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Communism has been one of the most influential economic theories of all times; recognizingits influence is key to understanding both past and current events. Moreover, the competition between communism and capitalism as played out in the Cold War was arguably the defining struggle of the 20th century. This section provides a brief overview of communist ideology in the European and Russian contexts and includes information on the rise of the Soviet Union under Vladimir Lenin and its continuation under Joseph Stalin. It concludes with an explanation of the tensions that surfaced at the end of World War II between the United States and the U.S.S.R. that led to the Cold War.

Communism is a political ideology and type of government in which the state owns the major resources in a society, including property, means of production, education, agriculture and transportation. Basically, communism proposes a society in which everyone shares the benefits of labor equally, and eliminates the class system through redistribution of on income.

Video: Karl Marx and The Communist Manifesto

The Father of Communism, Karl Marx, a German philosopher and economist, proposed this new ideology in his Communist Manifesto, which he wrote with Friedrich Engels in 1848. The manifesto emphasized the importance of class struggle in every historical society, and the dangerous instability capitalism created. Though it did outline some basic requirements for a communist society, the manifesto was largely analytical of historical events that led to its necessity and suggested the systems ultimate goals, but did not concretely provide instructions for setting up a communist government. Though Marx died well before a government tested his theories, his writings, in conjunction with a rising disgruntled working class across Europe, did immediately influence revolutionary industrial workers throughout Europe who created an international labor movement.

As envisioned by Marx, Communism was to be a global movement, inspiring and expediting inevitable working-class revolutions throughout the capitalist world. Though the book had not yet been published, these revolutions had already started in early 1848 in France. The new urban working class that lived and worked in terrible conditions throughout Europe got fed up with their life of squalor as they saw upper-class citizens (the bourgeois as Marx labeled them in the Manifesto) living lives of luxury. The ideas and goals of communism appealed strongly to the revolutionaries even after the 1848 revolutions collapsed. For the next several decades, fed-up lower class workers and peasants held tight to the legacy of the 1848 revolutionaries and communist ideology waiting for the right moment to capitalize.

Communism was adopted in Russia after the Russian Revolution, a series of revolutions that lasted throughout 1917. For centuries leading up to World War I, Russia was ruled by an absolute monarchy under which the lower classes had long suffered in poverty. This tension was exacerbated by the nationwide famine and loss of human lives as a result of World War I. The first revolution began when the Russian army was sent in to control a protest led by factory workers who had recently lost their jobs. However, the army did not follow the Czars orders and many soldiers defected and protested in solidarity with the workers. The military quickly lost control of the situation, and the Czar was forced to abdicate. The Imperial Parliament formed a provisional government, but Vladimir Lenins Bolshevik party overthrew it in October 1917. Bolshevik leaders appointed themselves to many high offices and started implementing communist practices based on Marxs ideology.

Video: Vladimir Lenin

When the Czar was dethroned, Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia after being exiled for anti-Czar plots. Other revolutionaries including Leon Trotsky also returned to Russia to seize the opportunity. The two established the Bolshevik party, a communist party that was staunchly opposed to the War, which continued to wreak havoc on the unstable nation. The Bolsheviks anti-war platform was popular among the Russian people, and Lenin used this momentum to overthrow the provisional government, take control of the country and pull Russia out of the war. Lenin also promised Bread, Land and Peace to the large populations affected by the famine, further increasing the partys popularity. However, when the Bolsheviks gained only 25 percent of votes in the 1917 elections, Lenin overturned the results and used military force to prevent democratic assembly. He established several state-centered government programs and policies that would continue, in some form, throughout the reign of the Soviet Union. His plan for national economic recovery, the GOLERO Plan was the first of this type and was designed to stimulate the economy by brining electricity to the whole of Russia. Lenin established a national free healthcare system and free public education. He also established the Cheka, a secret police force to defend the success of the Russian Revolution and censor and control anti-Bolshevik newspapers and activists. Following two failed assassination attempts, Lenin, following a suggestion from a military leader named Joseph Stalin, authorized the start of the Red Terror, an execution order of former government officials under the Czar and Provisional Government, as well as the royal family.

