Source: The American Conservative
by Robert Wyllie
“Mystery cults that formed around émigré professors in postwar America are sometimes accused of influencing politics, even as we leave the 20th century far behind. On the left, ‘cultural Marxist’ expatriates associated with the Frankfurt School, especially Herbert Marcuse, allegedly invented identity politics. On the right, the students of Leo Strauss, another refugee from the Third Reich, supposedly masterminded the Iraq War. Perhaps less well-known but more indirectly influential is René Girard, whose lectures about desire at Stanford University in the 1980s convinced Peter Thiel to invest in Facebook during the infancy of social media. Among these postwar émigré-professor scapegoats for our 21st-century problems, Girard is most like the classic cult leader who gathers disciples around a single apocalyptic insight. He also has much to say about scapegoating.” (08/31/25)