TAX PAYERS FUND A REVOLUTION

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Critical theory is an analytical framework that aims to identify and dismantle systems of power. It takes Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism and extends it into other domains, including race, gender, sexuality, nationality and indigeneity. Claire Lehmann, The Australian

Anti-Israel activists Elisa Tuet-Rosenberg, co-founder of Hue and Zee Mazloum

If someone wants to go all out and purchase from Hue, a Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Survey Licence and Support Package, they can expect to pay the handsome price of $4150.

These documents are to be used in the workplace as guides in dealing with employees who might be “gender diverse”, Indigenous or a person of colour. Like other forms of social justice activism, the primary concern is to influence social norms through the introduction of workplace policies, speech codes and other forms of bureaucratic oversight.

At first glance, one might wonder what gender affirmation has to do with racism. Why would a consulting agency dedicated to issues of race be in the business of transgenderism? It’s an important question because the answer sheds light on the all-encompassing nature of modern progressive activism.

Today’s activism is shaped by a philosophical worldview known as critical theory. Developed by post-WWII academics such as Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, critical theory is an analytical framework that aims to identify and dismantle systems of power. It takes Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism and extends it into other domains, including race, gender, sexuality, nationality and indigeneity. Systems of power that need to be dismantled include white supremacy, patriarchy, cis-heteronormativity, colonialism and capitalism.

This preoccupation with power is why social justice activism today comes in a package. The civil rights movements of the past focused on tangible results, such as making changes to legislation that would promote dignity and equality for all.

But since racial, gender and, later, marriage equality have become formally enshrined by law, the focus of activists has shifted from the concrete to the abstract, with the goal now being to “dismantle power”.

From the critical theory worldview, dismantling one system of power works towards dismantling other systems. This is why students carrying banners that read “Queers for Palestine” see no contradiction: it’s power that needs to be dismantled, not rights that need to be won.

This gets us back to the AHRC. The AHRC’s remit is not to dismantle power. It is a statutory body funded by the Australian government and is tasked with ensuring compliance with Australian law, namely the Racial Discrimination Act. As an instrument of power itself, any attempt to “dismantle power” would become self-contradictory. The clash of worldviews doesn’t stop there, however.

The Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 states: “It is unlawful for a person: (a) to refuse to allow another person access to or use of any place, by reason of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of that other person or of any relative or associate of that other person.”

But a visit to Hue’s website, (which is linked to by the AHRC) suggests this rule has been superseded. Hue offers events and workshops for “people of colour only”. One event, titled “Power & Resilience (People of Colour only)” purportedly “creates a safe space for people of colour at your organisation to share, reflect, connect and learn without the impact of the white gaze … the session also explores strategies for coping and wellbeing under oppressive and racist systems”.

Yet the Racial Discrimination Act does not include carve-outs allowing certain groups of people to be exclusionary or racist towards other groups of people because they feel they are living under “systems of oppression”. The legislation itself is blind to race – it simply prohibits discrimination. It’s worthwhile asking: does Hue – and the AHRC more broadly – see itself as above the law?

Unlike the Racial Discrimination Act, the critical theory definition of racism is not colourblind. Any condemnation of racism is determined by the identity of the actors engaged in it, rather than by the racism itself. And this selective condemnation also applies to rape, torture and murder.

On Hue’s LinkedIn page, an article in reference to October 7 states: “Whiteness culture is … hyper-individual, emphasising harm that takes place on an individual level, and disguising the violent systems that give rise to that harm in the first place. This culture erases ongoing ‘Israeli’ (sic) violence from our conversations and highlights and demonises the violence of resistance efforts and land defence.”

In the critical theory worldview “land defence” now outranks prohibitions against mass rape and mass murder. The mistaken notion that today’s social justice activists are passionate advocates of equality and dignity for all, rather than the carriers of a radically sectarian moral framework, has allowed establishment institutions such as the AHRC to be duped into giving them access and influence.

