From Cambridge University to the Conservative Party, major institutions have been either taken over or infiltrated by the proponents of postmodernism. When I say postmodernism, I mean not just its pernicious elements – neo-Marxist identity politics, compelled speech and the assault on truth itself – but also how these elements manifest: cancel culture, climate apocalypticism, critical race theory and the erosion of liberty.
Universities were the foundation of the Enlightenment, bringing the smartest minds together to think on and attempt to answer the most difficult scientific and philosophical questions of the day. The job of these institutions is to preserve the past and then educate the young in order to pass that knowledge along.
The concept of a university, where experts in different fields gather to bounce ideas off each other, has become exploited and poisoned by extremists wanting to push their own agendas. The guardians of our nation’s heritage, from our museums to the British Library and the National Trust, seem to be more interested in trashing our history than preserving it.
Have these once great institutions become so in thrall to the woke mob that they are corrupted beyond repair?
The National Trust is trying to link Winston Churchill to the slave trade, the British Museum is attempting to ‘decolonise’ its collections and even the Conservative party is attempting to regulate speech online with its online safety bill. These once great institutions are now shadows of their former selves.
Part of the issue here is that if we set up public institutions, they tend naturally to become dominated by parasitic bureaucrats who are pushing an agenda. Perhaps merely setting our institutions up so they are publicly funded to such a great degree drastically increases the probability that they will become ideologically dominated.
You may say: “Well public institutions like those were always going to fall to the hands of the woke mob. They’re not beholden to shareholders and they don’t have to make money. But don’t worry – at least the private sector will remain sane!” Alas, the commercial world has been captured as well – partly thanks to the HR departments being given far too much power, all in the name of empathy, wellness and a work life balance. No great company was ever created by Human Resources, but many have been held back by them.
Not far behind the HR departments are the marketing teams and the advertising agencies (I have written previously about how the woke advertising world is driving customers away). You can see just how far these agencies have fallen by watching a four-minute ad break. Cast your mind back to the not-too-distant past – remember the Guinness Surfer Ad (1998) and the Yellow Pages J.R. Hartley (1983)?
These were created by the once great Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO – a legendary agency with creatives who were actually doing creative things. Now look at it. It’s more interested in winning Diversity in Advertising awards and pushing more identity politics on the public.
Not forgetting Wieden+Kennedy – in 2006 it made Honda’s famous Cog advert, one of the greatest ads of all times. Now? It has teamed up with Colin Kaepernick to call America systemically racist.
We could argue the agencies are just doing what the client wants. More likely they are both complicit, egging each other on to be ever more virtuous and moral.
Like governments around the world, major corporations are falling over themselves to issue climate pledges. One recent review of 500 commercial websites by Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority found 40% of environmental claims to be misleading in some way.
The question is, can all these great institutions be saved, or do we rebuild them?
In some sense it must be both. As Kemi Badenoch has shown, we can and should push back. In her position as Equalities Minister, Badenoch made her name by rejecting the woke Left’s race-based educational ideas, and she pushed back against her predecessor Penny Mordaunt’s ludicrous idea that people must be treated as whatever it is they claim to ‘feel’ to be that day.
Zewditu Gebreyohanes has called on National Trust members to save it from wokery, stating: “The only way we can effect change at the top, after all, is by remaining members voting en masse for the Restore Trust resolutions and council candidates.”
However, we must also build anew by creating institutions that are uncorrupted, built on tradition and serve the widening gap in the market.
Stephen Blackwood, along with many other eminent thinkers and academics including Vernon Smith, Heather Mac Donald, Harry Lewis, Ruth Wisse, Roger Kimball and Jordan Peterson, is launching a university in Savana Georgia, dedicated to seeking truth. History Reclaimed is determined to stop history being rewritten and used for political purposes. A Band of Brothers is a charity which aims to support disaffected young men to grow and develop, improving their lives and the communities they live in by pushing back against evil and pernicious terms like ‘toxic masculinity’ and ‘male privilege’.
Even new companies are being born in the fight against woke. In response to Gillette’s now infamous three minutes of man-hate, Jeremy’s Razors has started using the slogan: “Stop giving your money to woke corporations who hate you. Give it to me instead.”
I set up Uncommon Sense to give brands and companies an agency that would get back to selling their products for them, rather than trying to sell ideas and pursue ‘social justice’.
The power of the individual should never be underestimated, so don’t just sit idly by while postmodernism corrupts everything. Reach out to like-minded individuals, help set up institutions, get on the school board or re-join associations to help fight back!
