Chapter 9: Fabian Society

Karl Ma Kesi died in London on March 17, 1883. Only nine people attended his funeral.

Ten months later, his followers formed the Fabian Society in London, named after the ancient Roman general Quintus Fabius.

It is called Fabian because in the ancient Roman period, Fabius used guerrilla tactics to defeat his powerful opponent Hannibal. The Fabian Society's idea is also to adopt gradual and moderate reformism to slowly promote social change.

Because of its moderate propositions, the Fabian Society received the support of many intellectuals, including famous figures such as George Bernard Shaw. At its peak, which was in 1945, there were more than 200 Fabian Society members in the entire parliament, and it was hailed by the media at the time as if the entire parliament was a huge Fabian school.

As for why Lin Ran knew, it was because when he was temporarily staying at Li Xiaoman's house, he accidentally found a badge in the crevice of the study, and the pattern on the badge was very strange.

(Fabian Society badge)

Li Xiaoman looked surprised after seeing it and put the badge away, but took a silent attitude toward Lin Ran's questions.

Lin Ran held doubts and checked online for a long time before knowing that this thing was the emblem of the Fabian Society. The pattern was a wolf in sheep's clothing, and he then had an understanding of this famous and rapidly declining society in modern times.

Even so, more doubts arose. How could the emblem of an English society appear in the hands of a Chinese family? You must know that Li Xiaoman's family has been pure-blooded Chinese for three generations.

After a long time, when the two became familiar, Lin Ran took the opportunity to ask this question.

Li Xiaoman replied with a melancholy face:

"In the late Qing Dynasty, there were various government-sponsored students, you know? The initial government-sponsored 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 in that atmosphere. It's just that unlike most people who went to the Berlin Military Academy, my great-grandfather went to the University of Frankfurt.

Like countless people with lofty ideals at that time, he hoped to find a way to save Huaguo. At that time, the influence of the Fabian Society had penetrated into Germany, so the famous Frankfurt School was established in Frankfurt. A professor my great-grandfather respected very much joined the Frankfurt School, so he also joined the Frankfurt School together at that time."

Lin Ran was surprised after listening. A descendant of a famous family, "It shouldn't have been easy for a Chinese to join the Fabian Society at that time, right?"

In that era, in that atmosphere, Lin Ran felt it was difficult just thinking about Chinese people wanting to join a white intellectual society with some background like the Fabian Society.

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 respected was named Ma Kesi Horkheimer.

That is, the founder of the Frankfurt School. With his strong recommendation, plus the fact that people at that time felt that there really should be an Asian representative to join and pass on the propositions of the Frankfurt School, my great-grandfather finally successfully joined the Frankfurt School.

My great-grandfather followed him to work at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt, which was also the first institution in Europe to study Karl Ma Kesi.

This is the badge he obtained when he joined 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 badge of the current Fabian Society members."

The difficulties contained in a few short sentences, Lin Ran thought, he really couldn't imagine how many hardships the Chinese predecessors had to overcome to obtain such an opportunity.

Li Xiaoman's proud look at that time was still vivid in his mind, and Lin Ran followed her words: "What is different?"

Li Xiaoman turned the badge out of her box and showed the back to Lin Ran:

"Here, this."

"A turtle?"

"That's right, this is the earliest badge of the Fabian Society, which is a turtle, with the words written below:

'When I strike, I strike hard.'"

"The meaning of this sentence is that when I bite, I will bite hard!

Specifically, it refers to the Fabian Society not being in a hurry. We have plenty of time to wait for opportunities, but when the opportunity appears, we will definitely not miss it."

It was along this line that Lin Ran had an understanding of the Fabian Society. The more he understood, the more he realized the extraordinary nature of this organization.

If it were just the Fabian Society, it still did a lot of good things. For example, the Fabian Society first proposed the establishment of a national medical service system in 1911, introduced the minimum wage in 1906, and abolished hereditary nobles in 1917.

It can be said that the future modern national welfare system originated entirely from the Fabian Society.

The Frankfurt School, which originated from the Fabian Society, is different.

Because the Frankfurt School is most famous for critical theory.

The international conference held in Moscow in 1922 was to study how to carry out cultural output to Europe.

The German representative Willi Münzenberg who attended the conference believed that intellectuals who believed in Marxism should be organized to systematically destroy capitalism. Subsequently, the Frankfurt School was born.

And the Ma Kesi Horkheimer mentioned by Li Xiaoman was the second director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt. Their main achievement was critical theory.

The core of critical theory is: find fault with the world and destroy it. Social problems have nothing to do with specific people; they are all system problems, so the system must be smashed.

The theoretical basis for subsequent LGBT and Black Lives Matter originated from this.

No matter how well it is said, the landing point is to destroy all traditions and disrupt social order.

After Horkheimer ran to the United States, he met Columbia University President Butler in New York. Butler appreciated Horkheimer very much and let him move the Frankfurt School to Columbia University, and even gave him a building.

Because of this opportunity, Frankfurt School researchers turned into professors at Columbia University. These people went from Columbia to Princeton, Brandeis, and other institutions, spreading across the United States.

Due to the influence of Columbia University, the Frankfurt School could radiate influence to England and America.

Simply put, in the 60s, the Frankfurt School had a quite powerful influence in America, and the president at this time was Kennedy from the Donkey Party.

And Lin Ran now not only has the proof of the establishment of the Frankfurt School, that is, the Fabian Society badge, but also has a full 60-year information gap.

Combined, he could naturally obtain the protection of the Frankfurt School. At least throughout the 60s, there was no problem at all walking sideways in America.

From 1961 to 1969, for these eight years, the Donkey Party firmly held the White House.

As for eight years later, by then, Lin Ran, who had already achieved success, could not be questioned because of some small problems; he had long been fully prepared.

It's just that the only difficulty in this is how to let Li Xiaoman use the badge for him.

This is someone else's ancestral property. ===== CHAPTER 10 =====