Gramsci, Cultural Marxism and the cost of dismantling the natural family
by Roger Kiska, Christian Legal Centre:
The emergence of identity politics in Western Europe has come swiftly and aggressively. Identity politics, in essence, politicises and priorities certain ‘minority’ characteristics such as race, class, sexual orientation and religion; weaponising them against traditional norms.
While many attribute this phenomenon to the ideology of intersectionality (a philosophy which likewise tribalises people using these same labels by suggesting that culturally privileged classes and institutions have created overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination which have kept these other segments of the population marginalised), its roots are actually decades older.
Intersectionality is, at its core, a form of cultural Marxism. One key figure in the mainstreaming of cultural Marxism in Europe, despite not enjoying the popular recognition for doing so, is Antonio Francesco Gramsci. Gramsci, an Italian philosopher and politician who was imprisoned during Mussolini’s reign, wrote more than 30 notebooks and 3000 pages of history and analysis during his imprisonment. Many of his writings can be found in his 3 volume Prison Notebooks.
Cultural hegemony and the ruling class
Gramsci sought to break from Marx’s economic determinism and base his theory on the wielding and maintaining of power by the ruling class which has commonly become known as his theory of cultural hegemony. Gramsci believed that the ruling class, the bourgeoisie, used cultural institutions to maintain power. This he called hegemony. They would use ideology, rather than violence or economic force, to propagate their own values in creating the capitalist zeitgeist. Cultural hegemony is maintained by the ruling capitalist class through the institutions that make up the superstructure. Cultural Marxists define the superstructure as everything not directly to do with production such as family, culture, religion, education, media and law.
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