If you run a business and one of your suppliers promises to be carbon neutral, ask how much that will cost you in higher prices. Will that mean your customers have to pay more? Will higher prices stop you investing in staff or new positions?
Money talks; it will be what stops the encroachment, so use it wisely. Support businesses that want the best for you and your children, not companies that hate you.
Lee Taylor is Managing Director of marketing agency Uncommon Sense.
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Cyril Northcote Parkinson (he of ‘Parkinsons Law’) wrote an essay about the ‘Spastic Organisation’. In his case it was about the promotion of incompetency, which then surrounds itself with incompetency, and this continues until the whole enterprise is incompetent. His only solution was to demolish it and start again, although there is some hope if you can slide in a few people who know what they are doing at key points and they turn it around. Its a good view of where the NHS is right now, imo.
Anyway, the problem here is not so much competence but indoctrination. My guess, a third of folk are just going along with it for an easy life, a third are somewhat convinced, but a third are the hard core who wouldn’t give this up if you wired them up to the mains electricity. The place to start is in the schools and the universities, then hope that it clears itself out in a couple of generations…
Along with Parkinson’s Law we also have the Peter Principle (in bureaucracies people get promoted to their level of incompetence). You can observe/witness it time & again.
I’m sure many of you listen to some of Delingpole’s eclectic bunch of guests on the Delingpod, but let me just give you a nod towards Ethan Van Sciver, no, I’d never heard of him either. He’s very amusing on the woke takeover of Marvel comics, well, it made me laugh.
Firstly I would like to congratulate the author on setting up an agency that explicitly doesn’t follow the “social justice agenda”. I didn’t realise one existed. I hope more spring up and that other business sectors follow this lead and start to offer alternatives. It’s also interesting to get this first-hand from an insider – that agencies clearly are following social justice agendas, which has seemed obvious to me.
As to whether an institution can be saved, I guess it depends on how far the rot has set in. If there are only a few extremists and the rest are just following sheepishly, there is some hope. If the whole place is full of raving lefties then it’s going to be a struggle – suspect the BBC falls into that category.
One of the really interesting things about the adverts mentioned (I followed the links and watched all 3) is how long they are.
They were all part of my younger years so I remember them in their time and context.
Most adverts now are manic, flashy with lots of bright colours designed for the new era of short attention spans and basically childlike responses.
The old ones were works of art in comparison.
So you will have your work cut out not only reducing the wokery but also getting younger people to engage.
This again is a conundrum because for the foreseeable future, the people with the most spending power are people like my husband and I. 60+, no mortgage or debit, savings investments and pensions and leisure time.
Good luck.
The Long March Through the Institutions has taken decades of dedicated perseverance, initially by a relatively small number of committed people, to get to this point. Reclaiming them would take just as long and in the meantime, those attempting the reclaim would be funding their opposition.
It won’t happen. The quicker and easier solution is to encourage the majority, who are often apathetic, to starve them of funding and, in the meantime set up alternative organisations.
I will not be rejoining The National Trust. I refuse to fund it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1EA2ohrt5Q&feature=emb_imp_woyt
Yuri agrees, and predicted just this.
A stunning example of how brainwashed and misinformed most people are already. https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/19/the-numbers-please/
This essay by Prof. Essfeld could be deemed to be the basis of Mr. Taylor’s piece. https://brownstone.org/articles/fiat-money-and-the-covid-regime-actually-existing-postmodernism/
Kemi Badenoch: Fully on board with the Covid hoax, crimes and discriminations. https://metatron.substack.com/p/proof-of-gatos-postulate
You must listen to James Delingpole‘s most recent podcast with cartoonist Ethan Van Sciver where they discuss the infiltration of the comic industry by the hateful woke brigade. He explains how upon being hired in the name of ‘diversity’ they proceed to ruin the art form by imposing their uniform agenda on previously popular cartoon characters. How they resent the portrayal of men as heroic and macho and of women as feminine and attractive.
James reveals the incontrovertible truth that ‘The Long March through the Institutions’ is not only Marxist in its origins, it is Satanic. The inversion of our culture and of humanity, made in the image of God, is the ultimate desire of Satan.
Hmm … I’m sorry but from a consumer perspective unwoke is as uninteresting as woke. I spend money on stuff I need and buy it where that’s convenient. Convenient here absolutely include no preaching, regardless of what is being preached.
Canceled by NT membership over this 3 years ago. I will not be preached to about actions that happened centuries before I was born.
I can only wish Lee Taylor the best of luck in his venture