Killing Christ

'Hate is the driving force of communism,' ... whereas 'charity is the impelling motive of Christianity.' And under communism 'there is no moral law' and 'no personal liberty,' whereas in Christianity 'the moral law is the way which man is created to follow' and 'free will means liberty is possible, the liberty of the sons of God to do the right.'"

- Edward Bernays

I've been reading bits and pieces of The Father of Spin. Lately, as we all succumb to the outrage and confusion surrounding the peeling back of legal precedent on abortion, privacy, and more, I've been wanting to take a step back and understand the history of American culture war and the major role the white evangelical right has played in facilitating it. The history of Edward Bernays seemed like an excellent place to start. You can find a copy of this biography by Tye on LibGen. A VPN might be needed if your internet service provider is one that dislikes free books.

Library Genesis: Larry Tye - The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and The Birth of Public Relations

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The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and The Birth of Public Relations

Christianity v Communism

So how did Bernays manage to sell this dynamic? Revolutionaries, while having certainly struggled against some organized religion when it allied itself with the ruling class, have also been no stranger to engaging with religion as well. Liberation theology has been put to practice in contexts such as the Irish revolution, the Palestinian struggle, many struggles throughout Latin America, and among black communities across the US.

This use of Christianity as an anti-communist force is evident in how Bernays assisted United Fruit in counter-revolution in Guatemala. My reading of Tye's biography of Bernays has enlightened me to two evident strategies employed by Bernays. First, Bernays would rip a page out of the CIA playbook and fabricate findings to be dispersed among verified information.

Bernays' strategy of finding American experts to come and verify claims to support United Fruit's counter-revolutionary position. Secondly, these claims would be utilized in tandem with culture war, utilizing existing cultural keystones such as organized religion in combination with distorted facts, figures, or stories to generate a fabricated picture of their allies. The moralism of Christian thought was ripe for exploitation as individuals such as Carlos Armas charged in with CIA trained counter-revolutionary forces. With more spending power, more experience, and more coordination, Bernays was arguably in a better position to defend the moral position of counter-revolutionary forces.

Killing God, Building Systems

The nature of revolutionary conflict often has individuals fighting other individuals in order to appoint new leaders and build new systems. People are divvied up into their respective camps, and those in other camps further distort their views of the other in order to maintain a reality that can contend with the violence of revolutionary struggle. However, ultimately a revolutionary struggle is not about the elimination of individuals. Revolution is ultimately about the destruction of systems. Capitalism is not the exploitation performed by capitalists upon the working class; it is the system in which that exploitation occurs.

The moment anyone started to talk to Marx about morality, he would roar with laughter.

 - Karl Vörlander

When our organization begins capitulating to moralizing organizations that seek to develop "good" individuals that are fit to exist through the adherence to some moral code, we drag ourselves into a swamp of individualized branding. This changes the organization's fight from that of building a mass line to that of public relations and marketing. It is not enough to simply focus on a goal of revolution but to struggle desperately against these sorts of counter-revolutionary forces. They must be identified and dealt with in a clear and concise manner.

This is not to say that spirituality, mysticism, and morality do not exist in a world post-revolution, but they play no good part on behalf of the revolution itself. Those who fight on behalf of the revolution may also practice faith and adhere to its morals, but a revolutionary struggle stands nothing to gain from accommodating their views on moralist individualism and will always be better off releasing them back into that swamp lest the whole force be dragged in.