The evolution of socialist strategies, 25 years later

I drew the first draft of this chart in 1997, when I began writing up my notes for what became Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. The flowchart is from the end of Chapter 5 and summarizes the argument developed in that chapter. Click the image to enlarge.

About those question marks at the bottom: How has the far left evolved since then? Four developments, I think.

1. Fewer true believers.
2. Left environmentalism (especially the overtly anti-humanist versions) more on the defensive.
3. Multicultural leftism is pretty much dead and replaced by balkanized group warfare.
4. Resurgence of physicalist-violence groups.

[The chart is Stephen Hicks’s Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (Scholargy Publishing, 2004, 2011). Available in hardcover or e-book at Amazon.com or in this audio-book edition:

1 thought on “The evolution of socialist strategies, 25 years later”

  1. I recently read your book Explaining Post-Modernism, and I can say unequivocally that it has had the most profound impact on my true understanding of where much of today’s seemingly haphazard noise has had a common foundation and fountain-spring.
    Thank you SO much for making this book available!

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