The Red Trojan Horse: A Concise Analysis of Cultural Marxism

It is true, this is a flawed gem, as a reviewer put it in his commentary. It's a book that wasn't edited as it should have been, but the point is --as the same reviewer sustain-- that this is a very important book on a topic that, by the way, is really hard to condensate in just 145 pages.Now, two things are important to observe: One: Cultural Marxism (CM) is not one thing, but a vast aggregate of several, and with practical origins in the beginnings of the twentieth century. Two: It is real, I mean, it is not a theory, it is way of getting power without the limitations neither of time (this is a very important part indeed) nor space. So it doesn't matter the "when," and it doesn't matter the "where." This strategy --if we could call it in some way-- is a timeless strategy.I have read some books on the topic but what characterizes Elder's work is his capacity for dismantle an idea in its constituent parts, in terms of components and (very important) in terms of the moments that those components began to appear and being incorporated in the whole set. We are talking here, believe it or not, of a pyramid, not a field of dispersed stones. We are talking about geometry.That's the reason, in fact, behind the organization of the book: Part 1 is the history of Cultural Marxism; Part 2 is about Cultural Marxism today.In part 1 you see how and why CM appeared as a new possibility to the classical Marxism. (As a matter of fact, reading this part in the preview I knew that I needed the book.) And this is not trivial, because it is not easy to take a very volatile set of postulates or principles, and arranging them in order to represent them as a coherent narrative. Elder did it.In part 2, you see why you should consider to do something.In a wider sense, it is notable the capacity that the author has for rendering so a prickly affair like this, with so simple words. The secret, I believe, is the order, the sequence that he follows for conveying the history in a compact and compelling narrative.The main characters are Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Franz Boas, Antonio Gramsci, Margaret Mead.And the structure and the organization of CM, in order to transform the ideas involved into action, and the action into a reality in the western world, was developed by the so called Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. In Elder's words: "The concepts of Classical Marxism, Freudian psychoanalysis, and Boasian anthropology, would form an intellectual foundation for what would become Cultural Marxism; the primary developers of these ideas and concepts, would be a small group of Marxists who would become known as the Frankfurt School" (p. 49).This basal group made up the guidelines and worked on them in several western countries, especially the U.S. (I guess a good demonstration of the success of this "plot" has been represented by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff in "The Coddling of the American Mind.")By the way, some problems remain to be solved, as those that have to do with legitimate demands of people that, in general terms, just suffer. Not all members of minorities are Marxists, not all of them want to destroy the western culture. I'm pretty sure that a good portion of that people just want to live in a better world, and sometimes, as you read the book, you see that they appear too caricatured, as puppets, and obviously there must be some of them that are only trying to exert their legitimate rights.Nevertheless, in the final summation the balance is highly positive. In just 145 pages, as it was said, there is all you need so as to put some order in a very disordered topic, with nuances and commentators that complicate the problem just for, most of the time, adding vagueness, hurdles, and a convenient dose of conundrums, which is necessary to keep the idea alive. (If you don't know, the saying goes, sow the confusion.)I know that Elder is working in his second book on the topic. I hope it will be coming soon.By now: five shinning stars.

The Red Trojan Horse by Alasdair Elder is a concise & fantastic introduction to critical theory, cultural Marxism, and the ongoing Woke derangement that we are witnessing as of 2021. I highly recommend it for any lay person who wants a readable guide to this important topic.It is concise and so many topics were covered in mere 170 pages. The author introduces Marxist concepts and obviously criticizes each of them, because this evil deserves to be exposed and shamed.I think Marxism is the current generation's big fight. Everyone needs to understand this evil and twisted ideology which has infested the entire western world. It is coming soon to the eastern world as well. Everyone needs to wake up to this abomination.

I subtract a star due to the tragic proofreading this work received; the book is shot through with typos and grammatical errors. That said, it is a concise primer on the subject of cultural Marxism. If you are new to the subject, and have the ability to focus on substance rather than form, this book is the perfect jumping-off point for building an understanding of the cancer that has been eating away at the West for decades. It paints a chillingly familiar picture for those who have any grasp of recent history, and, for Americans in particular, makes the rhetoric and policies of the modern Democratic Party perfectly understandable. Buy it, read it, and hope the author will use some of the proceeds to reissue a corrected version. Flawed though it may be, it is a worthwhile read.

The Red Trojan Horse: A Concise Analysis of Cultural Marxism by Alasdair Elder is the best book I've come across on the topic of cultural Marxism. This is a difficult topic which has many subtopics. I was very impressed with Alasdair Elder, who gives explanations that are succinct & meaningful. He doesn't waste your time with superfluous text; he gets right to the nitty-gritty. He makes a dense topic easy to digest, never assuming the reader already understands certain definitions or subtopics. He always provides the necessary definitions to words that most of us think we know but probably do not. This book is an eye-opener. I highly recommend this book regardless of your level of knowledge on cultural Marxism.

This is a terse, concise summary collating the alien influences on Western Civilisation for the last 100 years. No sentence is wasted. Some information is shocking. It describes how Marxism and pop psychology have been blended into Cultural Marxism and how it now pervades all aspect of Western life.There is even a chapter on the economic impact of Cultural Marxism which leads to corporations fulfilling government roles eg Diversity, HSE, CSR; mass-immigration and endless fractional reserve debt.Primarily, it can be used as a manual to dispell the claims seen daily by feminists, SJW, Leftists, Antifa and the Fake Media.It'll be my goto reference during any online debates with Far Left proponents.Certainly worth buying a hard-copy to shock your visitors with!

