Stephen Hicks: From the Falsification of Marxism to Post-Modernism

Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks is a Canadian-American philosopher who teaches at Rockford University, where he also directs the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.

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This channel aims at extracting central points of presentations into short clips. The topics cover the problems of leftist ideology and the consequences for society. The aim is to move free speech advocates forward and fight against the culture of SJWs.

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[PhilosophyInsights]

Breaking News: The comment section encounters a high infestation of Marxism. You may encounter fact denial and confusion. However, I am sure, the next time their failed system will work, because all others where not real socialism. In the meanwhile try not to end up in a gulag. peace.

[bluewater]

One of the best analysis of the Marxist mindset that I have heard so far. He is spot on comparing Marxism to a faith based religion.

[RememberNineEleven]

A skeptical Polish colleague commented that during the time of Soviet control of Poland - "They pretended to pay us, we pretended to work". Perfectly sums up the economical result of Post Modernism.

[paulharris]

I have found it interesting that many lefties I have personally known - who became very successful, stopped ragging for and with their former fellow lefties, and, to boot, make sure
that their kids go to "the best" schools possible...

[craxd]

The problem we have within the US, is primary education feeding a lie to malleable young minds about Marxism and capitalism. Prof. Mary Grabar, Ph.D., from the University of Georgia, in 2002, wrote this:

"Bill Ayers likens a traditional school to prison because it requires students adhere to dress codes, schedules, and rules of discipline. But he has had captive audiences and has used his power as a professor to indoctrinate future teachers. His education philosophy is based on anarchism, progressivism, and Marxism. It’s all about radicalizing children in social justice lessons, and making them see themselves as victims of an evil capitalistic system."

"I want to show that although Ayers was a failed bomber, he was successful in helping to transform and destroy education. And he did it at taxpayers’ expense. He has trained hundreds of teachers. He worked closely with Obama and [U.S. Secretary of Education] Arne Duncan in Chicago in funding programs aimed at radicalizing students. One of his closest colleagues, Linda Darling-Hammond, was on Obama’s education transition team, and was in charge of developing one of the two Common Core tests. And Bill Ayers has appeared at conferences with Duncan and other officials in organizations that devised Common Core."

"What Bill Ayers would have in the classroom extends the 1960s agenda of smashing monogamy, ending the bourgeois family and its values, destroying the work ethic, [and] patriotism. So what we have is kids indoctrinated with lessons about the police—the 1960s narrative about the “pigs”—fatherless, rootless, joining gangs, and looting in the streets. It’s a Marxist’s dream come true. Those like Bill Ayers don’t have to do the dangerous work of setting bombs any more. They can watch the Crips and the Bloods unite against the police, as we’ve been seeing on the streets of Baltimore. They can watch from the comfort of their homes in nice gentrified neighborhoods, as they collect retirement checks and honoraria for speaking gigs."[sic]

[ableasdale]

5:45, "So when your constructions fail, you start to be a Deconstructionist." <-- This

[normalizedinsanity]

Socialised insanity

I’m a transistorized, transgenederized, modernized transhuman.
A corporatized, commercialized, industrial-strength consumer
A goal setting, gym sweating, debt fretting freak
A social climbing networker that’s always on heat
I got my education, majoring in indoctrination
Where they taught me to comply, to never question why
And so I’m chasing an illusion, of success that’s a delusion
That is sending me insane, exploding my brain
Because there is no greater profanity, than treating your humanity
As a mere commodity, its depraved insanity
And so as we teeter on the brink, soon to be extinct
I always wear a smile, cos I’m living in denial


Indoctrinated zombies

[chrisgavin]

Communism in 1920 “we didn’t lose, we simply failed to win.”

[whale]

If communism and cancer had a lovechild, it'd be this comment section.

[soapbxprod]

Ayn Rand and Mises and Hayek and Rothbard were correct about almost everything.

