Making sure we don't learn the lessons of history (not boring version)

[Note from Stephen: I wrote a long blog post on this topic with lots of primary sources, but it was very boring. My wife Meliah re-wrote the post in a more compelling way. This post is Meliah's re-write. For the original longer post, click here.]

Once upon a time, not too long ago, people wanted to study history to learn how civilizations rose and fell. They desired to know what made things work well, and what made things fail. This study naturally revealed that the Western World was unique throughout the history of humanity. One need not look long to see that the science, art, law, technology, and morality of the West was a singular occurrence. Further examination would easily reveal that Christianity and capitalism were twin goods that led to millions of people being lifted from poverty and to a human rights phenomenon that had abolished slavery, empowered women, and let freedom ring throughout the western world.

This is not a popular position now though. Students are no longer taught to examine history through a comparative lens. They aren’t even taught the accomplishments of the West. They are indoctrinated with the West’s failures and blemishes. They are taught that the very mechanisms that propelled the West to freedom and prosperity--namely Christianity and capitalism--are inequitable and evil.

So what happened? How did the truth of Western Civilization and the reality of the good of Christianity and capitalism get buried? I refer to it as the “history coup” because on further examination--a coup is exactly what happened.

Let’s go back to Karl Marx--the father of Communism. He was opposed to both capitalism and all religion, and he had a lot of followers. His vision of a utopian future burned out when millions died in blood and horror in Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba and everywhere else his philosophies were implemented. As the middle class grew in the Western world, and as communist countries floundered wherever they were, the common man left communism in the ash heap of history. 

But not everyone consigned Marxism to the dustbin. There were those who still imagined that it could work despite all the evidence to the contrary. Maybe they didn’t like the confining morality of Christianity? Maybe they didn’t like the hard work and struggle required by capitalism, or the way the market sometimes picks winners and losers? Christianity and capitalism both allow for people to choose and sometimes choices made by people lead to loss and suffering. Maybe this was too high a price for those who dreamed of a more “equitable” world? 

Whatever their reasons, the most influential “neo-Marxists” were part of the Frankfurt School in the 1930s in Germany. They took ideas from Gyorgy Lukacs and Antonio Gramsci that changed the focus of Marxism to a cultural hegemony--basically revolution by culture instead of by war or political action. Their goal was still to bring down Christianity and capitalism, but their focus was on winning the culture. They left the failed names of Marxism and Communism for their philosophy behind and instead took the name of “Critical Theory.”

Wait, what? Critical Theory--as in Critical Race Theory? Really? Isn’t this everywhere? Can’t we go ten minutes without hearing about this? I thought we were learning about comparative historical analysis? How did Critical Theory raise its head here? Weird, right? Super surprising to find that Critical Theory is at the root of our historical confusion and loss of understanding about Western History. But it’s true.

Apparently, this group of neo-Marxists realized that if they wanted to overthrow Christianity and capitalism, they needed to focus on three things. First, they claimed that it isn’t possible to compare civilizations and cultures. One could no longer say--look this civilization had less poverty and more freedom--that makes it better than that civilization that oppressed people, owned slaves, and was feudal in nature. History could no longer be seen as a whole but instead had to be reduced to names and dates and no culture could be above another. Second, they claimed that any sweeping historical narratives were not legitimate because again, value judgments and interpretation would have to be used and they claimed that there was no objective truth or good. Third, they offered no concrete alternative vision of their own that could be refuted or critiqued. This insulated them from any counterargument.

Basically, they taught people to look for flaws, blemishes, and cracks in Western society and focus on them. And they stopped people from looking throughout the historical narrative so they could see the good that had come from Western civilization. They knew that they could not give a convincing replacement for capitalism or explain the West’s rise to middle class prosperity. So instead they focused on gaining influence among cultural elites and overthrowing Christianity and capitalism in the long game by slowly placing Critical Theory disciples into positions of authority in universities and education, followed by governments and cultural institutions (Hollywood, Disney, etc), until they had enough support to implement change from the top down.

But surely, people would rationally think things through and logically see that these arguments weren’t legitimate? Well, Critical Theorists dealt with this by replacing traditional rationality and common sense approaches to arguments with Hegel’s dialectic method which sounds deep but really isn’t. It destroys reason and leaves anyone trying to understand it befuddled and confused.

And thus ended the field of comparative historical analysis. The history coup was complete with the rise of Critical Theory / postmodernism in academia and education. The fact that Critical Race Theory (and other "critical" fields like gender studies, cultural studies, and queer theory that all branched off of the original Critical Theory) is everywhere and being supported in the media, by the government, by Hollywood, and throughout academic institutions is evidence that society has reached a phase that the 1930s Frankfurt school disciples could only dream about. They must believe that victory is close and that Christianity, capitalism and even the West are nearing their ultimate destruction. Maybe with the realization of what is happening, those of us who value what was built with Christianity and capitalism can begin to fight back to preserve the freedom, reason, and prosperity that took humanity so long to win.