Activists with Tuet-Rosenberg’s worldview have effectively taken over institutions across corporate, non-profit and government sectors. Centre-leftists have no match for their zeal, and quickly find themselves defenestrated whenever there is conflict.

With companies like Hue receiving public subsidies, Australian taxpayers are funding a revolution.

DRUMGOLD IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF CRITICAL THEORY PLAYING OUT AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL

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I have written two posts on Critical Theory and its devastating impact on our world. In particular, three days ago, How Critical Theory is Destroying Western Civilisation. This was made possible because our political and educational establishments jettisoned God and His values many years ago.

I am quoting from an article in the Weekend Australian 06/08/2023 by Janet Albrechtsen

Amid all the reactions to the extraordinarily damning findings by Walter Sofronoff KC about the behaviour of ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold, one question stands out. Why? Why would a man at the pinnacle of the Australian legal profession behave so badly?

It is hard to comprehend why someone in that esteemed position could possibly think it was acceptable to try to conceal crucial evidence from the defence and, in doing so, lie not once but several times to a court, make numerous allegations he knew to be baseless, throw his staff and colleagues under the bus, and in critical respects ignore the protocols and etiquette of his profession?

The deafening silence in response to the Sofronoff report from most political and media quarters – starting with the ABC, which appears more concerned about how this important report was leaked – tells you they regard this as an irritating glitch that will slow but not stop their campaign to right social wrongs by whatever means necessary.

For these people, more convictions for sexual assault and rape are an absolute necessity if we are to mitigate what is undoubtedly a historical evil. If, in pursuit of more convictions, the occasional innocent man goes to jail, so be it. You can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs. So, this reasoning goes, a little collateral damage to principles such as the presumption of innocence, due process, and natural justice and the traditional rules of evidence is an acceptable compromise in the big scheme of things.

While we all share the aim of eliminating or reducing sexual assault, a little knowledge of history tells you that being prepared to sacrifice the odd innocent person to do so is not a trade-off a civilised society can accept. It is trite but true to say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Serious questions need to be asked of the ACT government, too. How did Drumgold get appointed to his role? Was he the best candidate? What kind of vetting took place? And this: does the ACT criminal justice system prioritise convictions over justice? Has the ACT government allowed the criminal justice system to be overrun by the most zealous members of the #MeToo movement? What other ideological obsessions of the ACT government infect the justice system?

What we see being played out is prophesied by God in His Word, the Bible, lawlessness will abound because God and His values have been jettisoned by the world. God is allowing Satan and his minions to have one last seeming victory to refine His church before rescuing it with the Rapture and then pouring out His wrath upon an unrepentant world.

SOCIETY DIVIDED: PRIVILEGED V. VICTIMS

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What they are promoting in our universities and colleges: Critical Theory insists that societies are oppressed by a hegemony of powerful ruling interests. People can be divided between those who are complicit with the hegemony and those who resist it. God does not exist. He is not a consideration. Evolution and billions of years did away with God and His Word. Take away the Creator God who made man in His image. the origin of death – man’s sin of rebellion, then who needs a Saviour? Who needs Jesus?

Humanity is viewed as divided between powerful privileged groups and powerless victim groups (and their declared allies).

‘Resource equity’ is the phrase used to demand equal outcomes between groups. In terms of knowledge, only those who have lived experience of suffering oppression can claim true knowledge of that oppression. In academic circles, this is referred to as ‘standpoint theory’. Different people have access to different truths. Those deemed to have multiple layers of privilege may be stripped of any right to comment on the position of those with less privilege. They are not allowed to question their claims.

They may be banned from speaking in public (‘Noplatforming’ is barring someone from speaking because they do not agree with certain views). People without privilege may need to be protected from hearing any opinions which damage them. The only option for those with privilege is to declare themselves to be allies of those without privilege (i.e. accept their accounts of ‘truth’). Proponents of critical theory know that their claims can’t be exposed to external critique. They have the ‘hidden knowledge’ of lived experience.