This is an excellent book that in 171 packed pages summarizes (but with excellent detail) the development of Cultural Marxism as a more effective theory and program than original economic Marxism but with the same goals and more results.And its current effort goes under the name - Critical Theory - the many authors are mentioned - most important for the US are Marcuse and Gramsci - with Adorno and Boas and MacKinnon expanding the scope. Since it is only 171 pages I can excuse the lack of an index, but it would be helpful, since the main perps feature in many different roles and sections of the text- there is a decent bibliography - The book provides all one needs to understand what today's Cultural war is all about.

Don't have much time to read and need a crash course on cultural Marxism?This is the book you need.Very easy to read and very complete on the subject.The when, who, what and how we are in the cultural abism as a society.Recommended.

Wokeness, identity politics, intolerance by the new left - if you want to understand where all of this came from, read this book! Very well written and concise, too.

Alasdair Elder strikes a nice balance in this book between clear and accessible writing and an academic exposition of the ideas he's exploring, along a polemical element. It's very easy to read and understand.After an excellent introduction on how cultural marxism seeks to undermine and change our society, Elder gives us a brief introduction to Kantian and Hegelian philosophy which sets CM into its historical context. We then explore Hegel's "master/slave dialectic"I don't claim to be an expert on the history of philosophy, but his overview seems thorough and concise. He then sets Karl Marx into the context of this and defines capitalism and representative government and has a clear discussion on the difference between a republic and a democracy. Something which I had never quite got my head around before.He then does a thorough deconstruction of classical Marxism, ruthlessly exposing its flaws as he sees them."The first and most obvious flaw is that Marxism is based on equality of results rather than equality of opportunity"This flaw is contrary to human nature as it seeks to make us all the same, we aren't. No vibrant, successful society can thrive out of oppression"The ultimate irony of this is that it is Marxism itself that can only be maintained through oppression."You have nothing to lose but your chains I think Marxists say - what it seems to mean in practice is, just file along here and collect a heavier and more restrictive set from us!This is an opinionated book and in the section on Sigmund Freud, Elder makes his contempt for him very clear. In fact he excoriates him and at one point describes him as a con-man and charlatan.Freud offends Elder's wish for a sound basis in science and his deep regard for the scientific method. This is the basis of much of his criticism of the woke agenda and its protagonists. They don't have any sound basis for their academic work.Elder contends that because Freud's theories lacked scientific grounding, this gave Cultural. Marxists an easy way in to undermine traditional Western scientific and cultural values. Freud's inversion of traditional sexual morals gave even more opportunities to plant the seeds of destruction within our institutions and hollow them out.The idea of social norms and values being oppressive and power based would prove to be a fertile source, one from which political correctness would one day germinate.Boas's anthropological ideas caused historical particularism, multiculturalism and cultural relativism to spring forth. The section on Margaret Mead's flawed research is particularly enlightening and illustrative.the "..fundamental problem with cultural relativism; it denies that there are any objective standards by which one can assess cultural norms and standards."Elder exposes how Mead was sent to Samoa to specifically prove a particular thesis and thus this distorted her research right from the beginning.It's stunning to read about Adorno's thesis in his book The Authoritarian Personality when relatively normal people are viewed in a distorted manner. Everything is turned on its head. (A method now used by the advocates of Critical Race Theory) It seems to be Adorno who has a sick, abnormal view of the world. It's disturbing to see how these people shaped the crazy ideas which have been passed on to us in our institutions and universities which are now doing so much harm. It seems that is what they were intended to do from the beginning. They were designed to harm and destabilise our society. It's chilling. Until I read this book, I hadn't realised how long this has been going on.The second section "Cultural Marxism Today" gets hard to read at times, not because it's badly written, it isn't, but because it is so accurate. It's painful to see laid bare how the Marxists have succeeded in manipulating and distorting so much of our social fabric by surrepticiously inserting their ideology. Elder ruthlessly exposes what has been done. Many would display this as right-wing paranoia, but that is all part of the plan as Elder points out! When seen laid out in its full array, it's chilling. Although I've been aware of what's been going on in pockets for years, in recent years (2018-2022) the pace and sinister nature of what's happening has been stepped up and many have begun to open their eyes. Alinsky's 'long march through the institutions' seems almost complete, especially in the UK. Marxist ideology is now broadcast by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and he's sincere!One criticism, I do wish that Elder wouldn't use the pointless term cis gender. It's meaningless and to use it is to give in to woke Marxist artificial definitions. There are men and there are women, that's all.This is a fairly short book and it's remarkable how Elder succinctly describes a breadth of ideas and concepts and successfully handles them all without being obscure He ends with a good summary of how we must work to save society.

Concise but complete and very insightful introduction to Cultural Marxism and its present-day consequences. The book is very systematic, analyzing the roots and evolution of this phenomenon (from Kant and Hegel to Marx, Freud and the different members of the Frankfurt School, until the present day). This essay is also very revealing from the "practical" viewpoint, since the author also describes the procedures and mechanisms through which Cultural Marxist theory is implemented for the deliberate political and social transformation of the western civilization. To my surprise, this seems to be almost the unique book covering this fundamental and pervasive ideology. Highly recommended book, complete and well written, in my opinion it is worth every penny.

Very well written and explains clearly Cultural Marxism, its history and its impact on our lives today and into the future if we allow the ideology to take control of our political, financial and social existence.