Shortly thereafter, the country dissolved into civil war between the ruling Bolsheviks and the White Guard, a loose alliance of anti-Bolshevik parties including tsarists, right-wing parties, nationalists and anti-communist left-wing parties. Both sides engaged in terror tactics against each other included mass executions and the establishment of Prisoner of War labor camps, and wreaked havoc on the countrys already-weak agricultural and economic system. Following the end of the war in 1921, Lenin established the New Economic Policy, which allowed for private businesses and a market economy, despite its direct contradiction with Marxist ideology. He also annexed Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan to provide geographic and political protection from the Partys political and ideological enemies. He died in January 1924 of a heart attack. After his death, several members of the Communist Partys executive committee, the Politburo, vied for control of the government.

Joseph Stalin, born Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jugashvili (in his native Georgian), was a key military leader throughout the Red Terror and the Civil War. As you learned, Stalin actually proposed the idea of fighting the Communist Partys enemies through systematic mass terror and killings to Lenin. As General Secretary under Lenin, he also oversaw brutal military actions throughout the civil war and led the 1921 invasion of Georgia to overthrow an unfriendly social-democratic government. In Georgia, Stalin took the lead in establishing a Bolshevik regime in the country hard-line policies that forcefully repressed any communist opposition. Lenin disagreed with Stalins tactics in Georgia, and right before his death dictated notes in his Testament warning of Stalins excessive ambition and obsession with power, and advised that he be removed from the General Secretary position. However, Lenin died shortly thereafter and Stalin allied himself with several other Politburo members to suppress Lenins Testament and remain in a position of power.

Over the next few years, Stalin isolated his major opponents in the Communist Party, eventually throwing them out, and became the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union. He officially ruled the country from 1924-1953. In his early years as leader, Stalin revamped the Soviet Unions economic policy, replacing Lenins New Economy Policy with a highly centralized command economy controlled by the state, which rapidly industrialized the country. However, the quick transition from agriculture to industry disrupted food supply and caused a massive famine lasting from 1932 to 1933. Simultaneously, people deemed to be political enemies began being imprisoned in labor camps or deported to remote areas of Russia. In 1934, actions against political enemies, including members of the Communist Party who disagreed with Stalins policies, intensified with the start of the Great Purge. About one million people were executed from 1934 to 1940 under Stalins orders.

Video: Joseph StalinIn 1939, Stalin signed a Non-Aggression Pactwith Nazi Germanys Adolf Hitler. However, when Hitler broke the pact and invaded in 1941, the Soviet Union joined the western Allies in their battle against the Nazis. With the United States other allied European countries leading the charge on the Western Front and Stalin pushing back from the East, the Nazis were defeated with the Soviet Red Armys capture of Berlin in May, and the western armies D-Day invasion in June 1944.

Credits: This page was curated by CES.

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Communism: Karl Marx to Joseph Stalin | CES at UNC

One hundred years ago this week, shortly after Dil ireann accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Dubliners witnessed a uniquely dramatic incident when more than 100 unemployed workers, some armed, seized the Rotunda (todays Gate Theatre), hoisted the red flag of socialist resistance and held the premises against violent opposition for four days.

Their demand was simple: work or full maintenance.

Three young members of the Communist Party of Ireland were to the fore in the takeover: Liam OFlaherty (25), Jim Phelan (26)and Sean McEntee (27).

OFlaherty, chairman of the Dublin Council of Unemployed, was described by Phelan as a magnificent speaker, organising a beggars legion with an ineradicable twist of mischief in his makeup.

In his memoirs, OFlaherty simply noted that, in the early part of 1922 I seized the Rotunda with a small army of unemployed men and held it for some days.

In the years that followed, OFlaherty would achieve international fame as the author of many critically acclaimed novels,The Informer and Famine among them, but in January 1922 he was just one of the 30,000 anonymous unemployed workers and their dependents living on the breadline in Dublin, his only published work a stirring Manifesto to Citizens of Dublin.

This one-page leaflet, bearing the Communist Partys address, had been fly-posted all around the city by OFlahertys comrades. They werent looking for charity, the manifesto asserted, but they demanded that businessmen contribute to a maintenance fund and promised in return twenty shillings worth of service to the community for every pound given.

But also running through the manifesto was a clear threat that if the jobless crisis wasnt solved, the unemployed would be forced by the apathy of the ruling class, by the tyranny of capitalism, to become dangerous criminals. OFlaherty painted a graphic picture of good citizens turning to pillage and rapine; their womenfolk forced by the dread spectre of want, to sell their bodies in the streets. So if Dubliners didnt want chaos and anarchy [or] highway robbery to be the order of the day, they had to act now to procure work for the unemployed.

