The Devil's Pleasure Palace : The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West

In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world’s premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited Europe for intellectual and artistic guidance, burgeoning trans-national elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war’s refugees, but many of their ideas as well, and nothing has proven more pernicious than those of the Frankfurt School and its reactionary philosophy of “critical theory.” At once overly intellectualized and emotionally juvenile, Critical Theory – like Pandora’s Box – released a horde of demons into the American psyche. When everything could be questioned, nothing could be real, and the muscular, confident empiricism that had just won the war gave way, in less than a generation, to a central-European nihilism celebrated on college campuses across the United States. Seizing the high ground of academe and the arts, the New Nihilists set about dissolving the bedrock of the country, from patriotism to marriage to the family to military service; they have sown (as Cardinal Bergoglio – now Pope Francis – once wrote of the Devil) “destruction, division, hatred, and calumny” – and all disguised as the search for truth. In __The Devil's Pleasure Palace__ we will look at the ways Critical Theory took root in America and, once established and gestated, has affected nearly every aspect of American life and society – and what can be done to stop it. In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world’s premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited Europe for intellectual and artistic guidance, the burgeoning transnational elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war’s refugees, but many of their ideas as well, and nothing has proven more pernicious than those of the Frankfurt School and its reactionary philosophy of “critical theory.”In The Devil's Pleasure Palace, Michael Walsh describes how Critical Theory released a horde of demons into the American psyche. When everything could be questioned, nothing could be real, and the muscular, confident empiricism that had just won the war gave way, in less than a generation, to a central-European nihilism celebrated on college campuses across the United States. Seizing the high ground of academe and the arts, the New Nihilists set about dissolving the bedrock of the country, from patriotism to marriage to the family to military service. They have sown, as Cardinal Bergoglio—now Pope Francis—once wrote of the Devil, “destruction, division, hatred, and calumny,” and all disguised as the search for truth.The Devil's Pleasure Palace exposes the overlooked movement that is Critical Theory and explains how it took root in America and, once established and gestated, how it has affected nearly every aspect of American life and society. In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world's premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited Europe for intellectual and artistic guidance, the burgeoning transnational elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war's refugees, but many of their ideas as well, and nothing has proven more pernicious than those of the Frankfurt School and its reactionary philosophy of “critical theory.” In The Devil's Pleasure Palace, Michael Walsh describes how Critical Theory released a horde of demons into the American psyche. When everything could be questioned, nothing could be real, and the muscular, confident empiricism that had just won the war gave way, in less than a generation, to a central-European nihilism celebrated on college campuses across the United States. Seizing the high ground of academe and the arts, the New Nihilists set about dissolving the bedrock of the country, from patriotism to marriage to the family to military service. They have sown, as Cardinal Bergoglio—now Pope Francis—once wrote of the Devil, “destruction, division, hatred, and calumny,” and all disguised as the search for truth.The Devil's Pleasure Palace exposes the overlooked movement that is Critical Theory and explains how it took root in America and, once established and gestated, how it has affected nearly every aspect of American life and society. "In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world's premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited the burgeoning transnational elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war's refugees, but many of their ideas as well, and nothing has proven more pernicious than those of the Frankfurt School and its reactionary philosophy of "critical theory." In The Devil's Pleasure Palace, Michael Walsh describes how Critical Theory released a horde of demons into the American psyche. When everything could be questioned, nothing could be real, and the muscular, confident empiricism that has just won the war gave way, in less than a generation, to a central-European nihilism celebrated on college campuses across the United States. Seizing the high ground of academe and the arts, the New Nihilists set about dissolving the bedrock of the country, from patriotism to marriage to the family to military service. They has sown, as Cardinal Bergoglio--now Pope Francis--once wrote of the Devil, "destruction, division, hatred, and calumny," and all disguised as the search for truth. The Devil's Pleasure Palace exposes the overlooked movement that is Critical Theory and explains how it took root in America and, once established and gestated how it has affected nearly every aspect of American life and society"--Dust jacket flap Contents 10 PREFACE: THE ARGUMENT 12 INTRODUCTION: OF THE DEVIL’S PLEASURE PALACE 20 CHAPTER ONE: WHOSE PARADISE? 28 CHAPTER TWO: THESIS 42 CHAPTER THREE: ANTITHESIS 50 CHAPTER FOUR: THE SLEEP OF PURE REASON PRODUCES MONSTERS 66 CHAPTER FIVE: THE DESCENT INTO HELL 78 CHAPTER SIX: THE ETERNAL FEMININE 86 CHAPTER SEVEN: OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS 104 CHAPTER EIGHT: OF WORDS AND MUSIC 124 CHAPTER NINE: THE VENUSBERG OF DEATH 134 CHAPTER TEN: WORLD WITHOUT GOD, AMEN 150 CHAPTER ELEVEN: OF EROS AND THANATOS 160 CHAPTER TWELVE: THE CONSOLATION OFPHILOSOPHY 166 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: MEPHISTO AT THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 180 CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS 192 CHAPTER FIFTEEN: OIKOPHOBES AND XENOPHILES 200 CHAPTER SIXTEEN: GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT 214 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 228 INDEX 230 The Devil's Pleasure Palace is the untold story of how communist refugees of the Frankfurt School and their doctrine of Critical Theory launched an assault on nearly every American institution, resulting today in the dominance of the far left in academe, publishing, journalism, television and popular culture.