The app for independent voices
Paul, when the Marxist lineage, especially through Antonio Gramsci, realized that workers in the West were not rebelling along class lines as expected, the strategy shifted toward culture. Gramsci called this cultural hegemony—the idea that long-term change would come through shaping institutions, education, media, and moral narratives rather than through direct economic revolution.
In my own work, I describe how this contributed to the rise of a bureaucratic progressive class that now functions as its own kind of oligarchic structure. In that same analysis, I suggest that Trump can be understood as a counter-revolutionary force, building a competing or “dueling” oligarchy rather than resolving the deeper cultural crisis.
The way out, as I see it, is not simply choosing one side over the other, but cultivating what Václav Havel and others called a parallel polis—networks of community life that re-root the Transcendent back into daily relationships. This happens through lived virtues and shared local needs: food, economy, culture, education, and care for one another. Over time, these relational foundations can grow into a healthier civic order from the ground up.
I explore this dynamic in more detail here:
From Critical Theory to Civic Renewal