Phelan found OFlahertys manifesto electrifying. Its sheer literary power, he claimed, hadnt been seen since the days of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution.

Although he never acquired OFlahertys celebrity status, Phelan would become a published author in his own right, while the third of the trio, McEntee, secretary of the Council of Unemployed, would achieve fame or notoriety in his own startling way.

The occupation of the Rotunda began on Wednesday, January 18th.

The nascent, communist-led unemployed movement had been granted use of the hall until 5pm, but when the time came, the 120 present voted to stay put. OFlaherty defiantly statedthat, if arrested, they would not recognise the court in a country that refused them succour. He had come preparedwith a revolver and a huge red flag, which he hoisted from a front window.

Contrary to claims by some historians, OFlaherty did not declare an Irish Soviet Workers Republic. In fact, his manifesto was at pains to point out that they were doing nothing that can be construed as illegal, unconstitutional or revolutionary. They were just demanding the right to work.

Styled as a garrison, they formed themselves into four military style companies under officers, of who Phelan was one. A former British soldier, CaptMontgomery armed and in full uniform was another. OFlaherty was officer commanding.

Groups of men were sent out in search of provisions and by the second day, 5 had been collected and Bolands Bakery had pledged 500 loaves. Inside the building the men drilled, danced, debated and drank.

An Irish Times reporter who gained admission described the scene: A large party of the garrison was found refreshing the inner man at a long table. There was some music and dancing in another part of the hall, while around the fire gathered a large body, all apparently in very cheerful spirits.

Outside, however, the mood was anything but cheerful. By Friday an angry mob numbering about 500 had gathered in what would be the first street protest against Irelands self-professed communists.

One of the groups behind the protest, Catholic Action, saw itself as an organisation in the front line trenches of the fight between Christianity and paganism, trained, organised and disciplined.

According to the paper, the rippling red flag seemed to affect many of them as it would a bull, and before long bottles and stones were raining down on the Rotunda. The mobs excitability may have been exacerbated by news from Rome that Pope Benedict XV, the sworn foe of communism, was close to deaths door.

At 9.30pm, the mob launched its first serious assault, rushing the main door of the Rotunda. The garrisons internal barricades withstood the test, and before much damage was done, the Dublin Metropolitan Police managed to push the assailants back.

At 10pm, a young man tried to seize the flag by climbing the portico, but he fell from the roof and was rushed to Jervis Street hospital. The first smell of blood excited the crowd. A second man ascended and managed to capture the flag, to deafening cheers. But no sooner was he down when a second flag appeared, driving the mob apoplectic.

By 10.30pm they had assembled makeshift battering rams, and the door was soon in splinters. But before the attackers came face to face with the garrison, the DMP again forced them back.

Eventually IRA members, who had been assisting the DMP, moved in and, simply by holding hands, pushed half the crowd up North Frederick Street, the other half towards OConnell Street. The area around the Rotunda was cleared, but OFlaherty refused an IRA order to evacuate.

Next day, Saturday, the mob reassembled, and with false rumours of the popes demise now circulating, feelings ran high. But before the mob could launch another attack, shots rang out over their heads, a stark warning from the garrison.

A showdown between lightly armed communists and the IRA seemed imminent, but before it came to blows, the Communist Party executive intervened and ordered OFlaherty to lead his men out. Safe passage was negotiated with the IRA, and the Rotunda was finally abandoned around midnight.

Publicly, the Communist Party justified the retreat by claiming the mob was armed with bombs. In truth, the partys broader strategy at the time hinged on winning favour with the IRA rather than leading workers struggles. And, privately, the partys 22-year-old leader, Roddy Connolly son of James Connolly was furious with his Rotunda comrades.

In a report to the Communist International in Moscow, Connolly blamed OFlaherty and his followers for destroying the emerging unemployed movement, describing their behaviour as hasty, childish and an opportunist stunt.

Connolly went on to investigate allegations that the communist firebrands had trousered the garrisons maintenance fund, but in the end concluded that they shared it out among the men, a few miserable pennies each.

As punishment for their errors, OFlaherty and his associates were sent to Cork, ostensibly to organise a branch of the Communist Party there, but possibly also to rob banks, an activity Connolly once admitted to authorising at this time. Phelan described his stay in Cork as lively; McEntee said they collected money, but didnt say how.

