“Most people think of Marxism as an economic theory or, perhaps, a social theory. This isn’t sufficient. Marxism, strange as it may sound, is a theology, the basis for a religion. This isn’t to say that Marxism or Communism is like a religion. It is to say that it literally is a religion. The basis of the Marxian theology is work, or, as they tend to have it, the work. You must do the work. The work is the basis of the Marxian theology in the same way that submission is the basis of Islam and atonement by grace through the sacrifice of Jesus as Christ is the basis of Christianity. In this groundbreaking episode of the New Discourses Podcast, James Lindsay dives into the Marxian literature, including the writings of Karl Marx himself, to show that Marxism should be thought of as a theology by clarifying how this theology works. Understanding the theological nature of Marxism will, in turn, shed considerable light on the theological nature of Wokeness. Join James for this intense, in-depth discussion.”
The subject of Gnosticism is one of the most important and impactful areas of study in world history, with tremendous consequences both ancient and modern few non-initiates can fathom. It has fascinated a wide range of dedicated scholars with which LRC readers are familiar. Here is a recommended Anti-Gnostic reading list.
Over two years ago I sat and reflected very hard after almost fifty years of intense thought, observation and reading about politics what the Left was really all about. I wanted to go beyond the superficial labels and rhetoric to the ultimate ontological reality — that which deals with the nature of being.
Leftists, ultimately can be traced back to ancient pagans, particularly the Gnostics, who did not believe the Universe was created by a transcendent Other (which we call God). They are in total revolt and total denial of the very facts of Creatology and Cosmology. Like their Gnostic forebears, they hate the material creation of the Universe by this “God” (whom the Gnostics called the Demiurge.)
This is most profoundly found in the writing of Karl Marx, who was a militant atheist who hated and was envious of “God” for creating the Universe. Marx, in his unfathomable, maniacal megalomania, wanted to destroy “God” and the world in which he lived and recreate a new world in his image.
From the seductive serpent in the Garden of Eden to Marx and his delusional followers, the essential message of the Left to humanity is believe in and follow us in our path of destruction and “You shall be as gods,” and create an athesied paradise of a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. This is the goal of the neopagan pantheist Religious Left and its syncretistic, egalitarian vision of a Sophianic Millennium — the deification of humanity.
Murray Rothbard’s Karl Marx: Communist as Religious Eschatologist, recognizes all this and is therefore the most definitive analysis and destructive weapon against the ideas of Marx and the Left. Rothbard traces the malevolent historic legacy of the Left as no one before. Particular note his brilliant discussion of Reabsorption Theology.
Christianity and the West have been at war for hundreds of years with a succession of gnostic political religions and mass movements seeking to impose brutal elite rule and mastery of their subject peoples. These sinister efforts have been responsible for untold death, destruction, and misery. Over one hundred million persons alone perished in the 20th Century as a result of these murderous totalitarian regimes.
The study of the construction of pseudo-secular gnostic religions has been one of the principal obsessions of my life since I heard Gerhart Niemeyer of Notre Dame lecture on it in 1975 at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s Western Summer School at Thomas Aquinas College. Niemeyer was a keen student of Eric Voegelin on these matters, as was Murray Rothbard.
I believe understanding this 2000 year battle between orthodox Roman Catholic Christianity and Gnosticism is the ultimate key to unlocking the history of the previous two millennia.
This is the penultimate menace that Western Civilization, and especially the United States, faces today. This is what has motivated the destructive riotous mobs of thugs and looters in the streets, the craven willfully ignorant “cancel culture” corporatists, the seditious professoriat in court academia, and the prestitutes in the establishment regime media.
12:15 pm on February 10, 2022
