One of the most pervasive and contentious claims that has arisen from the contemporary Right revolves around the existence of ‘Cultural Marxism’. Broadly speaking, this term refers to the idea that Identity Politics is a form of clandestine Marxism that results from the latter’s ignoble retreat from the field of political economy into the territory of cultural criticism. A retreat that was mainly planned and executed by intellectuals associated with the Frankfurt School, before being carried forward by French Post-Structuralists.
The argument goes that the failure of Actually Existing Communism - primarily marked by the atrocities committed under Stalin - meant that Marxist intellectuals where faced with a difficult choice: either renounce their theoretical edifice or apply it to new fields. The theory claims that those who choose the latter path, developed the discipline of Critical Theory, which itself paved the way for Identity Politics, Woke Culture and Intersectional theory.
In this pyroseminar, I’ll be exploring whether the ‘Politics of Difference’ is really in thrall to Marxism, or whether it is actually the clandestine handmaiden of Capitalism. By exploring this question, we’ll be asking, ‘which master does the contemporary political ideology really serve’.
This seminar will be building on my last pyroseminar, so I recommend watching it first. Click here to watch.
As always, the seminar can be watched live or later via Patreon. To access this - and all other - pyroseminars, you just need to be signed up to the Flame level, or above, on Patreon.
OTHER PYROSEMINARS INCLUDE:
Embracing the Absurd | Atheism isn’t Enough
Beyond Belief | Christianity and Ideology Critique
The Alien from Inner Space | Sin and Prometheus
On Love | The Unwanted Gift of Nothing
Embracing Failure | On Not Getting what you Want
The Tech of Pyrotheology | Transformance Art
The Tech of Pyrotheology | Decentering Practices
Freedom from Meaning | Drive, Grace, the Absurd
The Last Guru | On Fantasy and Transference
Escaping the Sitcom | On Brent and Gargoyles
Catching Light | Lewis and the Sublime
God After God | The Certainty of Doubt
Joined by Lack | The Ontic and the Metaphysical
Confronting the Holy | Whole or Hole
Losing the Lost Object | On Conversion
On Envy and Jealousy | Girard and Christology
Deranged Animal | Desire, Drive and The Thing
The Meaning in Life | Drive and the Transcendental
Alienation Times Two | Traversing the Fantasy
God Forsaking God | Conversion, Forgiveness, Joy
Who is No. 1 | Peterson, PC and the Unconscious
Is God Dead | The Event of Radical Theology
Mapping Pyrotheology | Returning to the Start
Problem or Symptom | The Zizek/Peterson Debate
The Self-Castration of God | Authority, Freedom, Kenosis
The Magic Trick of Christianity | Pledge, Turn and Prestige
Identical Wines | Salvation and Object a
A Contingent Gristle of the Real | Joker and Divine Violence