Why Wokeism is indeed Neo-Marxism #3
26 Jan 2023 16:00:00
Wokeism, a new kind of political and social phenomenon is often described as Neo-Marxism. Marxism, which was on the economic haves and have-nots, has morphed over the last 150 years into various theories which trace back their roots to marxism.
Karl Marx published his Magnum Opus, Das Kapital in 1867. In it, he not only criticized Capitalism as an economic theory but also talked about the impact of Capitalism on society. He expected workers’ revolutions in highly industrialized countries like Germany and the UK due to the abysmal working conditions of labor at that time. He expected such revolutions to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. As we know now, this happened, but not in the UK or Germany due to them being the most industrialized countries, but in the least industrialized country of Europe, ie. Russia in 1917, in the middle of WW1. In the Soviet Union or USSR, Marxist theories wreaked havoc on the masses. The power, which was seized in the name of the proletariat, was turned against the proletariat by Marx’s disciples. The Bolsheviks in USSR did really try to break social structure and family structures to a large extent. Even though most Woke advocates of the day openly support Marxism, some still deny it being Neo-Marxism.
Also Read: Introduction to Wokeism and woke culture #1
Let us try to understand why they deny it. The argument by the Woke people as well as some of its critics against it being Neo-Marxism is that Marxism was purely an economic theory that divided society into two groups of haves and have-nots. Whereas Wokeism does not care about how much wealth you own. It advocates positive discrimination against a rich black, LGBTQ, or Schedule Caste individual simply because the individual is born into that particular identity group. It advocates negative discrimination against a poor White, Straight, Upper Caste individual, simply because the individual is born into that particular identity. It doesn't care about money. Hence it is not related to marxism.
Also Read: What does it mean to be Woke? #2
Now the counter to this argument is, Marxism in its truest sense was never about economics exclusively. It was a means to get power. Marxist economic theories were means to get power for the groups which emerged in Europe after a series of revolutions in 1848. It is the doctrine that provided intellectual fodder for the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia, as well as the Maoist revolution in China. Marxism was a guide to get power by giving economic conditions as an excuse to motivate the masses. A 19th-century ‘toolkit’ if you will. If we understand this fundamental reality about Marxism, then Wokeism being Neo-Marxism, again a toolkit to grab power can be understood easily. But we need not jump directly from Marxism to Wokeism, there were two very significant steps in between that can show us why and how Wokeism has emerged today.
Classical Marxism focused on economic haves and haves not, oppressors and oppressed, and ruling elites and their victims. The Marxist theory takes the economy as the base of social and cultural traditions. But this over-dependability on economics reduced the reachability of Marxism to the everyday problems of the people in all nations across the globe. It was Antonio Gramsci, the founder of the Communist Party of Italy (office bearer between 1910 and 1930) who modified Classical Marxism by widening its scope. Unlike Marx, the theory of Gramsci held culture as the base of everything, instead of economy. He said that the revolution must strike the culture first. He wanted to demolish the prevalent culture by establishing/introducing a new culture.
Meanwhile, in Germany, another group known as the Frankfurt School emerged during the Second World War. Its prominent leaders namely – Max Horkheimer, Theodore Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse, went on to develop the Critical Theory. These Marxists, who earlier had celebrated the Russian Revolution, became frustrated with Classical Marxism as the German masses did not mobilize against the state for a Marxist revolution. The Frankfurt School focused on the role of popular culture in society. They wanted the following: Introducing a new cultural 🡪 change in popular culture 🡪 and takeover over social institutions 🡪 through physical (violent) revolution. After Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, the threat of Nazism to the intellectuals, and the failure of the Frankfurt School to effectively propagate their thoughts to the German masses, the Frankfurt School first moved to Geneva and then to New York City in the 1930s to join the Columbia University. Philosophers like Jurgen Habermas and Herbert Marcuse attracted a new generation of Americans to the Marxist movement. Jurgen Habermas was involved in an empirical study called “Students and Politics”. His active involvement in a students’ group called Students for Democratic Society (SDS) enabled this group to become one of the main representatives of the New Left in the USA. Columbia University became an important base for the furtherance of Critical Theory.
These philosophers described any theory as “critical” because they believed that their theory would liberate people from the circumstances that enslave them. Herbert Marcuse, the founder of the New Left in Germany, in his writings, said that culture, modern technology, and entertainment were the means of social control. Critical Theory became concretized after Horkheimer wrote a manifesto titled Traditional and Critical Theory. These critical theorists believed that the people in power decide what culture is. To dismantle this, a new culture was to be created. The Critical Theory then paved the way for Postmodernism and then Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, Queer Theory, etc.
Today, Wokeism, which is an agglomeration of all these critical theories talks about all these topics. Wokeism tries to destabilize the family structure, societal structure, and political structure. It uses all the means in its toolkit to achieve power, such as Race, Caste, Gender, Sexuality, etc. Just as Marxism used Economics to grab power, Wokeism uses modern-day weapons to grab power. Marxism used Das Kapital, Wokeism used Critical Race Theory, Critical Caste Theory, and various books on radical feminism as well as ‘fluid sexuality’. Marxism as well as Wokeism, openly and overtly advocate for maximum state control, as they want to control the state that controls everything. Neither of these ‘isms’ support the free market or least government control, as that would leave too much outside of government control, the government that one day they intend to overthrow by the use of force and grab power.