MULTIPLE TRUTHS

In 2017, Evergreen College in Washington State in the USA hit international headlines. The socially progressive president had been encouraging students to oppose any perceived discrimination, and he had an informal system of labelling faculty as either allies or enemies.

One of the teaching staff, Professor Bret Weinstein, asserted in an email: On a college campus, one’s right to speak — or to be — must never be based on skin color. But Weinstein was told by colleagues that ‘there are multiple versions of “truth” that exist at once’. And he was warned to accept the experience of minority students without question: If our students are telling us … that they are experiencing a hostile environment, we must take our students at their word. On one level, there’s still the belief that there’s no universal truth. But some activists imply that those without privilege have access to a truth that the privileged can never enjoy. The only hope for the privileged is to sign up as allies of those without privilege.

A free society should ensure equal opportunities. All human beings made in God’s image should have the opportunity to flourish. But human beings are different. There will always be a wide variety of abilities, competence, energy, motivation, and integrity. Enforcing equal outcomes demands social engineering on a vast scale. It assumes state intervention in every aspect of life. It signals the end of a free society.

God’s Word tells us that this would be the state of the world prior to Jesus’ second coming to restore righteousness. We are yet to see it, but we are heading for a one-world government, the Antichrist and the Mark of the Beast.

INJUSTICE MULTIPLIED

Critical Legal Theory: Use the Law to Right Past Wrongs: Ideas like ‘equality before the law’ and ‘justice is blind’ were part of the ‘hegemony’ of power by which the privileged kept victims oppressed.

Critical Legal Theory: New Injustices Perpetrated If someone is part of a victim class, their crime may be excused if it is thought to result from their disadvantage. We are no longer equal before the law.

‘Hate’ legislation means that if an alleged victim (or someone else) ‘perceives’ that hate has motivated a crime, then the sentence can be heavier. The law is a means by which to advance the ‘progressive’ agenda (e.g. abortion rights, same-sex marriage, or self-declaration of gender). Justice is no longer blind. Judges take on too much power when they create laws rather than applying laws.

A BREAKDOWN IN THE LOGIC OF CIVILISATION

Critical theory aims to dissolve the universe of meaning by denying the existence of objective universal truth.

If we can’t appeal to reason and logic there can be no reasoned debate. On what shared basis can civilisation continue? Such a society is vulnerable to tyranny. The subjective judgements of the loudest voices win. Those who resort to violence and intimidation are given a free pass. The great political philosopher Edmund Burke observed: Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years. Burke was writing in the context of the French Revolution. The dream of equality led straight to the ‘reign of terror’. Once universal truth has been denied, discrete groups claim their own ‘truth’ (aka experience of oppression) which others cannot comprehend. Reasoned debate is not an option. Violence is the only possible means to the end of perfect equality. That threatens the basic logic of civilisation.

Fortunately, Christians can affirm with confidence that there is such a thing as objective universal truth. And we are able to communicate with others, whatever their group identity because all human beings have been given the priceless gift of reason by their Creator.

“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:12-14

HOW CRITICAL RACE THEORY HAS DESTROYED WESTERN CIVILISATION

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As confidence faded in the bogus claims of modernism, you might hope there would be a turning back to God (the external authority who defines reality and truth). But that would mean submitting to God’s moral demands. By nature, we rebel against those demands and think that real freedom comes from doing what we want. Given the choice between submission to God or freedom without boundaries, the false utopia of unlimited liberty proves irresistible.

