Dr. Chaim C. Cohen,whose PhD. is from Hebrew U., is a social worker and teacher at the Hebrew Univ. School of Social Work, and Efrata College. He lives in Psagot, Binyamin.
Introduction: The media hid the Real Story of the campus uprisings: Social- cultural Marxist faculty 'formally' completed their coup de tat -seizure of the teaching of the social sciences and liberal arts in many America's major universities
This spring's campus protests/riots in favor of Hamas prove beyond a doubt that the ideology of social cultural Marxism now determines what millions of young Americans are taught when studying subjects such as history, sociology, psychology, literature, media and gender studies in major universities.
This spring, a Leftist dominated faculty hid behind the student protestors, and confused, debilitated administrators. The media only reported the programmed, staged antics of 'summer camp' protestors, and the very confused mumbling of university presidents appearing before Congressional committees.
But the power behind the throne, behind the campus riots, was the tenured, secure Leftist faculty. They sent the students out to protests. They told them what pro-Palestinian slogans to chant, and what ideological sound bites to voice. The administrators, in turn, knowing that their faculty unequivocally supported the students, were not able to provide strong, determined leadership to prevent anti American and anti-Jewish/Israel hate speech and campus disruptions.
How do I know? The administrators may have called in the police to provide a temporary quiet, but in the end not a single student, not a single student, was permanently punished. They all got their college credits, and all graduated with diplomas. Graduation without punishment, was the reward they received for being successful co-conspirators with the faculty.
In sum, these spring protests, brought the almost unrestrained academic power of the Leftist faculty ' out of the closet'. It is now clear to all Americans who is really determining what millions of young Americans are being taught, and much more worrisome, what these indoctrinated students are beginning to internalize as their "American' self-identify and political beliefs.
Jewish students, in the short run, were the main victims of this Leftist show of academic strength. But in the long run America and the liberal Western society will be the true victims of this ideological, academic seizure of power.
A brief, necessary 'detour': the historical development of the current Left ideology that can best be termed 'social cultural Marxism '
How did this academic coup de tat, palace revolution, come about, most of it 'under the radar, and unknown to the common American?
1.The different names of the current ideology:
The current Left ideology dominating academic education has several names: it has been termed radical progressivism, critical theory, post-colonial analysis, wokism, and social cultural Marxism. I will use the term social cultural Marxism because it shows how the 'Marxism of the twentieth first century, evolved from the Marxism of the twentieth century.
2.The historic themes common to all Left ideologies since the French Revolution
For close to two hundred years, all Left ideologies advocate these basic themes:
a) Society is composed of two conflicting forces- one being the segment of society that controls the societal forces that Oppress, and the other being the segment of society that lacks societal resources and is Oppressed
b) The goal of the Oppressed segment is to 'rise up' and seize societal control from the Oppressing segment
c) With regard to the civil societal conflict between the Oppressing and Oppressed segments, one standard of civil morality applies to the Oppressing segment, and a different standard of civil morality applies to the Oppressed segment.
d) The successful seizing of control of societal resources by the previously Oppressed segment will then enable it to 'structurally re- engineer -from above'- a more equal, and a more liberating distribution of societal resources to wider segment of the society.
Leftist ideology here contains an inherent, 'built in', contradiction/tension between a government engineering social change from above, and the maintenance of 'individual freedom/autonomy' from below.
e) Leftist ideology is 'utopian-romantically idealistic' in its historical vision. It believes that is historically possible, and even incumbent, to create a truly just, free basically egalitarian society. Because such a purpose is historically possible and imperative, attaining such an End justifies 'means' which are often not free, just or liberal.
3. The recent developmental history of social cultural Marxism
a) Traditional Marxism (beginning in the late 19th century) focused on economic class warfare. It called for the majority laboring, working class (the proletariat) to organize, unite and throw off the oppression of the minority capitalist, property owning bourgeois upper class. The majority working class would then equalize the economic conditions by nationalizing property and wealth
b)1960's-70's- by the mid twentieth century the above economic -class definition of societal conflict (capitalists as the Oppressor, and labor as the Oppressed) was beginning to lose credibility. Post World War Two social democratic regimes in Western Europe provided extensive social service benefits, and ongoing economic prosperity was established. The average laborer no longer felt economically insecure. He no longer saw himself as an Oppressed class. Also, the economic and social bankruptcy of the communist/socialist Soviet Union gave economic Marxism a 'bad name'.
