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A brief over-view of post-progressivism and it's relationship to Herbert Marcuse. The rise of the post-American city state and the use of Marxism and intersectionality to organize an urban political army.
Titolo originale
The Philosophical Roots of the American Societal-Political Crisis: Marcuse, Intersectionality, And Post-progressivism by George Carter
A brief over-view of post-progressivism and it's relationship to Herbert Marcuse. The rise of the post-American city state and the use of Marxism and intersectionality to organize an urban political army.
A brief over-view of post-progressivism and it's relationship to Herbert Marcuse. The rise of the post-American city state and the use of Marxism and intersectionality to organize an urban political army.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETAL-POLITICAL CRISIS:
MARCUSE, INTERSECTIONALITY, and POST-PROGRESSIVISM
George Carter, Ph.D.
April 23, 2017
There is general agree that the United States is facing a historically-high
level of societal disunity and instability as reflected by a growing national divide along lines of class, race, culture, and political ideology. The nature and reason for this disunity is complex and there appears to be no general consensus on its cause and origin. The 2016 presidential election and its aftermath has helped to expose the depth of this division perhaps for the first time, especially to those in the international community unfamiliar with the current state of internal American affairs. The shrillness of the presidential political campaign and extent and degree of violence of political protests (during and after the election) have been compared to the political environment during the explosive Vietnam War era. In recent months, grievance groups of every kind have organized as part of a self-described resistance to the U.S. Presidency of Donald Trump. This political resistance to President Trump is the most visible display of a widening cultural, social, and political chasm threatening to destabilize the country. At the center of this societal disunity are major American cities. American cities have become enclaves of mutually-supporting left-wing political organizations and a large population of people who identify around postmodernist-universalism, relativism, and/or counter-culture themes. These urban centers often are the location of powerful international corporate-commercial interests, large immigrant populations, monopolistic left-wing party apparatuses or ideologies, and a near hegemony over the local social-cultural system that reinforces the leftist political perspective. For this reason I refer to these urban enclaves as being post- American cities. Voters in these enclaves overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and these cities generally advocate for left-leaning policies on such issues as gay and transgender rights and the shielding of illegal immigrants from deportation. Public and elected officials and politicians of these cities often refer to their issue advocacy as being progressive in order to garner favorable public support. There are clear differences between classic progressivism of the past century and the slew of progressive issues being pushed by the political left. Examples of post-progressivism (a term coined by this author to distinguish it from the earlier form of economic progressivism): immigration liberalization, free access to all toilets by transgender persons, and same-sex marriage. While classic progressivism centered on economic justice and universal economic value-based opportunities, post-progressivism defies simple categorization. Post-progressivism, as a postmodern phenomenon, is rhetorical, existential, and/or altruistic in nature. Post-progressivism emphasizes the emotions of a life-experience, as opposed to the consequence of the life -style or choice. The political left has benefited in recent years by capitalizing on post-progressivism and the emotion of harm or victimization. A myriad of issues are used to create the perception of victimhood and to reinforce connection to a victim class through identity politics. Some examples of these post-progressive victimhood issues include: abortion rights, black poverty, low public opinion of Muslim refugees, racist vandalism. The political left has effectively used fear or resentment- based victimhood as a strategy to organize its base in the absence of a compelling economic message (1). The political left and their monopolistic organization holdings in most major American Cities have established an ideologically-homogenous voting block of diverse classes of people including immigrants, minorities, sexual deviants, drug users, and other people who believe themselves to be repressed by more-traditional American values. Following the presidential election, post-American cities have promoted themselves as welcoming cities to attract and advocate for this diverse group of dispossessed people. In Chicago, the local government now issues ID cards to illegal aliens who are living in the country in defiance of Federal laws and to transgendered people who want to freely identify as the opposite sex (2). By ostensibly acting as a protectorate for these victim classes, the post-American city has created a formidable political, philosophical, and social constituency which is adverse to much of America. The welcoming cities campaign is one aspect to the political lefts strategy to capitalize on and widen the fracturing American societal landscape.
