_The Strange Death of Marxism: The European Left in the New Millennium_ by Paul Gottfried is an account of the rise of a new European politically correct left from the ashes of Marxism. Unlike the Marxism of the past, which focused primarily on history as the culmination of a dialectical process and emphasized the struggle of the working class proletariat against the capitalist class bourgeoisie, modern day politically correct leftism has turned towards the cultural elite as the dynamo for revolution. Indeed, as Gottfried notes, the original Marxists did not advocate "alternative lifestyles", feminism, homosexual liberation, or rail against the family as oppressive in the same manner as their modern day leftist usurpers do. Gottfried argues that many of these ideas are not fundamentally European in nature but have been exported from America where they originated. This is contrary to the thesis advanced by others such as Alan Bloom in _The Closing of the American Mind_ that political correctness represents a Germanification of American universities. Against such Germanophobic tendencies of both the post-Marxist left and the neoconservative right, Gottfried maintains that political correctness is an import to Europe and began at the time of the Allied defeat of the Axis powers. In particular, Gottfried traces the rise of the Frankfurt School to the development of the therapeutic state, in which all dissenters are labeled as "potential fascists" and assigned to re-education. Echoing conservative critic Patrick Buchanan, whose book _The Decline of the West_ showed the perils of both unrestricted immigration and cultural Marxism, Gottfried shows how individuals such as Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer constructed an "authoritarian personality" type as an explicit rejection of traditional bourgeois Christian values. Others such as Herbert Marcuse and Eric Fromm contributed similar studies rejecting those deemed "regressive" or "insufficiently progressive" as potential fascists. Much of this research was motivated primarily by Jewish intellectuals under the auspices of the American Jewish Committee. Gottfried contrasts this modern cultural Marxism with the more orthodox materialist Marxism in which the working class dynamo is considered as the prime historical motivation. In particular, individuals such as Louis Althusser, although equally motivated by the philosophy of Spinoza, sought a return to this form of Marxist materialism. Gottfried argues that while the post-Marxist left rails against American imperialism and actively supports the Palestinians in the Middle East, that they are fundamentally in favor of an American hegemony provided that it is sufficiently tolerant. In particular, for many on both the left and the right, American democracy is seen as the primary motivating good to be exported to the entire world. Such a belief in American power had its origin in the Allied defeat of the Germans following World War II. In fact, following the Second World War, Germans were assigned to de-nazification camps. Many of those who had been conservative monarchists or nationalists yet opponents of the Nazis were regarded as insufficiently democratic and therefore consigned to the outer darkness of being "potential fascists". This was particularly ironic notes Gottfried because many of those who did the consigning were supporters of a far worse totalitarian regime which had an even greater death toll in the East or were even former fascists themselves. In addition, those who pointed out the many horrors of Allied occupation and the atrocities committed by the Allies during the war, such as the bombing of Dresden or the rape of German women by Soviet soldiers, were equally regarded as pro-fascist. Indeed, in the modern day political debate, any party that is deemed "reactionary" or "fascist" is instantly stifled by the far left. In Europe, many rightist parties have been suppressed or banned because of supposed sympathy for the fascists. While Gottfried admits that many of these parties may have unsavory elements within them, they do represent a part of the political process that involves the questioning of accepted wisdom and the desire to see a revived nationalism. It is disturbing to note the lust of the far left for censorship, particularly as it applies to Europe. However, Gottfried makes the point that America is equally slipping towards the left despite the apparent tendency to turn right following the so-called Reagan revolution. Indeed, Gottfried argues that the "Reagan revolution" was nothing of the sort and that Americans continue to drift in a sea of immorality and nihilism propped up by the far left. Gottfried also considers Italian communists such as Antonio Gramsci, who may have first originated the idea of the culture clash. In addition, Gottfried discusses the exploits of Jurgen Habermas, a profoundly anti-German German communist sympathizer, who has argued for banning other historians including Ernst Nolte. Indeed, those who bring up the atrocities of the communists under Stalin and others are regarded as being potential fascist sympathizers by much of the far left. This was particularly the case regarding the recent publication of the book _The Black Book of Communism_ which showed the terrors inflicted upon the world by this horrendous ideology. Gottfried considers it useful to regard the modern day post-Marxist left as a form of political religion, echoing the categories of conservative philosopher Eric Voegelin. Voegelin believed that many political philosophies constituted resuscitations of earlier Christian Gnostic heresies. Oddly, perhaps the last hope of the cultural conservatives in the coming era is turning towards the working class as a source for traditional values. As others such as Christopher Lasch have shown, the working class may frequently support socialist economics, however they are fundamentally culturally conservative. This may offer a useful opportunity for the right in regaining ground stolen from it by the pernicious influence of a post-Marxist left guiding a managerial therapeutic state actively persecuting all dissenters.