Western civilisation was built on the biblical worldview: respect for the individual as created in God’s image; the rule of law (rulers are accountable to God); and the creation patterns of family and work. Unprecedented numbers of people across the globe had been liberated from the grinding poverty of subsistence economies. Wealth creation had been made possible by the encouragement of innovation as well as the Christian work ethic. In a world made up of human individuals, respecting individual freedom won’t ever achieve exact equality of outcomes. Freedom allows for natural variation in competence and motivation. And there will never be perfect justice in a fallen world. But in countries influenced by the Christian worldview, inequalities have been mitigated by the Christian virtues of generosity, compassion, and social responsibility. Injustices have been challenged, and often addressed, by a variety of reform movements.

Rather than continuing such campaigns for reform, radical activists of the twentieth century set out to subvert, and ultimately destroy, Western civilisation. They regarded it as irredeemably corrupted with ideas that sustained unequal outcomes. Marx believed that workers needed to be liberated from capitalism by means of violent revolution (which would also destroy the married family, the church, and sovereign states, i.e. those institutions which propped capitalism up). By the 1920s, outside of Russia, efforts to incite violent revolt had failed. A long-term strategy of changing hearts and minds was needed.

ENTER CRITICAL THEORY TO DESTABILIZE HIERARCHIES

In the 1930s, Critical Theory developed in the Frankfurt school from scholars such as Horkheimer and Adorno with an emphasis on examining and deconstructing fascism and mass media.

Horkheimer and other radical thinkers downplayed the need to smash capitalism by means of violent revolution. They set out, instead, to undermine the ideas which propped up the establishment. Any beliefs incompatible with revolutionary thought must be silenced. Calls for ‘free speech’ would be re-defined as a repressive effort to prop up the status quo. But how do you get people to repudiate the old ideals of freedom and dignity? Get them to question the concept of truth and the meaning of language. Tell them that ‘freedom’ and ‘dignity’ are ‘just words’ and ‘words have no universal meaning’. Persuade them that those transcendent ideals are a fraud exploited by the powerful elites (the ‘hegemony’) in order to sustain their own selfish interests. Prompt them to think that believing such stuff is ‘false consciousness’.

During the twentieth century, first universities, then all the institutions of Western society, were invaded by the ‘virus’ of radical doubt built upon the theory of evolution that argues the Cosmos derived from the Big Bang. Critical theory hijacked certainty about everything. This theory was built on a lie. It began with the false premise that there is no transcendent reality – no Creator God.

From that, they concluded that the world of perception is a product of human activity. We make our own reality. As Horkheimer considered the ‘authoritarian structure’ of capitalist society, he and others concluded that the problem with liberalism (free societies) was that people were free to sort themselves into the ‘illusory harmonies’ which allow natural inequalities to exist (because of the distribution of various abilities).

According to critical theory, all hierarchies are oppressive.

The pseudo-stability of Western capitalism disguises the rotten reality. Multitudes are psychologically oppressed by inequality. This stability can only be shaken if the ideas underpinning it are challenged. Everything must be questioned. There are no universal ‘truths’. All is relative. ‘Natural privileges’ must be forcibly eliminated in order to iron out inequality.

In 1950 Adorno published The Authoritarian Personality. The traditional family was painted as a repressive institution that brainwashed people into giving up individual liberty, and conditioned them into accepting ‘father figures’. They were then softened up to demonstrate blind patriotism and acceptance of dictatorship. Adorno presented traditional ideas about family, religion, or patriotism as pathological. Capitalising on a revulsion against Hitler’s atrocities, Adorno and his colleagues labelled all authority as ‘fascist’. For the American audience, Adorno packaged the demand for revolution in the language of democracy. If you control language, you control the debate. In order to shift popular thinking from belief in absolute morality to acceptance of relativism, he redefined the concept of ‘phobia’ (an irrational fear) to make it refer to moral disapproval of certain behaviours. He associated ‘phobia’ with ‘bigotry’. People with traditional and authoritarian ‘phobias’ (against homosexuality for example), he suggested, needed re-education. That tactic was spectacularly successful. By the end of the twentieth century, many clergy refused to proclaim biblical morality because they were scared of appearing ‘bigoted’.

