Douglas Murray's 'War on the West' brings siege on Western culture into focus
'The War on the West' is streaming on Fox Nation
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Are the people of Western civilization responsible for the sins of the past, sins committed far before their time?
Author and Fox News contributor Douglas Murray strikes at the heart of these questions in his Fox Nation special "The War on the West," tackling key issues such as slavery, Critical Race Theory and cultural inheritance while offering perspectives on how political discourse shapes the narratives around each.
DOUGLAS MURRAY'S BOOK REVEALS WESTERN CIVILIZATION'S GREATEST ENEMY – ITSELF
The Western world continues to watch as its heroes are expunged – physically, by removing statues from their perch; mentally, by decrying the rhetoric of the same historical figures who shaped societies for years.
Working from his book by the same title, Murray and his panel of analysts plunge into the nature of anti-West sympathies while discussing their impact on education and history.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Murray turned to American Enterprise Institute research fellow and "Schoolhouse Rot" author Max Eden, asking where the origins of the deconstructive sentiment lie.
"One could argue that it starts from the very beginning," Eden said, delving into a discussion of cultural Marxism.
Cropped image of the official Presidential portrait of Thomas Jefferson (by Rembrandt Peale, Dec 31 1799) (Public Domain)
Eden said some characterize cultural Marxism as a "conspiracy theory," before digging into what the term means with a keen reference to late American writer Whittaker Chambers, a former communist agent.
"[Chambers] defined Marxism as the second-oldest religion known to man founded when the serpent whispered to Eve ‘ye shall be as gods," Eden said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It’s a profound human force, a profound desire to believe that you know good and evil and then seek to define good and evil for all others," he added.
A group of protesters burn American flags and leaflets with the flag, even as other protesters disagreed with the act, during a protest against racial inequality and police violence near Black Lives Matter Plaza, during Fourth of July holiday, in Washington, U.S., July 4, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis (Reuters/Leah Millis)
Bestselling author Heather Mac Donald chimed in next, answering Murray's question of the role cultural Marxism plays in public education.
"The teachers unions, the teacher ed. schools which have been an absolute transmission belt of anti-American victimology for decades now, are dedicated to everything but knowledge," she said. "They see teaching as about community-building, democracy, or fighting oppression, fighting racism, and teachers come out not knowing anything…"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Author and podcast host Coleman Hughes then delved into the history behind Critical Race Theory – a hot button issue set to influence parents and educators as they head to the voting booth this November.
"Basically, what happened was a group of legal scholars like Kimberle Crenshaw, Derrick Bell and others were dissatisfied with the rhetoric of the Civil Rights movement. They didn't like how Martin Luther King talked," he said, citing their dissatisfaction with the message of "Christian, common humanity" and that "race doesn't matter."
"They made a self-conscious departure from what they called the civil rights establishment and basically came up with the academic face of what used to be the Black Power movement," he added, crediting the origin of the idea that Western ideals are inherently white supremacist values.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"You have to ask yourself 'why is this happening?'" Eden said, "If your goal is to totally reform the morality of society, how do you convince people that everything they believe is good is actually bad?
To listen to Douglas Murray's panel discussion on the matter, subscribe to Fox Nation today and stream ‘The War on the West.’
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