The party participated in the ensuing Civil War on the anti-Treaty side. OFlaherty subsequently moved to London while McEntee and Phelan ended up in Liverpool, where they were soon involved in another escapade: robbing a post officewith guns supplied by the citys leading communist, Jack Braddock.

The robbery netted 3.5s.41/2d, but McEntee had shot and killed the young son of the postmistress. He fled to London, from where the British Communist Party spirited him to Russia as a political refugee. Phelan, however, was caught, convictedand sentenced to hang.

On the eve of his scheduled execution, Phelans death sentence was commuted but he remained in prison until 1937. He then took to tramping and wrote many colourful tales about his experiences. He died in 1966.

In 1938, McEntee, then still exiled in Russia, was murdered on fabricated charges during Stalins Great Purge.

Connolly, who became chairman of the Irish Labour Party, would try to play down his communist past, and never again mentioned robbing banks. He died in 1980, just weeks short of his 80th birthday.

Pope Benedict XV died the day after the Rotunda was evacuated.

OFlaherty outlived them all, becoming, in the words of John Banville, the finest Irish writer of his generation.

Looking back on the Rotunda incident in 1934, OFlaherty declared, somewhat hyperbolically, Ever since then I have remained, in the eyes of the vast majority of Irish men and women, a public menace to faith, morals and property, a Communist, an atheist, a scoundrel of the worst type, a man whom thousands would burn at the stake if they had the courage.

He died in St Vincents hospital in Dublin 50 years later, at the age of 88.

The Rotunda occupation was the only significant action taken by unemployed workers in the revolutionary era, but it was far from the only act of class militancy. As many as 100 Soviets were declared by striking workers between 1918 and 1922. In many, if not most, red flags were hoisted. But the Communist Party played no part.

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When communists took over the Rotunda to fight for Dublin's unemployed - The Irish Times

Its the weekend. Here are some ways to spend it.

Shen Yun

Shen Yun: China Before Communism is at the Benedum Center, Downtown. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

The production features classical Chinese dance as well as orchestral compositions. The show is 2 hours and 15 minutes long.

Each performance consists of about 20 pieces.

Tickets start at $86.25.

Guests over 12 years old must be show proof of covid-19 vaccination. Facemasks are required.

Details: trustarts.org

Taking a trip

The Pittsburgh Travel Showcase is happening this weekend at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.

Presented by AAA Travel, the fifth annual event is Friday through Sunday. Experts from all areas of travel will be available to help plan international, national, and regional getaways.

Learn about travel to locales such as Alaska, Europe, and Hawaii, as well as find information on ocean and river cruises and rail travel.

There will be discounts and prize giveaways.

Hours are noon to 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets are $10.

Details: pittsburghtravelshowcase.com

5 things to do in Westmoreland County: Jan. 21-23

World of Wheels

The 61st annual Max Motive World of Wheels presented by NAPA returns to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center this weekend.

There will hundreds of custom cars, classics, hot rods, trucks, motorcycles and race cars on display.

NASCAR driver Kyle Busch will be at the show from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday and Bryan Danielson, of All Elite Wrestling, has an appearance scheduled from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

There is a pinball tournament from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Hours are 3 to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $8 for children ages 6-12. Children under 6 are free.

Details: autorama.com

Rose Elf

Pittsburgh Opera presents The Rose Elf, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Elf of the Rose. The show opens at 8 p.m. on Saturday at the Bitz Opera Factory, the operas headquarters in the Strip District.

The performance is sold out, but seat openings might become available according to the opera.

The one-act chamber opera will feature music by David Hertzberg, and resident artists. Soprano Madeline Ehlinger has the title role as the elf.

The show is approximately 60 minutes.

WQEDs Jim Cunningham is hosting a half-hour preview at 7 p.m. Friday showcasing the operas singers, music and production on the stations website and 89.3FM.

WQED is hosting a preview at 7 p.m. Friday.

Guests must be show proof of covid-19 vaccination. Facemasks are required.

Details: pittsburghopera.org

The Medium

The City Theatre on the South Side will present The Medium starting Sunday. Originally created in 1993, the show explores technology through the lens of Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan on whats described as an Alice in Wonderland-like journey through the landscape of his profound insights about the effects of media upon the human experience.

The Medium explores the effect of media and emerging technologies on perceptions, psyches and personal lives.

The scenes in the show are presented in the form of television genres. It was created by SITI Company and is directed by Anne Bogart.

