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Richard Heathen of LibertyMachineNews.com joins us today to discuss his documentary film, “Hidden Influence: The Rise of Collectivism.” We discuss the meaning and history of collectivism, how it was inserted into the educational curriculum by the large corporate foundations of the robber barons, and how it is shaping society today through cultural Marxism and identity politics.
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LibertyMachineNews.com
Hidden Influence: The Rise of Collectivism (free YouTube version)
Hi James and thread,
Listened to the interview, watched the film. Some hokey stuff in there, but the premise of both are way more on target than the first commenter seems to realize. For one, the strands of influence between tip-top elite Western establishment circles and the Western intellectual Left is very easily verified as far back as you care to name with just a cursory examination of big name sources (H.G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, Carroll Quigley, John Dewey, Zbigniew Breznezski, etc.) that anyone can find at a third-rate university library. For another, as someone who lived among the crit theory clique at one California university for many years and came to know many of them quite well, it’s not Marx as such they worship; it’s more the whole cult of postmodernity, particularly the various disciples of Jacques Derrida, who has to stand as one of the greatest intellectual frauds of the 20th century.
Second, there is no connection whatever to ‘critical theory’ in the sense of the doctrines of university cultural studies departments to the doctrines of 18th century skeptical empiricism. “Cultural Marxism,” to employ the term for the sake of arguments – I’d just as soon call them that as the “Social Justice Movement” – is an explicit rejection of the validity of even the pursuit of ideology-free analysis. “There are only lived experiences;” those trump every rule of evidence or argumentation. Practically, of course, this leaves us: force, fraud, and pathos.
I for one would appreciate 60ish solid minutes of James’s podcasting take on the fever pitch of identity politics that’s so big a part of the intellectual climate of the ’10s in the West.
As someone basically like him in my path from ‘good North American leftie’ to a radically anti-state, anti-ruling class position, and, because nobody lets you forget it, a straight white male, I personally am sick to death of my left-leaning friends and family and their Olympian sense of moral self-righteousness about ‘whiteness’ and patriarchy, people who cannot name to the correct order of magnitude the number of people (of color!) the US military has killed in SW Asia and N. Africa this century, or even yet see through Obama or the Democratic Party generally.
These peoples’ understanding of or even interest in any structure of power higher up the chain of command than “bourgeois, red-state straight white guy” is almost nonexistent. The Left has forgotten everything it ever knew about class consciousness.
I wouldn’t say that and he makes some points. But like Collins said on his show recently interviewing someone, the number of people on the planet…greatly exagerated, numbers pulled out of asses to satisfy the likes of the craziest among the crazies (Ted Turner let’s say).
A culture shock?
After watching the documentary, i’m once again convinced that the definition of anarchy in North America mostly as an-cap is realy sad.
As a European anarchist i have a total different view of Anarchy.
I disagree with most of the docu (not everything), but i’m really bothered with the non critical view of capitalism and the inequality at the root of it.
I could not agree more. I thought the documentary was very well produced and quite informative but the attitude of the whole piece that capitalism, a system that is fundamentally founded on exploitation and greed, is not only not questioned but presented to us as the be all and end all saving grace is very disturbing indeed. We have had unregulated capitalism before, during the 1800s in Europe, it was horrific. And as for whitism etc… Minor Threat wrote a song about that 35 years ago.
I’MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
SORRY!!!
Couldn’t resist.
Responding to Man Of The World.
Ask a scientist while he’s in a coma.
Yeah 97%+ are Materialists in the philosophical sense. He won’t be able to respond to stimuli that doesn’t exist to him though.