Page 86 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 86
šolsko polje, letnik xxviii, številka 3–4
not only bankrupt—with some emerging strands appearing downright
reactionary—it has no viable alternative to capitalism. All that it is capa-
ble of doing at the moment is to try to blunt the sharpest and most deadly
instruments of transnational capitalism, usually with earnest arguments
about the dangers of ecocide and climate change. And it is losing this bat-
tle. This is especially troublesome as it is Trump who is seen as the enemy
of neoliberalism, and the Republican and Democratic elites as its cham-
pion.
Recently, I’ve written about some of the ludicrous conspiracy theo-
ries emanating from the right. These conspiracy theories form part of the
dark side of the American Dream. For the last several decades one of the
most pernicious conspiracies revolves around the role played by Frank-
furt School theorists in the United States. The theory has been picked
up by the extremist Tea Party and other alt-right groups, including white
nationalists, libertarian Christian Reconstructionists, members of the
Christian Coalition, the Free Congress Foundation and neo-Nazi groups
such as Stormfront. They maintain that blame for the cultural degrada-
tion and corruption of the United States can be placed at the feet of the
Institute for Social Research, initially housed at the Goethe University
in Frankfurt and relocated to Columbia University in New York dur-
ing the rise of Hitler in 1935. Philosophers Theodore Adorno, Walter
Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Leo Lowenthal, Erich Fromm and Her-
bert Marcuse were some of the luminaries of this group, whose works
are still frequently studied in philosophy, political science, literary the-
ory and cultural studies classes. Peddlars of this crackpot theory about
the role played by these thinkers include Michael Minnicinio, Paul Wey-
rich, Pat Buchanan, Roger Kimball and other prominent conservatives.
They maintain that these “cultural Marxists” (whom unsurprisingly they
are fond of mentioning are all Jewish) promoted modernist forms of cul-
tural pessimism that shaped the 1960s counterculture—and this “cultur-
al Marxism” set the stage for “political correctness” that has destroyed
the cultural and moral fabric of U.S. society through the development of
feminism, anti-white racism and revolutions in understanding sexuali-
ty. But it is the fringe writings of William S. Lind in particular that have
had the most chilling effect. In 2011, Lind’s writings inspired Norwegian
neo-Nazi mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik to slaughter 77 fellow
Norwegians and injure 319 more. Lind and his ilk blame the Frankfurt
School theorists for a litany of crimes that include the deindustrializa-
tion of America’s cities, neoliberal free trade policies, affirmative action,
immigration, sexual liberation, gay marriage, multiculturalism, politi-
cal correctness, the welfare state, and the privileging of the concerns of
84
not only bankrupt—with some emerging strands appearing downright
reactionary—it has no viable alternative to capitalism. All that it is capa-
ble of doing at the moment is to try to blunt the sharpest and most deadly
instruments of transnational capitalism, usually with earnest arguments
about the dangers of ecocide and climate change. And it is losing this bat-
tle. This is especially troublesome as it is Trump who is seen as the enemy
of neoliberalism, and the Republican and Democratic elites as its cham-
pion.
Recently, I’ve written about some of the ludicrous conspiracy theo-
ries emanating from the right. These conspiracy theories form part of the
dark side of the American Dream. For the last several decades one of the
most pernicious conspiracies revolves around the role played by Frank-
furt School theorists in the United States. The theory has been picked
up by the extremist Tea Party and other alt-right groups, including white
nationalists, libertarian Christian Reconstructionists, members of the
Christian Coalition, the Free Congress Foundation and neo-Nazi groups
such as Stormfront. They maintain that blame for the cultural degrada-
tion and corruption of the United States can be placed at the feet of the
Institute for Social Research, initially housed at the Goethe University
in Frankfurt and relocated to Columbia University in New York dur-
ing the rise of Hitler in 1935. Philosophers Theodore Adorno, Walter
Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Leo Lowenthal, Erich Fromm and Her-
bert Marcuse were some of the luminaries of this group, whose works
are still frequently studied in philosophy, political science, literary the-
ory and cultural studies classes. Peddlars of this crackpot theory about
the role played by these thinkers include Michael Minnicinio, Paul Wey-
rich, Pat Buchanan, Roger Kimball and other prominent conservatives.
They maintain that these “cultural Marxists” (whom unsurprisingly they
are fond of mentioning are all Jewish) promoted modernist forms of cul-
tural pessimism that shaped the 1960s counterculture—and this “cultur-
al Marxism” set the stage for “political correctness” that has destroyed
the cultural and moral fabric of U.S. society through the development of
feminism, anti-white racism and revolutions in understanding sexuali-
ty. But it is the fringe writings of William S. Lind in particular that have
had the most chilling effect. In 2011, Lind’s writings inspired Norwegian
neo-Nazi mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik to slaughter 77 fellow
Norwegians and injure 319 more. Lind and his ilk blame the Frankfurt
School theorists for a litany of crimes that include the deindustrializa-
tion of America’s cities, neoliberal free trade policies, affirmative action,
immigration, sexual liberation, gay marriage, multiculturalism, politi-
cal correctness, the welfare state, and the privileging of the concerns of
84