Masks and proof of vaccination or negative covid-19 test will be required of all audience members over the age of 12.

Tickets start at $29.

Details: citytheatrecompany.org

JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact JoAnne at 724-853-5062, jharrop@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Link:
5 things to do in Pittsburgh this weekend: Jan. 21-23 - TribLIVE

Republican lawmakers introduced additions to a Cold War-era statute that bans educators from advocating for communism in schools to the House committee on Thursday. The statute dates back to 1949.Rep. Alicia Lekas, R-Hudson was looking to add Marxism and socialism to the ban, as well as any idea that the United States was founded on racism.Lekas said the intent of House Bill 1255 is to ensure teachers are educating and not indoctrinating."When I only accept an answer that says that my political beliefs are right and your beliefs are wrong, thats indoctrination, Lekas said.The intention here is to make certain that in our schools our teachers are doing what has happened for a long time teaching how to think not what to think, said Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry.People opposed to the bill say teachers will be silenced and scared to cover certain topics in the classroom for fear of punishment."Critical thinking isnt being allowed because theyre afraid theyre going to be reported for something, National Education Association New Hampshire President Megan Tuttle said."The idea that I show up to work every day for low wages in unsafe conditions and Im not loyal I would love to know what your definition of loyalty is if its not that, history teacher Jennifer Given said. The sponsor of the bill said she did not have time to properly draft the bill and she is currently working on an amendment.

Republican lawmakers introduced additions to a Cold War-era statute that bans educators from advocating for communism in schools to the House committee on Thursday.

The statute dates back to 1949.

Rep. Alicia Lekas, R-Hudson was looking to add Marxism and socialism to the ban, as well as any idea that the United States was founded on racism.

Lekas said the intent of House Bill 1255 is to ensure teachers are educating and not indoctrinating.

"When I only accept an answer that says that my political beliefs are right and your beliefs are wrong, thats indoctrination, Lekas said.

The intention here is to make certain that in our schools our teachers are doing what has happened for a long time teaching how to think not what to think, said Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry.

People opposed to the bill say teachers will be silenced and scared to cover certain topics in the classroom for fear of punishment.

"Critical thinking isnt being allowed because theyre afraid theyre going to be reported for something, National Education Association New Hampshire President Megan Tuttle said.

"The idea that I show up to work every day for low wages in unsafe conditions and Im not loyal I would love to know what your definition of loyalty is if its not that, history teacher Jennifer Given said.

The sponsor of the bill said she did not have time to properly draft the bill and she is currently working on an amendment.

Go here to see the original:
NH teachers react to proposed bill adding to Cold War-era 'Teachers' Loyalty' law - WMUR Manchester

Contemporary explanations of wokeness are always insufficient. Public intellectuals either pretend there has been no major revolution in values, or offer silly debates about whether wokeness is really neo-Hegelian anarchism, or neo-Freudian Romanticism, or double-backflip Puritanism with a dash of neo-neo Kantianism. The work of an obscure Italian philosopher who died in 1989 is perhaps an unlikely place to find clarity. But Augusto Del Noce provides an explanation at once straightforward and original: Marxism changed the trajectory of the West.

Del Noces work seems particularly current in the Anglosphere, perhaps, because it has only recently become available in English. Carlo Lancelotti, a New York-based math professor, first translated Del Noces The Crisis of Modernity in 2014; this month, his translation of The Problem with Atheism was published. The latter was written first between 1917 and 1945 and produced the thesis about Marxism that allowed Del Noce to see the future.

Del Noces take on Marxism was strange. It was, he believed, a stillborn ideology, dead upon arrival, yet its rotting carcass sprouted every 20th Century political movement. There is already at the onset of Marxism an insuperable contradiction, he wrote. Marxs view of history, according to Del Noce, was a consequence of his commitment to atheism, which can never be proved directly, and must therefore present itself as the outcome of an irreversible historical process mans liberation, via science and technology, from primitive superstition. Marx argued that the idea of God was a symptom of mans alienation through oppression; as society removed forms of oppression, the question of God would disappear. Societys values, Marx believed, were just expressions of its economic arrangements and that the development of these arrangements was leading to an inevitable destination: the march of history would culminate in Communism, which would be free of both oppression and the idea of God.

