Video The Marxist Critique of Postmodernism
Core Argument¶
The central thesis is that postmodernism is not merely an academic fashion but a coherent ideological response to the political defeats of the working class and the structural crisis of capitalism since the 1970s. The article argues that postmodernism functions as a form of idealist philosophy that systematically undermines the possibility of objective truth, class struggle, and revolutionary transformation. It claims that postmodernism, despite its self-presentation as radical and subversive, serves the interests of the ruling class by fragmenting collective resistance into identity-based struggles, thereby disarming the working class precisely when capitalism requires a unified challenge. The argument is that Marxism must be defended not as one philosophy among many, but as the only theoretical framework capable of grasping the totality of capitalist society and providing a basis for its revolutionary overthrow.
Theoretical Grounding¶
The analysis is rooted in the Marxist philosophical tradition of dialectical materialism, drawing explicitly on the work of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. It situates postmodernism as the latest expression of bourgeois idealism — a philosophy that prioritises subjective consciousness, discourse, and language over material reality and the objective laws of historical development. The article invokes the Marxist distinction between base and superstructure, arguing that postmodernism reflects the superstructural expression of a period of capitalist crisis and working-class retreat. It also draws on Lenin's critique of subjectivism in Materialism and Empirio-Criticism and Trotsky's insistence on the necessity of objective truth for revolutionary politics. The argument sits within the broader Marxist tradition of critiquing bourgeois philosophy as ideology — from Marx's early critique of Hegel and the Young Hegelians, through Lenin's polemics against Machism, to the later Marxist critiques of structuralism and post-structuralism. The article positions itself against the academic left's accommodation to postmodernism, which it treats as a form of opportunism that has abandoned the materialist conception of history.
Conjunctural Relevance¶
The article connects postmodernism directly to the political and economic conjuncture of the post-2008 crisis period. It argues that the rise of postmodernism corresponds historically to the defeat of the working-class movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the onset of neoliberalism, and the collapse of Stalinism. The 2017 date of the original talk places it in a period of renewed global instability — the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash, the rise of right-wing populism, the Brexit vote, and the election of Trump. The article contends that postmodernism's rejection of grand narratives and objective truth leaves the working class defenceless against the lies and propaganda of the ruling class, from climate change denial to the manipulation of social media. It argues that the fragmentation of the left into competing identity groups, each with its own epistemology and truth-claims, mirrors the fragmentation of the working class under neoliberalism and prevents the formation of a united revolutionary movement. The article is therefore not a purely academic exercise but a political intervention aimed at the contemporary left, warning that the adoption of postmodernist methods leads to political paralysis.
Where the Argument Continues¶
The article is a video presentation, which necessarily compresses a complex theoretical argument into a limited format. It leaves underdeveloped the detailed historical account of how postmodernism emerged from the specific conditions of post-1968 disillusionment and the collapse of the Stalinist regimes. It also does not fully explore the relationship between postmodernism and the rise of the academic left in the Anglo-American university system, nor does it provide a systematic critique of individual postmodernist thinkers such as Foucault, Derrida, or Lyotard. These gaps are addressed in other IDOM articles, particularly in the written series on postmodernism that expands the theoretical critique and provides concrete examples. The argument also continues in Against the Stream episodes that discuss the relationship between postmodernism and contemporary social movements, as well as in broader Marxist texts such as Alex Callinicos' Against Postmodernism and Terry Eagleton's The Illusions of Postmodernism, which are referenced in the IDOM corpus. The article implicitly points toward the need for a positive reconstruction of Marxist philosophy as the basis for revolutionary strategy, a task taken up in other IDOM writings on dialectical materialism.
Connections¶
The article connects to the broader Marxist critique of bourgeois philosophy, particularly the work of Georg Lukács on reification and class consciousness, and the Frankfurt School's critique of the culture industry. It also connects to the Trotskyist tradition's insistence on the necessity of a revolutionary party and the unity of theory and practice. Within the IDOM corpus, it should be read alongside the written articles on postmodernism, the critique of identity politics, and the defence of dialectical materialism. The article also implicitly engages with the work of contemporary Marxist theorists such as David Harvey, whose The Condition of Postmodernity links postmodernism to the shift from Fordism to flexible accumulation, and Fredric Jameson, whose Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism treats postmodernism as the cultural dominant of late capitalism. The article's political orientation connects it to the broader revolutionary Marxist tradition's critique of reformism and opportunism, particularly the analysis of how the academic left has abandoned class politics.
Key Quotes¶
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"Postmodernism is not just a harmless academic fad. It is a philosophy that, whether consciously or not, serves the interests of the ruling class by denying the possibility of objective truth and the validity of class struggle."
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"The rejection of grand narratives is itself a grand narrative. The claim that there is no truth is a truth claim. Postmodernism is riddled with internal contradictions that it cannot resolve because it has abandoned the materialist method."
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"Marxism does not deny the importance of identity or subjective experience. What it insists upon is that these cannot be understood in isolation from the material conditions of capitalism and the class struggle that shapes them."
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"The fragmentation of the left into a thousand competing identity groups, each with its own epistemology and its own truth, mirrors the fragmentation of the working class under neoliberalism. It is a recipe for political paralysis."
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"We need a philosophy that helps us to understand the world, not for contemplation's sake, but in order to change it. Postmodernism, for all its pretensions to radicalism, ends up as a philosophy of accommodation to the status quo."
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"The crisis of postmodernism is the crisis of a generation of intellectuals who have lost faith in the possibility of revolutionary change. Marxism offers the only way out of this dead end, by restoring the connection between theory and practice, between the struggle for truth and the struggle for socialism."