Control the dominant ideas in a nation, and you can control the nation itself.

The Red Trojan Horse: A Concise Analysis of Cultural Marxism, by Alasdair Elder

Elder has written a book examining, first, the history of Cultural Marxism, and second, the situation today.  In this post, I will review and examine the history.

He offers, early on, his meaning of the term:

Cultural Marxism is a wide-ranging designation which refers to the promotion and employment of Critical Theory.

It is valuable that he does this, as the term Cultural Marxism, though well-known, is not technically a valid concept.  Marx's form of communism was economic – the proletariat vs. the bourgeoisie.  While Marx wrote of culture, his focus was primarily and overwhelmingly economic.

Antonio Gramsci, and also members of what is known as the Frankfurt School, would develop the idea that communism could infiltrate the West only if the dominant culture that bound the workers and the owners was torn down – replaced by a culture built from the bottom.

So, then what is Critical Theory?

Critical Theory just means to criticize…ceaselessly. [It] is purely concerned with discrediting knowledge, but not with replacing it with anything better.  It is the essence of destructive criticism.

Applied to the cultural foundation of society, one is left with a society void of any ties that bind.  What's the big deal, you ask?  Absent a common cultural foundation, all that is left is the state.  Where a society does not share common codes of conduct and behavior, a state will happily step in to force the issue.  At the same time, a state will happily work to destroy the common codes of conduct in order to take more power for the state.

In Critical Theory, this is the sole purpose of knowledge: to create a change in society, which will, in turn, create a change in 'reality' itself.