Chapter 8: Fabian Society
On March 17, 1883, Karl Marx died in London, and only nine people attended his funeral.
Ten months later, his followers in London established the Fabian Society, named after the ancient Roman general Quintus Fabius.
It was called Fabian because during ancient Rome, Fabius defeated the powerful opponent Hannibal using guerrilla tactics. The Fabian Society’s approach was also to use gradual, moderate reformism to slowly promote social change.
Due to its moderate stance, the Fabian Society received support from a great many intellectuals, including renowned figures like George Bernard Shaw. At its peak in 1945, over 200 Fabian Society members were in Parliament, and the media at the time praised it as the entire Parliament being like a huge Fabian school.
As for how Lin Ran knew about it, while temporarily staying at Li Xiaoman’s home, he accidentally discovered a badge in the gap of the study bookshelf, and the pattern on the badge was very strange.
(Fabian Society badge)
Li Xiaoman saw it and happily put the badge away with a surprised expression, but took a silent attitude toward Lin Ran’s questions.
Lin Ran searched online for a long time with doubts before learning that this was the emblem of the Fabian Society, with a pattern of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and thus gained an understanding of this famous yet rapidly declining modern society.
Even so, more doubts arose: how could the badge of an England society appear in the hands of a Chinese descent family? You know, three generations up in Li Xiaoman’s family were all pure-blooded Chinese people.
Much later, when the two had become familiar, Lin Ran took the opportunity to ask this question.
Li Xiaoman then answered with a wistful expression:
“In the late Qing era, there were various official students, you know? The initial official students mainly went to England and France, but after the Franco-Prussian War, students began to be sent to Germany one after another.
My great-grandfather went to Germany to study abroad in that atmosphere. Unlike most who went to the Berlin Military Academy, my great-grandfather went to Frankfurt University.
He, like countless patriots at the time, hoped to find a path to saving China. At that time, the Fabian Society’s influence had permeated Germany, leading to the establishment of the famous Frankfurt School in Frankfurt. A professor he greatly admired joined the Frankfurt School, so he also joined it at that time.”
After hearing this, Lin Ran was inwardly shocked—a prestigious family background. “It shouldn’t have been easy for a Chinese descent person to join the Fabian Society back then, right?”
In that era, in that atmosphere, for a Chinese person to join a somewhat elite White person intellectuals society like the Fabian Society, Lin Ran just thinking about it felt difficult.
He didn’t know how many obstacles there were to overcome inside.
Li Xiaoman nodded and said: “Of course, but the professor my great-grandfather admired was called Max Horkheimer.
He was the founder of the Frankfurt School. Under his strong recommendation, plus the fact that people at the time felt there should indeed be an Asia representative join, to have an Asia representative convey the Frankfurt School’s ideas, my great-grandfather finally successfully joined the Frankfurt School.
My great-grandfather followed him to work at the Institute for Social Research at Frankfurt University, which was also the first institution in all Europe to research Karl Marx.
This is the badge he obtained from joining the Frankfurt School back then; it is also a witness to our family history. I thought I would never find it again!
This badge is different from the badges of current Fabian Society members.”
The difficulties contained in those few short sentences—it’s hard to imagine how many hardships the Chinese predecessors back then had to overcome to gain such an opportunity, Lin Ran thought.
Li Xiaoman’s proud appearance at the time was still vivid in his mind, and Lin Ran followed her words: “What’s different about it?”
Li Xiaoman rummaged through her box and pulled out the badge, then showed the back to Lin Ran:
“Here, this.”
“A turtle?”
“Exactly, this is the Fabian Society’s earliest badge, that is, a turtle, with the words below:
Whay I strike, I strike hard.”
“This sentence means: when I bite, I bite hard!
Specifically, it means the Fabian Society is not in a hurry; we have plenty of time to wait for the opportunity, but when the opportunity appears, we certainly won’t miss it.”
Following this thread, Lin Ran gained an understanding of the Fabian Society; the more he learned, the more he realized the extraordinary nature of this organization.
If it were just the Fabian Society, it still did a great many good things. For example, the Fabian Society first proposed establishing a national medical service system in 1911, introducing a minimum wage in 1906, and abolishing hereditary nobility in 1917.
It can be said that the modern national welfare system of the future completely originated from the Fabian Society.
The Frankfurt School, which originated from the Fabian Society, was somewhat different.
Because the Frankfurt School is most famous for critical theory.
The international conference held in Moscow in 1922 was about researching how to carry out cultural output to Europe.
The German representative at the conference, representing Muenchenborg, believed they should organize intellectuals who believed in Marxism to systematically destroy capitalism. Subsequently, the Frankfurt School was born.
And the Max Horkheimer mentioned by Li Xiaoman was the second director of the Institute for Social Research at Frankfurt University; their main achievement was critical theory.
The core of critical theory is: find faults with the world, thereby destroy it. Social problems have nothing to do with specific people; they are all problems of the system, so smash the system.
The theoretical foundation of subsequent LGBT and Black Lives Matter originated from this.
No matter how nicely it’s put, the end goal is to destroy all traditions and disrupt social order.
After Horkheimer went to America, he met the Columbia University president Butler in New York. Butler greatly appreciated Horkheimer and let him move the Frankfurt School to Columbia University, even giving him a building.
Through this opportunity, Frankfurt School researchers turned into Columbia University professors. These people went from Columbia to Princeton, Brandeis, and other universities, branching out across America.
Due to Columbia University’s influence, the Frankfurt School could radiate influence to England and America.
Simply put, in the 1960s, the Frankfurt School had considerable influence in America, and the president at that time was Kennedy from the Donkey Party.
And Lin Ran now not only has proof from the time of the Frankfurt School’s establishment, that is, the Fabian Society badge, but also a full 60 years of information gap.
With the combination of the two, he could very naturally gain protection from the Frankfurt School—at least throughout the entire 1960s, strutting around in America would be no problem.
From 1961 to 1969, during those eight years, the Donkey Party firmly held the White House.
As for eight years later, by then Lin Ran would already be successful and famous; it was impossible for him to be questioned over some minor issues—he would have made full preparations long before.
The only difficulty in between was how to get Li Xiaoman to let him use the badge.
This was, after all, her family’s ancestral property.
