The Long March through the institutions was a slogan coined by Communist student activist Rudi Dutschke in 1967 to describe his strategy for laying the foundations for the revolution, mainly through infiltration of the institutions. The institutions are the professions such as doctors, teachers, schools but also churches. Marxist writers like Louis Althusser called this ‘Ideological state apparatuses’ and in some circles this concept is also called the ‘Cathedral’. Althusser actually went further and said our values, and beliefs are passed onto us and society makes the individual in it’s own image so to speak, which loosely does not sound that different from the views of enlightenment writers such as Rousseau that the state of human nature is inherently good but it is the society that distorts human nature and makes people act wicked, a different perspective than the Christian view of human nature or another way would be the Thomas Sowell constrained vision. Althusser continues the Marxist line of thought, synthesising Freudian, and Marx ideology. For Althusser, a social class eg the workers cannot hold state power unless it simultaneously exercises domination over and through ISA. Then once people start to unify, the revolution will happen. Even though both were writing post World War 2, there is evidence that this started earlier, and as far as America and Britain are concerned it happened in various pockets of society. Lenin as early as 1912, was already writing about the socialist activities in the USA and Europe where they were producing hundreds of magazines or pamphlets called Appealed to Reason but more significant than that is the number—it was already over 980,000 copies in circulation! It is unknown what happened to such pamphlets, but it does illustrate that people were already drawn to it though this is still a tiny percent of the US population. It is also clear that from Lenin’s writings he wanted to make religion a private affair, a total separation of church and state. A totally different view in the sense that was held by the founding fathers that the state would not interfere with matters of faith. It is also important to note the date—1912. This is 5 years before the Russian Revolution even took place in 1917, so it is even before Lenin was in government in a position of power, when the Tsars were still alive. However, it is unknown how far that Lenin was involved in those movements and that these people were acting independently for their own motives and goals. By the 1920s, though Trotsky had formed ‘the General Staff of Revolution’ in 1919 that really came into force after the civil war. They had managed to gather huge followings, especially those in the unions as well as certain catholic countries like Italy, they never managed to gain a majority. Further along, as noted by Paul Kengor in his book, The Devil and Karl Marx where he documents the infiltration of the churches, through court hearings and an investigation that took place in 1946 and 1953, that the communists did manage some success in the US Methodist church and the catholic church, where they managed to set up fake charity organisations that were really just about pushing communism rather than the gospel, they were even aware of the amount of donations given to the church in the 1920s and it went as far as some of these people were even involved in China, during their revolution. The churches were not the only ones that were taken in by communism, as intellectuals in the west were also taken in by Russia very quickly. One journalist as noted by Richard Pipes in his book, Communism a History, had celebrated an often used Soviet slogan: “I have seen the future and it works.” However rather strangely he held the idea that Russia would save the world but would not live there. It rings like some of the champagne socialists here in 2021 that they believe this ideology will save humanity, but they don’t want to live in countries like Cuba or Venezuela. And it is always the intellectuals—scientists, journalists that are the types that are more likely to fall for it. On the more positive side, the philosophers such as Bertrand Russell, Karl Popper, novelists like Andre Gide and of course George Orwell, were able to see more of reality in its own terms rather than in this false light pseudo-reality. All of this was quite distant history, and despite their minor successes they failed in achieving a revolution, though after the war, they did change tactics and reframe the ideology using terms like ‘Democratic Socialism’ in the view that you can have co-existence between the two politically, philosophically, and economically. As the years went by there were other revolutions in China, Cambodia, Cuba and Venezuela, and each time intellectuals, politicians, priests, journalists that have this weird obsession with these regimes that they offered something for the future, despite all the suffering that takes place in these hellholes that its still seen as utopia, but if it goes wrong the blame always lie elsewhere. The phrase “They were good ideas just implemented badly” springs up a lot when the faithful are forced into discussing the horrors of the regimes. While it’s not yet been a majority, there is a growing tendency especially amongst students to become socialists to deal with world issues like climate change, or the police.
A lot of the modern day left, many of which have gone to university and have done degrees like gender studies, film and tv, journalism philosophy, sociology, and even history which can be all gateways into training people to think as Althuserrian type Marxist. As soon as they finish their degrees, the chances are high they will then take a graduate job working in professional careers such as film and tv, journalism, teaching, as well as businesses. It does not necessarily have to be obvious; it can be subtle; it can be through removing of certain books or topics from the curriculum as what happened during the 60’s as noted by various writers such as Peter Hitchens and Thomas Sowell. Alongside those though, other parts of society are also sending signals out through the media, reinforcing these ideas and views. Because of the rise of social media and 24/7 access to news, as well as forums, that there has never been more isolation and yet at the same time conformity despite the paradox of choice. However even with that Britain voted in favour of Brexit, as well as voting for Conservatives again, so Labour the socialist party has not had power since Tony Blair, despite leftist populists like Jeremy Corbyn. It is undeniable though there is a massive shift in politics with more and more young people championing for socialism, and even communism, though the revolution seemingly has not happened since many countries and states have conservative or social conservative governments. Paradoxically there seems to be many institutions also marketing, selling the same politics in the west—not just the USA, but Canada, Britain to a lesser degree. Is this not the legacy of what happened in the past century? Did the revolution happen but not in the way you imagine?
Indeed, those are the questions.