And the New Left of the sixties (with which I partially identified), in both America and Europe, dropped economic Marxism and began to define 'Oppression' in non-economic terms, such as ending an imperialistic war in Vietnam, ending racist discrimination, and redefining the social role of woman-feminism.
Thus was born the first 'seeds' of a social cultural definition of Marxism.
My New Left, 1960's radical friends, after losing the political battle for societal change, then made a strategic decision to become professors in the social sciences and arts, and from their academic posts to continue their battle for radical societal change.
c) Important footnote : Already in post-World War One, the German Frankfurt School social philosophy began to define the ideology of social cultural Marxism. They saw that during World War One the laboring class defined their self-identity not in economic Marxist terms (as a proletariat) but in nationalistic terms
They retained the basic Marxist paradigm of Oppressor versus Oppressed, but redefined the identity of Oppression. They argued that the main forms of oppression in a capitalist society were the forces of a 'capitalist encouraged and imposed false consumerism' and 'sexual repression'.
d) 1970's-80's, 'The Truth is that there is no Truth: The academic Left radicals of the 60's, now holding significant academic posts, made the principle of moral relativism the corner stone of their developing social cultural Marxism. Basing themselves on trendy French philosophers they argued that all claims to ' objective, absolute truth' are simply ideological projections of one's specific social position in society's institutional power social structure. This 'philosophical' claim would allow them in the next generation to legitimize all 'fringe' social movements, easily delegitimize traditional, orthodox morality, and two generations later claim that Hamas terror is the moral equivalent of Israel's military battle for self-survival.
e)1990's -2010 – The second generation of radical, Left academic social cultural Marxists now acted to 'update' their canonized division of their 'Oppressing' and "Oppressed' social classifications, particularly focusing on self-identities in the context of 'institutional racism', 'a more radical definition of feminism' and homosexuality.
We can generalize that claims to being part of an 'Oppressed ' social entity now had very little to do with economic status, and everything to do with 'defining one's social self-identity', often in rejection of traditional, normative social self-identities.
f) 2010 till the present: Third generation radical Left academics now more formally organized the ideological framework of the social cultural Marxism, and continued to expand and 'canonize' additional minority social self identities as 'Oppressed' social entities, including all forms of 'fluid gender identities and gender transformation' and to include ALL non-White, second and third World entities (basically all non-Europeans). This was based on adopting a 'post -colonial 'social analysis.
For example, 'To be 'queer' – to live outside almost all traditional social norms – has now attained an almost a super legitimate, 'prophetic' social status. Also, they have developed the theory of 'intersectionality' which means that people of 'radical sexual social identities' are now allies in 'overthrowing social oppression' with third world Islamic movements who daily ostracize and punish all forms of sexual deviations. (I am sure one hundred years from now historians will laugh at this ideology of intersectionality).
g) Summary of the development of social cultural Marxism . So 'the results are now in'. According he latest acts of 'canonization', if you are White (that also means Jewish), of European origin, and base your social cultural identity on the traditional two parent (male and female) family, traditional organized religion, traditional community organizations, and strongly identify with national patriotism You Are The Oppressors. (I hate to say this). This means you have become the Enemy of all 'Oppressed ' social entities (as the ones defined above) in the world.
Operationally, this means that social cultural Marxism demands that we socially engineer society, in a semi totalitarian manner from above, to transfer 'societal privileges and resources from the Oppressing class to the Oppressed classes. This program of 'social engineering from above' is entitled DEI, meaning the goal is to Diversify, Equitize, and Include the above canonized Oppressed groups in a transfer/redistribution of societal statuses, privileges and resources.
This means to 'Take from the above Oppressing classes (Whites, two parent families, traditional religious') and 'Give to the above canonized Oppressed social groups, mentioned above" and thus detour around the democratic expectation that all societal groups should have basic access to society's resources, and then compete -without active governmental intervention- to build the life to which they aspire.
This essay's basic message:
I 'apologize' to my readers for the above somewhat 'heavy' philosophical detour. But it was the only way that I can demonstrate to my readers what a very serious and very powerful force social cultural Marxism has become; and what We, the defenders of Israel, of the traditional family and sexual morality, and of traditional religion, are 'up against'.