The current manifestation of American social division may be traced to
upheaval of the 1960s and in part to the political-social philosopher, Herbert Marcuse. Marcuse is widely considered the father of the 1960s New Left movement which tapped into student angst at the time over the Vietnam War and Black civil rights. Marcuse believed that traditional notions of material Marxism could be expanded into every facet of the human experience. Class awareness not only lie in ones economic status but in virtually any way one constructs an identity as a subjective, emotional experience of reality. Marcuse also encouraged the unashamed expression of sexual desire and the embracing of a sexualized identity, as detail in his book Eros and Civilization (3). These ideas are credited for seeding the rise of second wave feminism and the sexual liberation movement. The rise of urban alternative sub-cultures and greater acceptance of sexual deviancy is a testament to Marcusian normalization of the sexualized-self as integral to identity, personal freedom, and individuality. The grand vision of Marcuse as a post-progressive revolutionary is further demonstrated in the evolution of sexual liberation into a powerful political movement centered around abortion and LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual and transgender) rights. There are numerous class members of the post-progressive political coalition including: Muslims, refugees, immigrants, sexual deviants, LGBT, feminists, Blacks, Latinos, and women. These groups constitute the essential bedrock of the post-American City political left. Membership to this over- arching political class may appeal to anyone who believes themselves, or others, to be victims of repression or persecution by institutions headed by white male patriarchy or traditional Christians theology. Conservatives and most-notably Trump have become a visible target and organizing tool of this post-progressive political movement. Clinton notoriously called this nebulous class of mostly-white male conservatives a basket of deplorables in a 2016 speech to an LGBT group during her election campaign (4). The management of this diverse post-progressive coalition has drawn inspiration from a sociological construct called Intersectionality (5). Like Critical Theory before it, Intersectionality attributes social and economic inequality to the aforementioned white patriarchy. Borrowing from Marxist utopianism, all these victim classes will be freed from discrimination and repression once the patriarchal, white capitalist class has been eliminated. So, it isnt a surprise that this post-progressive coalition has merged with burgeoning communist and socialists movements in the United States. Societal discord is not a new American phenomenon as evident by the social unrest during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Civil Rights and Vietnam era of the 1960s. However, the nature of this current crisis is happening at a time of relatively-solid economic growth and low unemployment, and in the absence of any major impediments to class attainment such as was the case in the Jim Crowe south and rampant institutional discrimination of the past century. For example, Asian Americans now outpace their white counterparts in wages and educational attainment. American females attend colleges at a rate that is nearly double that for males, and recent home purchases and employment reflect large advantage for women. Even so, the myth of female and minority repression has become a central narrative promulgated by the corporate media and is now a key component of the Democratic Partys political organizing strategy. Dozens of post-American cities have defied the Federal government on immigration laws in harboring millions of illegal aliens. More challenges to Federal authority are expected especially since the Federal government has shown little resolve in the face of a coordinated front of major American cities to challenge the legal powers of the Federal government to affect City policies. The post-American city is an outgrowth of historic American division that has established near-hegemonic dominion over local cultural, political and commercial interests while projecting a clear threat to Federal authority to govern on a national level (6). (1) James Hohmann. Democrats Angry that Clinton had no Economic Message. 17 November, 2016 Washington Post. (2) Ian Mason. Rahm Emanuel Invents New ID to Ensure Illegals get their Welfare. 31 March, 2017 Breitbart. (3) Marcuse, H. (1962). Eros and civilization: A philosophical inquiry into Freud. New York: Vintage Books. (4) Katie Reilly. Read Hillary Clintons Basket of Deplorables Remarks on Trump Supporters. 22 January, 2017. Time.com. Retrieved April 23, 2017. (5) Hancock, A-M (2015). Intersectionality: an Intellectual History. Oxford University Press. (6) The United States Department of Justice. (2017). Attorney General Jeff Sessions Delivers Remarks on Sanctuary Jurisdictions [news conference].