Nazi-ecologism: The Politicization of a Science

Philosophers Augusto del Noce and Jules Monnerot argue that Marxist critiques of bourgeois society are rooted in 19th-century counter-revolutionary ideas. They suggest that Marx, influenced by Hegel's dialectical view of society and his concept of the "end of History," inherited elements of conservative thought.

Marx's method of inverting Hegel's dialectic emphasized the revolutionary aspects of the Enlightenment, but only those leading to the bourgeois revolution of 1789. Del Noce notes that through Hegel, Marxist revolutionary thought absorbed positive aspects of counter-revolutionary thinking, thus continuing a historical reaction against liberal society.

This historical pattern, the article suggests, explains the left's difficulty in generating original ideas. It highlights how the environmental movement, or the political use of ecology, also became a domain where the left, despite its perceived originality, followed paths laid out by its opponents.

In the 1960s, growing concerns about pollution, resource depletion, and nuclear energy threats became apparent. While scientists initially reacted with little governmental impact, public concern was noted by Marxist and neo-Marxist circles. They swiftly attributed environmental damage to capitalism, a simplistic ideological stance that ignored the possibility of technical solutions within specific industries.