To understand the world of politics and change it for the better, it’s paramount that people begin to study political theory and the ways in which it has manifest throughout history up into the present day. By bringing light to the origins of political and philosophical thought, the present day becomes all the more explainable because one is now able to see the logical progression of such manifestations.
With this urge to better understand the root of many of the common political ideologies present in the world, The Last American Vagabond has decided to team up with Keith Preston in a new podcast series in which the who, what, where, when and how of different political theories will be explored.
INTRODUCTION
For those unaware, Keith Preston was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. He received a B.A. in Religious Studies and an M.A. in History from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, with additional graduate study in Sociology and Criminology. Keith is a former instructor of Sociology at John Tyler Community College. He is a former regional delegate for the Industrial Workers of the World and a former member of the National Committee of the Workers Solidarity Alliance, the U.S. section of the International Workers Association. He is the founder and director of American Revolutionary Vanguard and the chief editor of AttacktheSystem.com. Keith has been a contributor to LewRockwell.com, Antiwar.com, Anti-State.com, Taki’s Magazine, and AlternativeRight.com. He was awarded the 2008 Chris R. Tame Memorial Prize by the United Kingdom’s Libertarian Alliance for his essay, “Free Enterprise: The Antidote to Corporate Plutocracy.” Keith has been a featured speaker at conferences of the National Policy Institute and the H. L. Mencken Club. He has been interviewed on numerous internet podcast and radio programs and appeared as a guest analyst on Russia Today and BBC Persian. He is also host of the ongoing “Attack the System” online podcast series.
EPISODE 1: CULTURAL MARXISM
In this episode Keith and Tim Bryant take a look at Cultural Marxism, which is the transformation of the political left from a party focused on the eternal class struggle in society of labor workers vs. the elite owners of capital, to a party focused on cultural infiltration in order to weed out the “oppressors and oppressions” within society. Stemming from the commonly held belief that the workers of the world were bought off by the elite capitalists through consumerism, the left thought it was no longer fruitful to keep fighting capitalism. Instead, their new method of redefining Western society was to be carried out by infiltrating the culture and remaking it in the image of an equal world free of the old cultural and economic values.
The concept of Cultural Marxism is often referred to as political correctness, which is the creation of a culture where no one can criticize anyone because that will hurt someone’s feelings. In this PC culture, the white male is thought of as the number one aggressor and must be brought down a peg so the culture as a whole can even out, and all races, genders, sexual orientations, and religions can be equal. Many of its manifestations in political activism include racism, sexism, ageism, feminism, the LBGTQ community, veganism, environmentalism, and a plethora of other social justice warrior causes that aim to fight for the oppressed within society.
The goal of this video is not to put down or discriminate any of these causes, but instead to give some historical context as to how all of these causes stem from Cultural Marxism, or what Keith Preston refers to as “totalitarian humanism,” as well as an honest critique of the positives and negatives of such an ideological framework. It’s clear the left has taken pride in being the party of social justice warriors, while the right has responded with major backlash towards it, being very quick to call many of them out for losing the plot. However, despite the major differences of perception when it comes to Cultural Marxism, the real question should be whether or not there is some middle ground that all can agree to and build upon?
If society is to truly change, everyone must learn to see through the lenses of differing political ideologies, so that instead of focusing on the divides that keep us running nowhere, we can see the commonalities that bond us and build foundations upon those. The first step is awareness, and knowledge is key to awareness.
