There may be numerous reasons why advanced societies in the West are fragmenting along socio-economic lines but a curious question exists. Why is Western liberal society, which since the end of World War II has become more prosperous and socially equal, seemingly moving towards greater disharmony and division? Specifically, how do political doctrines that ostensibly promote dystopian and nihilistic visions exercise an appeal for political movements in the liberal democratic West? The answer, this chapter posits, is that that creating social discord possesses strategic utility for its practitioners. It serves a number of important political purposes that facilitate confrontation with the liberal state that is functionally orientated around consensus seeking, grievance management, and internal accommodation. The chapter disaggregates the political influence that gathers to those who advance strategies of Manichean division in the West and will demonstrate that this is an intentional outcome of the Maoist ideological worldview.
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