Antonio Gramsci was an Italian marxist who made a plan for the insidious erosion of freedom without overt hostility.

Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society. ~~ Antonio Gramsci, 1915

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian marxist, who sought to explain exactly why the revolution predicted by Marx had not yet materialized. His conclusion was that the church and the values held by the people were the deterrent. While in prison Gramsci wrote extensively, laying out plans for the overthrow of a capitalistic society. Rather than overtaking the political and economic system by force, his strategy was more subtle and sinister.

The first step, in Gramsci’s view, is to transform the ideology of the people. His means include using education, the media, and setting up separate organizations whose goal is to manipulate the masses into mindsets that are receptive to marxist ideals. Once traditional/Christian mores have been corrupted and the nuclear family destroyed, the citizens of society will be willing to accept the “new ideas” of the progressive leadership without question.

The second prong of Gramsci’s approach is then, using the democratic process itself, to overtake the government by the will of the people. Where Marx called for defiant “revolution” from the bottom up, the revolution of Gramsci is a top-down model whereby leaders with marxist ideology infiltrate the political parties and enforce their will upon the people.

While many conservatives have been discussing Saul Alinsky and the influence he has had on the current administration, I believe Alinsky only lays out some general guidelines for achieving “social justice.” Gramsci’s model is very specific, global, and extremely relevant to our current political climate in the United States.

Some of the policies and tactics of the Obama Administration have seemed indefensible and unexplainable, even by members of the Democratic party. Our answer to the recession is to spend more money? Asking the news networks to disregard Fox News as a “legitimate” news source? Ramming through health care legislation that is opposed by the majority of American citizens?

None of this seems to make sense … until you are introduced to Antonio Gramsci. I’m anxiously devouring the book Shadow World by Robert Chandler. Chandler is a retired veteran who has been a strategist for the Air Force, the White House, the Departments of State, Defense, Energy, and Justice, and the CIA. Chandler’s book is NOT about President Obama, but actually about the subtle takeover by communist thought in America since the 1920s and the progressive plan for our future.

Chandler lays out the history and migration of communists from Russia coming to America early in the 20th century with plans for transforming our society. These very players clung to the pattern laid out by Gramsci, and began to set up well-funded, non-profit entities to further their goals. These are organizations for affecting public policy, infiltrating and overcoming the university classrooms, changing the economy and creating government dependents, for affecting law through lobbying and legal action and a host of other “fronts” for communist activity.

Many of these organizations exist today, long shedding the labels of “marxist” or “communist” thought. Instead, their agenda is cloaked in the idea of “social justice” or “liberation.” The titles of these organizations sound so wonderful: Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, Fellowship of Reconciliation, or the Center for National Security Studies. But their very existence is due, in part, to the foundation of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), which was formed in 1963, and continues to found such leftist organizations.

The Institute for Policy Studies was founded by Samuel Rubin, a dedicated communist, and Phillip Stern (with family members indicted of spying for the Soviets) and is located in Washington, D.C. This think-tank has long beed dedicated to the establishment of a socialist society in America. To further this effort, Rubin and Stern later created the Transnational Institute (TNI) to carry the vision to the world at large. While it is difficult to find a stand-alone Mission Statement for these organizations, such terms as “effective action,” “just security,” “social equity,” and “environmental solutions” to protect the “commons,” are a thinly veiled disguise for promoting their one-world marxist utopia through arms reduction, green justice, worldwide wealth re-distribution and a host of other “effective solutions.”

Shadow World lays out the framework that has been pursued by IPS and TNI, a.k.a. the strategy of Antonio Gramsci:

Ten steps toward an American progressive-socialist-marxist civil society:

1. change the popular consensus by destroying christianity, the traditional family, and existing social mores
2. transform the culture by installing a radical Left mind control
3. attain political power by imposing strict control of the military and law enforcement
4. restrict freedom by socializing the economy
5. erase American sovreignty by embracing a world without borders
6. attain political power by winning democratic elections
7. dominate both Houses of Congress
8. restrict freedom of the press and expression
9. enforce a massive redistribution of wealth from the private and public sector
10. limit freedom of speech, religion, right to bear arms, and state’s rights

From p.309, Shadow World, by Robert Chandler

Mind you, this book was published in 2008, so there is no way that Chandler could have foreseen the extent to which President Obama’s agenda would so closely follow the Gramsci pattern. When you look at this list, do you not see a representation of the ideology driving the Obama Administration? To what end are we reaching?

Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is indeed part of Barack Obama’s philosophy. But Rules for Radicals merely gives the day to day solutions for facing conflict on the road to revolution. Antonio Gramsci provides us with the larger picture of transformation — from capitalism to progressive-socialism-marxism. Alinsky shows us how to drive the car, but Gramsci shows us the map of where we have been, where we are and where we are going. God help us, for where we are going.

Please share and recommend this book and information to anyone who will listen. These are historical facts that explain current events in no uncertain terms. We must be aware, we must be vigilant, we must be prayerful for the protection of our freedoms and for the future of the United States of America.