In case you, too, were wondering where postmodern leftism came from, a bewildered William Phillips, editor of the Partisan Review, disclaims responsibility on behalf of orthodox Marxists in that publication's Spring issue:

I've been wondering where the ideas and movements of the left today come from. They do not have their source in either Marx or Lenin, yet they are deemed by the left itself to be authentic, especially in the academy. There is some Marxism in the universities, but it is marginal and not very exact. If we take the credos of the left one by one and compare them with the ideas of Marx or Lenin, I think we should find them appallingly without ancestors.

1. Cultural Diversity. Neither Marx nor Lenin was interested in any kind of cultural diversity. Lenin supported the various nationalisms in Russia, but that was mainly a part of his revolutionary strategy.

2. Gay liberation. Neither Marx nor Lenin had the slightest interest in homosexuality of any kind. As far as I know, neither referred to it in their writings. And certainly they had no notion of an "alternative lifestyle."

3. Radical feminism. Neither Marx nor Lenin was especially concerned with feminism, though they did not directly oppose it. What they actually believed was that no questions concerning feminism could be adequately solved under capitalism, and that only under socialism would people be free of prejudice or bigotry. And women would be equal to men in all respects.

4. Gender studies. Marx and Lenin, of course, never heard of what are called gender studies. But obviously they would not have had the slightest interest in them and would have thought of them as intellectual and political distractions.

5. Affirmative action. Marx and Lenin never heard of affirmative action. But they would have been against it, for they had a firm belief in merit and meritocracy.

6. Populism. Marx and Lenin did not care for populism in any form. It will be recalled that Marx went so far as to speak of "the idiocy of rural life."

7. Relativism. Marx and Lenin did not believe in any kind of relativism. Their thinking was founded on absolutes.

8. Elitism. As far as I can recall, neither Marx nor Lenin used the term "elite" or "elitism." But certainly they both supported the idea of intellectual quality and an intellectual vanguard.

9. Deconstruction. Marx and Lenin obviously never heard of deconstruction. But it goes without saying that they would have been opposed to it.

10. Tradition. Marx and Lenin had enormous respect for the achievements of the past, particularly in the arts, and they felt that the legacy of the past was to be built on. Neither was bothered by the fact that past achievements in philosophy and the arts were made by dead white males. Karl Marx was himself a dead white male.

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