In my previous Substack essay, I addressed the urgent imperative for our present generation to understand the pressing, pertinent, ever present and long shadow of Bolshevism (the Russian brand of Communism) in society today. My readers are encouraged to refer back to Part 1 of this essay, since in every way, this essay is a continuation of the previous one.
After the violent, bloody events of October 1917 brought the Communists to power in Russia, it became clear to the Bolsheviks over the next few years, that much of Europe would not succumb to a bloody political takeover and revolution. It had been tried - incipient, violent Communist takeover projects in Germany, Hungary and Italy had all failed and were extinguished in their very early stages. Since the internationalization of Communism/Bolshevism is a fundamental goal of the Communist tyranny, a different way to take over society had to be found.
In a diabolically evil and brilliant move, the Bolsheviks decided to corrupt, subvert, radically change and transform society from within. No cataclysmic, single, violent revolution was necessary. The takeover would be accomplished by a pervasive rot from within.
Just as a chief goal of the Bolsheviks of the Russian revolution was the overthrow of Russian Christian society and the Russian Orthodox Church with the declaration of atheism as the only State doctrine, those who wished to export the revolution to Western Europe realized that Western civilization had resulted from the touch of Christ upon the Western centuries. The foundations of the value systems of the West built in these Christian centuries had to be attacked from within - and overturned.
In Frankfurt, Germany, a group of intellectuals (who had earlier met with Lenin and the Bolsheviks in Moscow) founded the “Institute for Social Research” in 1923 and subsequently formulated the goal of achieving the takeover of society by fostering a “cultural revolution.” The Institute worked closely with the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow. During its first ten years in Germany, it used the Weimar Republic (post-first world war Germany) and its citizens as a testing ground for the cultural takeover of the West. The cultural and moral decadence of Germany in the 1920s was largely a result of the activities of the Frankfurt “Institute for Social Research” and affiliated groups and disciples of the new Bolshevism, including theatre/burlesque and the German film industry (which later migrated to Hollywood).
Rather than a murderous, continuous class struggle between the oppressed worker and the “bourgeois” as envisioned by Marx, the new cultural Marxists of Frankfurt put forward the theory that everyone in the West was oppressed by the norms of Western, Christian civilization - the logical, next step for them, was the overthrow of the Christian West. The revolution would then be complete.
A parallel, sexual revolution in Germany was initiated by the cultural Marxist Magnus Hirschfeld, who in 1919, had set up the first ever “Institute of Sexual Science,” which in turn advocated for gay, lesbian and transgender rights and changes in German law in these areas. A separate magazine for transgenderism was inaugurated by Hirschfeld and in 1930, the first transgender surgeries were performed. Berlin in the 1920s, became the capital not only of Germany, but the international capital of homosexuality, cross-dressing, transsexuals and prostitution.
Even before Hitler took over as leader of Germany in 1933, there had been a running battle between the National Socialists (the Nazi party) and the Communists. Fearing (with some justification) a Communist takeover of Germany, the German people supported the National Socialists in their “purge” of the Communists. When the intellectuals in Frankfurt University’s “Institute for Social Research” saw the writing on the wall and the imminent, inevitable rise of Hitler, they packed their bags in a hurry - and left Germany for America. A few years later, Nazi Germany was to unleash its own brand of murderous, fascist socialism on Europe - but the Frankfurt School of intellectuals were far beyond its reach.
In the United States of America, these intellectual revolutionaries found homes in elite American Universities and Columbia University became the headquarters and official home of what became known as the “Frankfurt School.” Who were these intellectuals? What did they teach and propagate in America?
Probably the most influential member of the newly established Frankfurt School in America was Herbert Marcuse. He defined what he meant by disintegrating and destroying the Christian Western civilization from within: “One can rightfully speak of a cultural revolution, since the protest is directed toward the whole cultural establishment, including the morality of existing society - there is one thing we can say with complete assurance: the traditional idea of revolution and the traditional strategy of revolution has ended- What we must undertake is a type of diffuse and dispersed disintegration of the system.”
Marcuse’s book “Eros And Civilization” (1955) made its way through academia and student leaders and became the sexual liberation manifesto of the 1960s. In this very influential book, Marcuse argues for a sexual libido that completely disregards the traditional restraints put upon sexual expression by society and family. He writes that this: “change in the value and scope of the libidinal would lead to a disintegration of the institutions in which private interpersonal relations have been organized, particularly the monogamic and patriarchal family.”
The work of Marcuse and other members of the Frankfurt School gave birth to the now prevalent and pervasive philosophy of “Critical Theory” - the idea that all societal values are a product of a particular time and place and not dependant on allegiance to transcendent Truth. It followed that since there was no need to inform our values by reference to God, the source of transcendent Truth, society could be manipulated and changed to any form that the particular time and place demanded. A logical, next development a few decades later, was “Critical Race Theory” - where particular racial groups were favoured and other groups persecuted, since the particular time and place (i.e. the present) supposedly demanded it. This seemingly magical ability to create one’s own version of “truth” was developed further by the postmodern philosophers in continental Europe - but the origins of this idea of truth being pliable, conformable and localized, originated with the Frankfurt School. I write about this in another essay.
The collapse of the traditional values of the Christian civilization of the West and the ability given by “Critical Theory” to radical groups to define truth in any way they wish has in turn led to a very violent persecution of those who continue to declare allegiance to Christ or the values of the Christian world view. Groups such as ANTIFA are the spearhead of this violence since, in the words of the author Michael Walsh , “The left is always on the attack; after all, they have nothing to defend.”
The Neo-Marxists of the Frankfurt School in turn trained several academic leaders and professors who went on to establish their own version of critical theory and Marcusian sexual theory in the Universities of North America and Western Europe. In the 1960s and 1970s, the ideas of the Frankfurt School were eagerly embraced by academics, student leaders and large segments of the public. The takeover of our universities was essentially complete in the 1980s. The Neo-Marxist doctrines that are indoctrinating our young people can thus be traced directly to its origins in the Frankfurt School. The elementary and high school teachers teaching in our public school systems are also products of the same universities.
This dangerous, new Bolshevism is spreading (as the “Old Bolshevism” did) to Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa as well. America is leading this mad charge to oblivion, since all tyrannies collapse and end in tears.
In my epilogue to this essay in my next Substack, I shall write about how although the new Bolshevism might have the intermediate word, God always has the last word. And how in the battle against this foul and evil tyranny we will win since, “overwhelming victory is ours through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.”
Hello Dr. Francis. I've written to you about this subject before. There is a lot of accurate and vital information here. But the tragedy of your position is that you are encouraging people to know your enemy and yet you are hiding a very significant aspect of the common these running through all your iterations of the enemy--- Communism, Bolshevism, the Frankfurt School into now. Below see the advertisement from the CIJA urging Canadians to support the bill C-63 . That bill would give our Canadian government Soviet-like powers to define anything they want as hate speech, punishable by up to life imprisonment.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs also asks Canadians to encourage our federal government to continue to be complicit in genocide by denying the legitimacy of the "bogus" ICJ ruling. Know Your Enemy. Please follow you own advice. If you can't take the heat please get out of the kitchen.
Wishing you well in any case Dr. Francis. You have already suffered alot for doing the right thing. If you think I'm off base, tell me so. I'm on Substack too. Civil and respectful disagreement is needed these days.
https://www.cija.ca/the_jewish_community_supports_the_online_harms_bill