfurt School was in league with or a tool of national security agencies in the United States. Part of a deliberate plan to undermine and dilute classic Marxism or communism.
If nothing else, this is a refreshing balance. Both traditional collectivists and traditional capitalists are separately projecting their inferences of stealthy intrigue upon 20th-century literary intellectuals and current humanities departments. A break from the usual one-sided monotony.
And nice to know that advocates of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" might still be about, hoping to topple the bourgeoisie elite.
Although there is little chance of recovering the proles from MAGA, since the only viable candidates with a shot at election are just more of those non-revolutionary or betraying Reformists belonging to organizations with "democrat" or "democratic" appended to their socialism-named clubs (like NYC-DSA).- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Which Way, Western Marxism? (review)
https://dissentmagazine.org/article/cult...rt-school/
EXCERPTS: [...] Gabriel Rockhill’s Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?, by contrast, offers a left-wing inversion of the right-wing conspiracy, in which the prominence of the Frankfurt School is explained as the result of a plot to destroy truly revolutionary (“Eastern”) Marxism.
[...] Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? starts from a wholly incorrect premise and does not improve from there, arguing that Western Marxism is a deviation from true dialectical and historical materialism. “Since it has not been possible to simply eliminate Marxism,” Rockhill writes, “due to its broad public appeal, clear explanatory power, and proven ability to transform the socioeconomic order, the managers of bourgeois society have been faced with the dilemma of how best to deal with its existence.”
[...] Let us take this claim as seriously as possible. After all, there was a conspiracy of sorts. [...] There were, relatedly, a number of real connections between the Frankfurt School scholars and the U.S. national security state.
[...] But the book’s strong version of this thesis—that the Frankfurt School’s prominence is the result of a deliberate conspiracy to advance Frankfurt thinking as an alternative to successful, revolutionary Marxism—doesn’t come close to being sustained by the book.
[...] But when he tries to argue that the OSS-CIA-Rockefeller patronage network (which “served the interests of the world’s leading imperialist state while traducing communism”) is the reason that the Frankfurt School version of Marxism became so prominent, he does fall into conspiracy, seemingly unable to read evidence in context.
[...] Rockhill is angry that Adorno appeared in the CCF magazine Encounter in 1969. But what appears there is the translation of an interview Adorno granted to Der Spiegel, and there is no evidence that Adorno even approved it.
[...] Rockhill’s infelicitous interpretation of evidence is systemic, driven by his inability to imagine that someone might have principled objections to Soviet communism. ... Here and there, Rockhill has found interesting documents... (MORE - details)