The Future of the Past: Resisting the Cultural-Marxist Narrative in UK Schools

By Stephen Bailey. Published 9th November 2023

It is time to begin pushing for a renewed balance in teaching UK history in the UK’s educational establishments and to the public generally.

The politically correct cultural-Marxists of the ‘liberal’ left (a misnomer as they are, in fact, authoritarian and not liberal or tolerant of other people’s views at all) have currently established a hegemony in their influence over several areas of life in the UK and are now in a prime position to pursue their campaign against mainstream conservative UK values and substantially increase their march through the institutions of this country, further increasing their grip on the power structures of this country.

This left-wing campaign has had wide-ranging ramifications throughout UK society. Although this concept has been around for much longer (it was first suggested by the Frankfurt School of thought during the interwar years of the early Twentieth Century (1919–39) and the initial stirrings of its march through the institutions of most Western countries began in the 1960s), cultural-Marxism (‘political correctness’) has, since that time rapidly captured the commanding heights of many important sectors of UK society such as education, politics, the media, policing and the judiciary for example (non-exhaustive list).

As a result, they are in a position to control and dictate public policy in the direction of their agenda, with the consequence that there has been the fairly rapid transformation of UK society in the past 60 years from its mainstream conservative basis and values to one ruled by the politically correct ideas and rules of a small minority of activists.

Education is vital to current and future conditions in a society, and the politically correct liberal-left know this only too well.

In society generally, younger people (those under 40) have been encouraged to demand something, always get it and not expect any contradiction whatsoever. They have been encouraged by the politically correct left that now controls the education sector into a mentality in which ‘they say, and it becomes true’, irrespective of the merits of their arguments.

Several specious left-wing arguments are employed to justify this attitude, including the assertion that as the younger generation have the longest time to live, so their ideas should simply be allowed to prevail without opposition and older values should be ignored. In other words, the younger generations should have a veto on what happens in society.

Of course, politically correct teachers have already programmed the young with their left-liberal ideas, so doing this will ensure the victory of the left in the future and mainstream conservative values will eventually be lost.

The politically correct left have been slowly but surely entering the education system and gaining control of the management and teaching structures, so they can influence and shape its future development in a way that suits their agenda.

In this, they have been spectacularly successful and education is now a powerhouse of politically correct dogma, churning out ever more students who have been programmed to think of the world in politically correct terms.

History teaching is a prime example of this process at work. The teaching of a nation’s past is absolutely vital to maintaining a balanced sense of what she stands for. If the teaching establishment is controlled by those that only teach one side of the argument, it is inevitable that their students will become programmed with that view and consequently have an unbalanced view of history. This is the situation currently prevailing across the UK’s educational sectors, primary, secondary, further and tertiary (higher).

As described above, the cultural-Marxist left has more or less completely gained control of the commanding heights (i.e. the teaching and management structure) of the educational sector and now control the direction that teaching takes, including what is taught. The history curriculum is a prime example of this.

Take the teaching of the history of the Reformation in all its aspects, for example. This was, and remains, a vitally important topic, as its ramification did and continue to have crucial ramifications for the politics and society of the UK.

Consequently, it was taught in detail at primary and secondary levels right up to around thirty years ago.

It was (and still is) a constant complaint of certain types of historians (among others) that UK history (since the Reformation at least) has been partisan ‘Whig’ history-little more than partisan anti-Roman Catholic propaganda. These people were a tiny and largely irrelevant minority of elitist intellectuals for a very long time and their views had little credence in academic circles or among the public.

This changed in the past thirty years. During these years, we have witnessed a concerted campaign by a small, unrepresentative group of academics and others, whose agenda and aim is to re-write history. They don’t aim to introduce a more balanced picture of the events of the Reformation based on solid evidenced argument, but seek to revivify the image of the Medieval Church by any means that produce the desired result, whether supported by the evidence (which it often isn’t) or not.

The hard reality is that we are currently witnessing a thoroughgoing assault by an unrepresentative minority on the last five hundred years of this island’s mainstream conservative history and values. Our mainstream history is being de-constructed by a small but active and vociferous group of elitist intellectuals. Complacency and apathy are not an option in opposing this. Staying silent will just aid them in advancing their agenda, as their ideas will be the only ones people hear, with no counterargument to put the real facts before them.

SPEAK UP FOR OUR HISTORY, OR IT WILL BE LOST FOREVER

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Conservative Friends of Education or the Conservative Party. The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice or endorsement by Conservative Friends of Education.