Postmodernism and Leftism

Over at American Thinker, Paul Austin Murphy has a piece called "Postmodernism is Leftism" that perfectly articulates things I've felt for a long time.  The thesis is that as socialism fell out of favor in the late 60s, philosophers committed to a leftist worldview constructed a new set of ideas, consciously or not, that kept socialist ideas alive.  

He builds his article on a book by Stephen Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault .   Hicks ties part of his thinking to a religious commitment to socialism.  “You feel that socialism is true; you want it to be true; upon socialism you have pinned all your dreams of a peaceful and prosperous future society and all your hopes for solving the ills of our current society.”
Whatever the motivation, Murphy writes "It can be said that skeptical epistemology, deconstruction, etc. are all means to achieve the political ends which can't be sustained by truth, evidence and argumentation."  

I've written here many times that the denial of objective truth cannot lead anywhere good.   I've objected to postmodern nonsense time and time again.   If there is no objective truth, and truth is a "mask to power", than all that is left is raw battle for power.  If an existing political and social order is to be replaced, it first has to be delegitimized and destroyed.   If that cannot be done by argumentation, then it is diabolically cunning to cut the roots away from the very concept of argumentation and truth.  


What else can explain the recent epidemic of political movements built on ideas that fly in the face of evidence and common sense?   How else to explain why "climate change" is impervious to a simple objection that the predicted rise in oceans and mass destruction have not occurred?   Or that sex and gender are suddenly unrelated so that gender and race are mere subjective "identifications" in the mind of one individual that everyone else must acknowledge with no objective way to evaluate.  How else to understand the recent campus activities of radical leftists who shout down all who dare disagree, refuse to engage in any debate, but simply shout leftist slogans to prevent alternative viewpoints from being heard?

The article notes that "Hicks cites the example of Stanley Fish who “calls all opponents of racial preferences bigots and lumps them in with the Ku Klux Klan”. He also cites the radical feminist Andrea Dworkin. She “calls all heterosexual males rapists and repeatedly labels 'Amerika‛ a fascist state”. (So too does Chomsky!) All this, therefore, is simply a variant on the many Leftists who suffer from Tourette's syndrome when they repeatedly and uncontrollably shout “racist”, “bigot”, “xenophobe”, “Nazi”, etc. at literally anyone who dares to opposes them.

And if truth is constructed, then leftists need not concern themselves with the horrific failures of socialism in the recent events in Cuba or Venezuela.   "Rorty, as quoted by Hicks, said: 'I think that a good Left is a party that always thinks about the future and doesn’t care much about our past sins.'”  Never mind how many millions have died under communist dictatorships, it is enough to simply scream "fascist" at anyone who suggests that a reasonable immigration policy be enforced or that biological males ought not shower with 14 year old girls.

But what strikes me is the connection between postmodernism and leftism spelled out clearly. 

"..nearly all these intellectuals did indeed begin their lives as outright communists/socialists. Michel Foucault, for example, was a member of the French Communist Party from 1950 to 1953. Jean-François Lyotard was an active member of the Marxist group Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism) for twelve years. As for Jacques Derrida, he was a writer for the well-known Maoist Tel Quel journal. (Hicks quotes Derrida as saying: “Deconstruction never had meaning or interest, at least in my eyes, than as a radicalization, that is to say, also within the tradition of a certain Marxism, in a certain spirit of Marxism.”) Richard Rorty's case is less clear-cut, both in terms of political activity and ideological allegiance. Nonetheless, he once strongly supported the American Socialist Party, specifically the union leader A. Philip Randolph."

How to wake up slumbering Americans to the Trojan horses in their midst - when so many have lost the ability to think critically and when we all are lulled to sleep by the seemingly innocuous peace of 100s of entertaining cable channels and our main concern is making sure we have a retirement nest egg or something to pass on to our kids?   

I am more and more convinced it is fruitless to try to reason with those who have denied the concept of reason.   I fear what some are saying is true, a new civil war is fully underway. Wars happen when negotiations have failed.   That seems to be our state.