By: Dr Metod Berlec
In Slovenia, under the current neo-socialist Golob government, we are once again facing almost complete hegemony of the transitional left, following the vision of Italian leftist politician, philosopher, critic, and founder of cultural Marxism, Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937). He advocated for the seizure of power through political, ideological, and cultural means; through the “march through the institutions”; by establishing leftist hegemony in society.
As summarised by Dr Anton Stres in the Leksikon filozofije – Dodatek (2022), according to Gramsci, hegemony means cultural, ideological, and value-based domination imposed by the ruling class, permeating the entire society, its principles of common life, political-legal organisation, as well as all intellectual and cultural domains. Hegemony, according to Gramsci, represents the complex management and direction of society. Without it, governance turns into dictatorship, characterised by external and often coercive rule and command. In the context of cultural hegemony, the “civil society” plays a significant role by creating consensus with the existing order through its activities and influence on public opinion. Additionally, the state, with its political institutions, has the authority to enforce its policies, following the definition of the state formulated over a century ago by the German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) as a “human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory”. Venezuelan intellectual and dissident Alejandro Peña Esclusa vividly described all these concepts in his book Forum São Paulo in cultural war (2022), using Latin America as a case study.
President of the SDS party, Janez Janša, in the preface of this book, analytically described this situation using the example of Slovenia. Slovenia, during and after World War II, faced a bloody communist revolution and the takeover of power by the communists. They used violence and murders to eliminate the previously ruling (centre-right) class and took control of all societal systems. This means that cultural Marxism in Slovenia did not need to gradually seize key institutions for shaping public opinion after the formal democratic changes in 1990. “They only needed to remove a few disruptive elements within them. This involved dismantling the Nova revija (magazine), expelling talented film directors abroad, taking over the media, hindering and discrediting cultural figures with non-Marxist worldviews. Once these institutions were under control, it was relatively easy to connect them to global networks of cultural Marxism, which enabled them to undermine and eliminate the foundations of Slovenian culture, identity, and society. This included challenges to the constitutional basis of family policy, non-state forms of education and training, attacks on religion, especially the Catholic Church, the independence and symbols of statehood, national distinctiveness, the exclusion of business associations, and the formulation of policies, all the way to threats to business leaders with bayonets.” All of this was done with the aim of preserving the dominant post-communist left-wing hegemony in Slovenian society.
As highlighted by Dr Andrej Fink in the Družine Slovenski čas supplement last year, the Prime Minister continually mentions the “civil society” and a “coalition with civil society”. In doing so, his “movement” is very close to the concept of the “front”, which means that the former concept of the front still prevails in Slovenia. “This connects the former avant-garde (Communist Party) with today’s “heirs” in terms of content. This linkage does not adhere to constitutional principles. (Does anyone remember Kul?) This connection bridges the past “movement” with today’s Movement, the past “freedom” with today’s Freedom. The formal avant-garde is no longer present, but the informal one remains. Today, we have the Movement + civil society + non-governmental organisations + SZDL(?). Left-wing parties have practically disappeared.” We are witnessing Golob’s coalition with the so-called civil society, which is unique in Europe.
It is evident that the transitional left in Slovenia is well aware that to maintain hegemony in society, it is crucial to control both the “political society”, i.e., the classic state, and the “civil society”, i.e., non-governmental organisations. This network of institutions, organisations, institutes, and associations is presumed to operate freely and independently. However, in our case, this situation is turned upside down, as the ruling elite has largely subordinated all of this. To maintain hegemony in society, they generously finance the so-called civil society or non-governmental organisations (we write about this in detail in the main article), which act as a transmission belt for those in power. They are subcontractors of the ruling elite. An ideological army. The striking fist of the left, systematically targeting and demonising the centre-right opposition. With our money. How long will this continue?