The Establishment then agreed that the current state of society could justify ‘strongly discriminatory tolerance on political grounds’ including the ‘cancellation of the liberal creed of free and equal discussion’. Tolerance must be withdrawn from ‘regressive movements’. There should be ‘discriminatory tolerance in favor of progressive tendencies’.

This is the pretext by which you can get rid of any who believe in absolute moral standards. This is the justification for censoring those who advocate such ‘repressive ideas’ as marital fidelity, gender as fixed, heteronormativity, or childhood innocence.

Let’s summarise five of the claims of critical theory, all of which undermine confidence in any authority, whether in the home, the lecture room, the workplace, or in society.

1. ‘TRUTH CLAIMS ARE POWER GRABS’ They aimed to persuade people that truth claims are grabs for power. Words don’t ‘mean’ anything, they are ‘tools’ to achieve what the writer or speaker wants. Critical theory was influencing many university humanities programmes by the 1980s. Students were expected to assess texts, to see if the author demonstrated sexism, racism, or homophobia. Critical theory could be used to deconstruct every subject on the curriculum, as the idea of truth itself was radically undermined.

They say, we can never know any truth about the past, and say that historians have constructed the past to suit their own (usually privileged) agenda. History has been used as a tool of oppression and it can be deconstructed, or ‘un-made’ to progress the cause of liberation.

2. ‘UNIVERSAL EXPLANATIONS ARE SUSPECT’

The next step was to label ‘universal’ human values (metanarratives) as deceptive ploys to keep powerless people from rising up. ‘Metanarratives’ are narratives about narratives; overarching explanations of events. According to this thinking, rather than respecting tradition, history, faith or moral codes, we need to consult individual stories and especially non-privileged stories. The multiplicity of these experiences opens the prospect of multiple (contradictory) truths. Take the statement ‘heterosexuality is natural’. This assertion is classed as a ‘discourse’, a power grab on behalf of the heterosexual majority in order to oppress the gay minority. Critical gender theory claims that binaries such as male/female, or fact/fiction, or reason/ emotion, are used to prop up the hegemony. They must be challenged, or at least blurred. To insist on fixed categories of anything is regarded as suspect. The ‘metanarrative’ of universal human nature is challenged. There is no way of accessing a truth that is true for everyone. The claim is that powerful groups use metanarratives to oppress the powerless. Christianity is viewed as a metanarrative, and God’s moral law is regarded as a major force of repression. Denying the validity of universal morality, we are left with my story, your story, and their story.

3. ‘REASON, LOGIC, AND SCIENCE ARE TOOLS OF OPPRESSION

Asking to test truth claims by means of science or evidence is disallowed, as it’s playing the game by rules set by the privileged. ‘Tools’ used by the privileged (science, rational argument, evidence), it is said, should be replaced with the lived experience of people in oppressed groups. Authentic knowledge is achieved within different communities. People outside those groups don’t have access to that knowledge. For example, if one particular cultural group uses ‘traditional medicine’ (including witchcraft or magic) if someone outside that group wants to test that medicine scientifically, that could be viewed as cultural oppression.

The foundation of Western culture is rational (‘straight line’, logical, scientific) discourse. This was denounced as ‘male’ thinking. The bias of male thinking, the ‘rape of our minds’, must be eliminated. All human thought, it was claimed, had been communicated from the male viewpoint, and was distorted.

The universal acid of critical theory cannot be contained. By the twenty-first century, it had dissolved the category ‘woman’. Women’s studies had to be replaced by gender studies. Now there’s fierce debate about what ‘gender’ means, and whether it’s a valid concept at all. In fact, Critical Theory can be used to subvert any academic discipline.

4. ‘DON’T QUESTION MY EXPERIENCE!’

Each person is to seek their own ‘authenticity’. Everyone can decide for themselves what is right for them. Individual experience is all-important, not an external moral or religious code.

