Refers to destructive criticism of all aspects of traditional, Judeo-Christian-based culture, including family, sexual mores, religion, capitalism, patriotism, authority, morality, tradition, and similar. It was originated by the Frankfurt School, and began to infiltrate and influence Western Culture after World War II. Critical Theory doesn’t propose remedial measures; its intention is to destroy. And Critical Theory was not just something proclaimed by a few Cultural Marxists back in the mid-20th century.
It continues to this day, especially on college and university campuses, under the guise of Postmodernism and neo-Marxism. Often, first-year university students returning home for Thanksgiving inform their parents that essentially everything they believed in was wrong and evil. Critical Theory is well-crafted and devastating to the unprepared youth.
Consider the following elements of Critical Theory, as outlined in Discover the Networks (criticism of Critical Theory given in bold, and not from Discover the Networks):
- Western culture was founded on aggression towards others. The whole of Western culture since the ancient Greeks is something to be disowned. Actually, there are no benign cultures, except for those that are now extinct. All cultures have strengths and weaknesses, good and bad aspects, aggressiveness and felicity. It turns out that the culture of the West that has evolved over the centuries has created the most goodness for the most people of any culture, and has even on its own modified past weaknesses to correct error such as elimination of slavery.
- Western literature and arts endorse imperialism. Rather than reflecting “the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome,” the Western literary heritage is politically contaminated. This charge is reinforced by a critical apparatus based on gender, race and class. Othello is branded as ethnocentric; Paradise Lost as misogynistic; Hemingway as pathologically heterosexual. There will always be multiple classes in culture, even in the supposed “classless” cultures genocidally forced on people by Marxism. Western Culture has maximized the ability of individuals to move from one class to another. The postmodern criticism of Western literature and arts is fatally flawed because it is based on ideology and not on universal, objective values. Further, the blindness of Critical Theory to drastic flaws in other cultures renders its critique of the west meaningless. The deconstruction of literature and art undertaken by the Left concerning ethnocentricity, misogyny and sexuality are ideological rather than objectively logical, and are thus false critiques, not to be taken seriously, except to be condemned as dangerous propaganda.
- The Western economic system exploits the rest of the world. Globalization is a euphemism for American imperialism. The poverty of the Third World is guaranteed by debts from the International Monetary Fund and the free-market policies of the World Trade Organization. Western capitalism has elevated the living conditions of all humanity far beyond what has been contributed by any other culture. When other cultures adopt the Western economic system and find means to control fraudulent and criminal behavior, then their poverty and debt lessens, and prosperity increases.
- Victimhood should prevail over individualism. Individualism is both the cause and effect of capitalism, which in its turn produced the imperialism that now oppresses the wretched of the earth. The idea of individual human rights deriving from the Enlightenment is the one great barrier to a collectivist solution for humankind. In fact, the Left’s obsession with victimhood is a hideous and evil form of control of their so-called victim groups. Since this victim mentality is a primary source of control, the Left has no incentive to actually solve problems that plague certain subcultures. In terms of class-consciousness prevailing over individualism, the track record of such cultures in the 20th century is horrific: they created massive misery, suffering and death. Western culture and individualism provides freedom, but also mandates responsibility. And when irresponsibility is encountered, incentives are provided for people to change, and to abandon their self-inflicted victimization.
Critique: To criticize to improve is of course a good thing, but Critical Theory has a malevolent goal: the destruction of Western Civilization. See Part 1. It is especially prevalent in the humanities and social science, and produces an output of students whose view of their heritage has been significantly distorted. Finally, note that Critical Theory is only applied to Western Culture. The Left scrupulously avoids criticism of non-Western cultures such as that produced by Islamic Shariah, Hinduism, and other non-Western cultures.