Since, in the Marxist framework, removing oppression is the primary way of bringing about the future, philosophy is subordinated to politics. As Marx wrote, Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. In Marxism, reason is not something universally accessible to all; it is the tool that certain radically free people use to impose their will on existence. This creates a contradiction: how can anyone change the world if history is inevitably going to culminate in communism? And if all philosophy is just a reflection of economic arrangements, is the same not true of Marxism?

This contradiction bifurcated Marxism along two different paths. The first path embraced the revolutionary philosopher, while the other one embraced history. The first path led to Lenin, the revolution, and the Soviet Union. The second path led to us. Del Noce wrote, Marxism has ended up being a stage in the development of the technological and affluent society, which accepts all [of Marxisms] negations of traditional thought but at the same time eliminates its messianic and (in its own way) religious aspect. Marxs vision was achieved by his ostensible enemy.

Long before it became obvious, Del Noce wrote that the alliance between the technocratic right and the cultural left is there for everyone to see. He argued that liberalism sublimated, or absorbed, various aspects of Marxism, transforming into what he called the technological society. Bourgeois society always had two historical enemies: revolutionary thought and religious thought. As a synthesis of these opposites, Marxism provided bourgeois society with the tool needed to defeat both. Our society largely embraces Marxs historical vision: advancing technologies are viewed as de facto proof that the question of God, and all transcendent values, are irrelevant. Yet this vision of history is also turned onto Marxism itself. Communism was tried and it was a failed experiment. The technological society does not have to enlist any religious or moral claims to reject Communism. It simply dismisses Communism as inefficient.

The Leninist path of Marxism also stumbles through our society in a misshapen form. Del Noce argued that Leninism unleashed a type of post-Christian gnosticism which was an early Christian heresy that believed the world was evil and could only be saved by those with access to secret or esoteric knowledge. Lenin believed that the revolution wouldnt just happen spontaneously it had to be brought about by raising the consciousness of the proletariat. This required professional revolutionaries. Drawn from the people tasked with the job of modernising the Russian economy, these revolutionaries were an elect class that understands how the world really works. The British writer H.G. Wells understood the implications of this better than Lenin himself: in his 1928 book The Open Conspiracy, inspired by his trips to the Soviet Union, Wells called for the West to embrace rule by its own elect class of experts.

Everyone understands that a person is not wise by virtue of being an accountant, or a therapist, or an immunologist; we all understand that a person can have limited domain expertise, and be a complete fool outside of that area. Moreover, domain expertise is not the same as executive function: the act of governing a society is the act of choosing between competing goods, and this requires virtues like wisdom and prudence. And yet society has become enthralled by the expert, the idea of which works in the exact opposite way, suggesting that a person is equipped to make prudential choices between competing goods simply by virtue of possessing technical knowledge in some limited domain. Eventually this denigrates into absurdities, like the disinformation expert who is basically a truth expert.

Del Noce paints a landscape of a society that rejects all traditional values in the name of a supposedly neutral rationality, has a caste of revolutionary-cum-technocratic experts who function like gnostic priests, and engages in near-constant, system-approved revolution. This revolution was separate from Marxism, and was encapsulated in a sentence written by Friedrich Engels: the thesis that reality is rational leads, according to Hegelian dialectics, to this other one: everything that exists deserves to die. Del Noce wrote that the revolutionary is the executioner of a death sentence that history has pronounced. But since the radically bourgeois society rejects all transcendent values, its revolutionaries offer only negation. The global rebellion becomes an absurd revolt against what exists or what once existed. It becomes either a silly attempt to escape reality or a tool of the system it is revolting against. It should be obvious how this explains the woke, but it also shows how the anti-woke offer a mirror image.

There are many, like James Lindsay and John McWhorter, who champion Enlightenment values in the face of the woke. They praise things like reason, rationality, and positivism in the face of a new religious fervor. The miracle of rationality fought off the forces of religious superstition, we are told, and we must be vigilant not to slide back into the shadows of irrationality. Del Noce might call this the Enlightenment after Marxism. It is a mythic narrative that its proponents fail to see as myth.

Carl Schmitt once wrote that American financiers and Russian Bolsheviks were engaged in a common struggle. That synthesis is now complete. Del Noce helps us see how this synthesis is at the root of todays most pressing issues, and how those who want to fight the woke cannot retreat into the static categories of the 20th century. Decomposed Marxism limits our ability to see a new horizon, and the future seems impossibly hopeless because so few are willing to reassess past mistakes.

Read more here:
How Marxism created the West - UnHerd