The authentic experience of each individual must be unfettered by external rules. Increasingly, propositions are assessed, not on their rational merit, but on the status (privileged or not) of the person making the claim. Ultimately, only those who are victims, or self-proclaimed allies of victims, have the right to speak at all.

5. ‘ALL AUTHORITY STRUCTURES ARE REPRESSIVE’

Politicians, clergy, teachers, and fathers, were derided as idiotic, or painted as villains. The culture of repudiation undermined those who had previously been esteemed.

‘Outdated virtues’ of respect and deference were derided as infantile grovelling. Student protests encourage violence against the police. They are accused of complicity in upholding capitalism, regarded as ‘an army of occupation’, and decried as ‘pigs’ who could legitimately be attacked, even killed.

Reading books with pictures of mummy at home and daddy going to work were deemed to be so offensive that they had to be banned in schools. Books depicting every kind of unhappy, abusive and dysfunctional home situation were introduced in their place.

In order to undermine employers one strategy was to persuade people that all wealth creation is greedy and all private property is evil. The State should control all production and own all property.

‘Smash Capitalism’ became a common rallying cry. Many of the revolutionaries also opposed sovereign nation-states. Patriotism was derided as un-progressive; nationalism was vilified as racist.

Today, a common-sense assertion, such as ‘a boy cannot be a girl’ can be denounced as an outdated truth claim. This is how far the chaos has come. It is unbelievable but when you cast off the truth of God and His values anything goes and that is what has happened to arrive at the blatantly absurd.

Biblical prophecy tells us that this would be the state of the world prior to Jesus’ return to institute His Millennial Kingdom on this earth. We are seeing the UN taking the world towards a One World Government in order to deal with the consequences of climate change, and pestilences, such as Covid 19. All leading up to the emergence of the Antichrist and the Mark of the Beast.

This article has been adapted from the book by Sharon James, Lies We Are Told, the Truth We Must Hold: Worldviews and Their Consequences . Christian Focus Publications. Kindle Edition. Another good book by this author is How Christianity Transformed the World. My only disagreement with the author is the extent to which evolution laid the foundation for critical theory in our educational establishments.

‘MEN HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD; THAT’S WHY ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED’

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In 1983 Solzhenitsyn said, “If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’

Marxist ideology places no moral constraints on those in power. All those regarded by the ideology as ‘reactionary’ could be arrested, sent to labour camps and worked to death. Families were separated.

There was no recourse to ‘justice’. Anyone judged to be an ‘enemy of the revolution’ was, effectively, dehumanised, but that category was infinitely expandable. One suspect conversation or joke might condemn you. Children were encouraged to inform on their parents. One of the ‘heroes’ of the Soviet Union was Pavlik Morozov, who allegedly informed on his father to the Party in 1932. His father was sent to a work camp and then executed. Pavlik was, in turn, murdered (under disputed circumstances). Four members of the family were accused of his death, rounded up, and shot. A statue was erected in Pavlik’s honour. Children were taken to the statue and shown Pavlik as a hero of the Revolution because he had informed on his father and they must do likewise if necessary for the sake of the Party.

We are in the same situation today but for different reasons. During the twentieth century, first universities, then all the institutions of Western society, were invaded by the ‘virus’ of radical doubt built upon the theory of evolution that argues the Cosmos derived from the Big Bang. Critical theory hijacked certainty about everything. This theory was built on a lie. It began with the false premise that there is no transcendent reality – no Creator God. From that, they concluded that the world of perception is a product of human activity. We make our own reality. According to critical theory, all hierarchies are oppressive. The world is descending into chaos as a result and Christians will experience tribulation even great tribulation just as Biblical prophecy said they would prior to Jesus’ return to first rapture the Saints, pour out His wrath upon unrepentant earth, and then return to earth with glorified Saints to defeat the Antichrist’s army and begin His 1000-year reign on this earth.

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:7-14

“Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.“ Revelation 20:6