[CommieHamiHa]

The first time I hear "alternative facts" I thought the term was completely useless. Steven Hicks is living proof otherwise.

[ConservativeAnthem]

Hicks is an absolute genius of message delivery.

[nvk]

A couple of points: Marxism did not become postmodernism, in fact they have often been enemies (Habermas-Lyotard for example). Some scholars even see the postmodern turn as a conservative movement. Second, it is easy for arm chair critics today to simply claim that Marxism, socialism etc was and is nothing but trouble, however, you should consider that without all those nasty workers movements and socialists there would be no middle class, no 8 hour work day and your kid would still work in a mine. It's simply historically incorrect to claim otherwise. Read up on what capitalism looked like during Marx' days and get absolutely horrified by how absolutely terrifying it was. Stop viewing Marxism through the prism of the 20th century and understand that a free market system only creates the possibility of material wealth, but that without democracy and regulation it leads to oligarchy, not prosperity. Third, the middle class (especially in the US) has been shrinking in the last decades while the rich get richer, so in the long run (if the trend continues) Marx was absolutely right. Communism both in theory and practice is not desirable at all, however, our current wealth and comfort is not the result of 19th century unbridled capitalism. It is the result of the democratization of the free market.

[risingpower]

I have been trying to get people to read Hicks' book.
I have been contending with postmodernists all my life, without knowing what I was up against. There was no name for what was happening to me, except for injustice.
Imagine trying to reason with people who don't beleive in it? How can you present facts to change people, when they don't believe in facts.
Postmodernism is the END of Western society.
I will spread the word, and I hope all you guys do too.

[gratedrawur]

I've never encountered Hicks before this moment, and I don't know if there's a more elaborate version of what he says in this video, but then again who ever did serious research before posting a fucking YouTube comment?

Preceding the rhetorical circle-jerk that ensued because of the fellow to the left of the audience, Hicks basically asserts that Marx's original formulation of capitalism's end-game has not come to pass. To me, this seems positively untrue. Does the West not have a 1%? Do we not have an increasingly oligarchical model in the areas of the economy that actually matter, i.e. energy, technology, and media? I would like to know his thoughts on Neoliberalism, which I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) to be the newly realized end-game of late-Capitalism. That's another thing: who the fuck deals with classical Marx anymore? Classical Marx is no longer relevant - rather, go after his later, more relevant derivations.

edit: I'm adding a comment I saw by hal900x, which resonated with my complaint...

"This guy basically describes our current fiscal situation (increased economic stratification, monolithic corporatism, shrinking middle class) and then says "it's just the opposite!" with no sources whatsoever."

[dustinheffker]

His movie Nietzsche and the Nazis, the part breaking down Nietzsche's philosophy, had the biggest impact on my life. Jordan Peterson is also another great mind.

[jameshunt]

I'm not a Marxist and I pretty much agree with what he says here, but it's pretty much conjecture and the fact that he leans heavily into the religous analogy I think is a mistep, I think you could totally pick it to pieces using Kante as the basis of your argument. I'm not a particularly religous man, but science definitely does not disprove religion and the people who think it does, in my experience, seem to be both arrogant and have not given it enough thought. Ironically the leap of faith required to be an aetheist is just as big if not bigger than the one required to be a believer, so much so in fact that it is basically a religion in itself, but it lacks the positive elements of religion.

[TheCultureCommentary]

This speech actually was held here in Sweden. He visited Sweden when his book "Explaining Postmodernism" was released in swedish translation. "Postmodernismens förklaring"

[markdavies]

Alas incorrect - Marx did not say "The poor get poorer", he did say "The rich get rich faster than the poor through accumulation" - the iron law of immiseration is refuted in both Grundrisse and Theories of Surplus Value.

[mikeborrelli]

It was such a problem that Herbert Marcuse found 1940's Santa Monica California to be unbearably depressing.. I think what depressed him most was that it was a living breathing example that his critical theory was total and utter dog shit..