The American Left and Transformational Marxism
Bernard Pyron

 In 1950 Theodore W. Adorno of the Frankfurt School, who was run out of Nazi Germany to the U.S., published The Authoritarian Personality. In this book Transformational Marxist Adorno said that the family and Christianity are the cause of Fascism and must be overthrown. The movement in the U.S. begun by the Frankfurt School intellectuals was called Political Correctness by many, and the Frankfurt School had lodged itself in our major Universities. Political correctness came largely out of the American universities following the counterculture. Transformational Marxism has not been called Marxist, and so it has gained widespread influence by stealth, since we live in the Age of Deception and in the time when the Christian church has lost the savour of its salt. Savour is from moraino, and from moros, Strong's number 3474, "dull or stupid...blockhead." The metaphor in Matthew 5: 13 and Luke 14: 34 about salt loosing its savour turns out to be about a loss of cognitive clarity or intelligence, which, for the church, is loss of spiritual intelligence.

Now  the Left is influenced by  Transformational Marxist Ideology, but it is also Communist and Fascist.  Yet many American Leftists or Communists do not fully realize that the Transformational Marxism of the Frankfurt School began as a mix of Marx with Freud. It was Marxist but not the Bolshevism of Lenin and Stalin. In the U.S. Transformational Marxism mixed American personality and social psychology with Marx.

But the Republicans have their counterpart of the Frankfurt School with its mix of Marx with psychology. On the Right, the Republicans had the Neo-Conservative movement, coming down to the 20th  century from the Marxists of the City College of New York of the thirties. Irving Kristol (1920–2009), Nathan Glazer, Daniel Bell, and others were Marxists who met at Alcove 1 of the City College of NY in the thirties. The Neo-Con movement grew out of these Leftists, especially from Irving Kristol - and his son William Kristol. Then, during the administration of Bush Junior, the Neo-Cons included Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Richard Perle. There is no evidence of many psychologists joining the ranks of the Neo-Cons, or of them mixing political Marxism with psychology. The Neo-Cons, however, overtly support the nation of Israel.

One of the top Frankfurters, Theodore W. Adorno, was at the University of California at Berkeley, while another Frankfurter, Herbert Marcuse, was first at Brandeis and later at the University of California, San Diego. There were several American psychologists and psychiatrists and an important educational psychologist who were not original Frankfurters but joined the ranks of the change agents in the universities. There were self psychologists Carl Rogers and A.M. Maslow,and also Erick Fromm, Normon O. Brown and Irvin Yalom. The important Transformational Marxist educational psychologist was Benjamin Bloom, who wrote and directed writing of two volumes on the Taxonomy of Educational Goals, first published as early as 1956. Every American teacher has to be certified on the basis of knowledge of Bloom's Taxonomies. He and his fellow change agents transformed our educational system into what James Lloyd calls "slave school."

In social psychology there was another branch of Transformational Marxism, the Group Dynamics Movement, started by Kurt Lewin. The social psychologists of Group Dynamics, like Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter and Kurt Back contributed the experimental study and theory of how to create cohesive small groups in which attitudes and beliefs can be more effectively changed, which fed into the Encounter Group Movement of the sixties and seventies, with Carl Rogers, and his side kick William Coulson, who became the repentant psychologist after they destroyed the Sacred Heart of Mary institution in California with their dialectic. The dialectic is Marxist and Freudian in the sense that it is an argument against that which is absolute, either absolute truth as in the Word of God, or absolute morality. For the Marxist and psychological mind, truth is relative, never absolute, and morals are never fixed and unchanging. Our institutions have become dysfunctional to a great extent as the result of the influence of Transformational Marxism, and the inability of Americans to discern what was happening under this movement. Psychology knows only two part man, body and mind, and knows nothing of man's own spirit which, under psychology and Marx, is dead.

"In the eyes of the dialectical philosophy, nothing is established for
all time, nothing is absolute or sacred." (Karl Marx)

For Transformational Marxism and the dialectic mind there are no absolute
truths and no absolute morals. Everything is relative and subject to
dialogue within
the dialectic process, with more emphasis on relationships and
feelings than on truth
or morals.

Benjamin Bloom, who wrote the two volume book on the Taxonomy
of Educational Goal Objectives, by which all teachers must be
certified, said "“We recognize the point of view that
truth and knowledge are only relative and that there are no hard and
fast truths which exist for all time and places.” (Benjamin Bloom, et
al., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Book 1, Cognitive Domain)

Dean Gotcher found a footnote in Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives Book 2, Affective Domain, on the "Weltanschaaung" or world
view Bloom was following. On
page 166 of this volume Bloom acknowledges the influence of Theodore W. Adorno
and Eric Fromm on the psychological theory, philosophy or ideology
contained in his two volumes, Educational Goal taxonomies. Book II
Affective Domain p. 166. Bloom used the German word Weltanschaaung on this
page of his book to refer to the philosophy underlying Bloom's
educational goals.

The Transformational Marxists - and the contemporary hard core Left is especially opposed to the leadership of the family by the father figure and they are opposed to Christianity.

"Once the earthly family is discovered to be the secret of the
heavenly family, the former must be destroyed (annihilated), in theory
and in practice." Karl Marx, Feuerbach Thesis #4

“The authoritarian family becomes the factory in which the state’s
structure and ideology are molded.” Wilhelm Reich in The Mass Psychology of Fascism.

“The conception of the ideal family situation for the child:
uncritical obedience to the father and elders, pressures directed
unilaterally from above to below, inhibition of spontaneity and
emphasis on conformity to externally imposed values.” Theodore. W.
Adorno, The Authoritarian Personality

“Psychoanalysis must treat religion as a neurosis.” Norman O. Brown in Life
Against Death.

“God is conceived more directly after a parental image and thus as a
source of support and as a guiding and sometimes punishing
authority.” Theodor W. Adorno The Authoritarian Personality (1950).

“It is not individualism that fulfills the individual, on the
contrary it destroys him. Society is the necessary framework through
which freedom and individuality are made realities… only in a
socialist society.” Karl Marx

"One of the most fascinating aspects of group therapy is that
everyone is born again, born together in the group." “Few individuals,
as Asch has shown, can maintain their objectivity [belief in parent or
God] in the face of apparent group unanimity; ...” Irvin D. Yalom
Theory and Practice and Group Psychotherapy

“The individual accepts the new system of values and beliefs by
accepting belongingness to the group.” Kurt Lewin in Kenneth Benne
Human Relations in Curriculum Change

Kurt Lewin was the Marxist social psychologist who began the Group
Dynamics movement, which, among other things, taught the importance of
group cohesiveness in changing human values, beliefs, attitudes and
behavior. To bring about the change in society and in individuals the Transformational
Marxists wanted, they, as personality and social psychologists, had to learn to
create cohesive small groups. In a cohesive small group the facilitator can manipulate
the group to pressure deviant individuals to change their beliefs and attitudes.

"Small groups are the most effective way of closing the back door of
your church." Rick Warren