A three generation, academic Leftist revolution has put the study of the social sciences and the arts in the hands of academics now ruling with an iron fist of a basically undemocratic, non-liberal, non-tolerant social Marxist ideology.
We holders of traditional social values are the real 'underdog'. And I am not optimistic. It will take more than a generation to free the academic studies from their reign and regime. A social conservative on campus today has to feel like he is fighting, with a bow and arrow, against a well-disciplined army, with advanced intellectual weapons.
But after this 'philosophical detour' the reader should now better understand my original point that 'these campus pro Hamas 'uprisings' ' were meticulously choreographed from 'above' by the social cultural Marxist faculty rulers of the universities.
How bad is this social cultural Marxist academic regime for the Jews? Very bad!
When confronted with complicated questions of social policy and change we Jews somewhat jokingly like to ask to asking "Is it good for the Jews?' I would answer as following:
First, social cultural Marxism is bad for the Jews because it has made academic studies in the arts and social sciences a very unfriendly, even hostile, cultural-academic environment for Jews who feel proud, and want their Jewish heritage to be an important part of their self-identity. (Radical left wing social activism is a part of our Jewish cultural past, but only a fringe minority)
Jews and academic life and success are like 'fish and water, bees and honey'. Most Jews probably see academic success as the key to their extraordinary social success of assimilating into American life, and key positions in American society, in less than three generations. I am sorry to write that most Jews will probably choose to achieve academic achievement in a culturally hostile social- even anti-semitic- environments, rather than learn in in what they see as a more culturally friendly, but 'second rate' academic institutions. I worry what four years in an unfriendly academic environment will do to their Jewish self-identity. I believe that some will find their Jewish identity strengthened, but the Jewish identity of most will be weakened.
Second, and more important, social cultural Marxism has seriously destabilized American society , thus creating a fertile ground for antisemitism.
Social cultural Marxism has been a very major force in polarizing and destabilizing America, destroying the traditional social norms of the majority of moderate Americans, and destroying America's sense of national self-confidence. The result is growing sense that American society has become 'dysfunctional'. Society has to become destabilized when you argue that America was born in the 'sin of racism', and the majority White population is inherently the Oppressing Bad Guy who must be condemned to walk around with a sign of Cain on his forehead. (Admittedly the social cultural Marxism now dominating academic life is not the only cause of America's polarization and destabilizing. The white supremacy and Chistian nationalism of rural Trump America also contribute. But social cultural Marxism is the chosen topic of this article)
And for three thousand years, (be it a declining Rome, a Russia of the Czars, or the German Weimar Republic) a society that has become destabilized, and a sense of polarization and dysfunction pervades it, has always become an extremely fertile ground for the emergence and spread of the cancer of antisemitism.
And this what is happening now. American Jews had a 'golden age' when American society believed in its own goodness, and perceived itself as being open, pluralistic and liberal. When American society, and all societies in history, begin to feel polarized and dysfunctional, both the Right and the Left always first point the finger, and blame, the Jews. Jews are always the first to get the blame for society's sense of failure. This has been our historical destiny.
In brief, academic social cultural Marxism is wood and tinder of the current bonfire of campus antisemitism. The Hamas massacre of Oct. 7th is only the match that lite this raging bonfire
Summary-social cultural Marxism is destroying American academic life, and has become the major source of galloping antisemitism
First, Radical Left academics, over the last three generations, have developed a systematic ideology of social cultural Marxism until it is now the most powerful social philosophy dominating the study of the social sciences and the arts.
Second, social cultural Marxism is an inherently divisive, polarizing political ideology as it divides society into Oppressing and Oppressed social entities, and wants to reengineer America's socials structure from above. "Privileged Whites, and particularly Jews' have been labeled as the Bad Guys Oppressing class.
Third, the recent campus uprisings are the direct result of academic social cultural Marxist choreographing their students to take their ideology out of the classroom and into the street. This means teaching that Israel is a colonial settler state that deserves to be extinguished 'From the river to the sea'. Israel's post Oct. seventh war of survival provided them with a 'not to be missed' opportunity to teach their anti-semitic ideology in the street.
Four The domination of social cultural Marxism on campus has thus become an inevitable, inherent, very potent force promoting antisemitism, and anti Israelism in American society today.
Conservative, pro-Israel, Jewish forces will have to work very hard, and for a very long time, in order to disarm social cultural Marxism and repair the horrible damage it has done to Jewish and American society.