There is a concept in military strategy called the “center of gravity” (COG.) It was first introduced by Carl Von Clausewitz, the brilliant 19th-century Prussian military theorist, in his work On War. The center of gravity is the headquarters or nerve center necessary for any force to maintain combat operations. The US Department of Defense defines it as “the source of power that provides moral or physical strength, freedom of action, or will to act."
The point of outlining and targeting an opponent’s centers of gravity is twofold. Firstly, you can physically affect their ability to continue operations. Secondly, and no less importantly, you can dramatically affect their willingness to continue. The demoralizing psychological effect of having the center of power destroyed would be devastating.
The effect of obliterating an opponent's power centers through overwhelming force is quite obvious. For example, when Roman legions burned Carthage to the ground and salted the ashes, that was obvious. Or, when the US Air Force enacted a campaign on “shock and awe” and US forces took control of the Iraqi capital, that was obvious. But there are other, more subtle and pernicious, ways of neutralizing an enemy’s centers of gravity.
The “long march through the [Western] institutions” is a phrase many have likely heard. For those who haven’t, it refers to the Marxist infiltration and usurpation of Western systems, from centers of education to any pivotal junctures in the functioning of the nation; such as the civil service, military, or even public corporations.
In the 1970s, the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci published his views on “counter-hegemony.” He had recognized the existence of centers of gravity within society and rightly noted that the institutions that make up the structure of society (i.e., religion, education, media and law) are mediums through which the cultural zeitgeist is established, and cultural norms are passed from one generation to the next.
He believed the Marxist focus on the “working class” vs. the “bourgeois” was doomed to fail.
He posited that the socialist revolution could only be actualized if these centers of gravity could be challenged, undermined, and then replaced. “Socialism,” he wrote, “is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.”
Gramsci’s ideas found their practical application through Saul Alinsky in his book, "Rules for Radicals"; a handbook published to guide those who sought to undermine the Western world in practical ways to gum up the works, take over the centers of gravity, and ultimately control that power for their own aims.
However, every effort on earth is restrained by resources and time. For the subversives, the most effective use of both would be found in determining the centers that had the greatest global influence over the largest number of people, who, once their centers were co-opted, could have the strongest effect on spreading the new cultural programming as far and wide as possible in the shortest amount of time.
They found their targets. The first was America, the center of global power and temporal influence. Though staunchly anti-communist at the time, America had been under subversive attack since at least the 1930s with many high-ranking members of the State Department, White House, and even Pentagon, being communist subversives (as noted by Diana West in her historical investigation, American Betrayal.) Post-war America led the world. Her influence ended only where global communist hegemony began. If one wanted to undermine the Western world, America was (and still is) the strategic focal point.
The second focal point was the spiritual center of gravity as it relates to Christianity which, if we remember, was one of the greatest concerns of the Gramscian subversives. While there are numerous denominations and believers, the Church in Rome is the largest. It is the single largest religious group in the world and, importantly, the foundation of the very civilization these subversives desired to overthrow.
The plan was to infiltrate the Church with communist agents. These agents, posing as clergy, sought to corrupt future clergy and the laity. Their subversive messaging was spread to corrupt Catholic teaching, misdirect as many of the flock as possible, and demoralize the rest.
In other words, the only chance your enemy has at resisting you is if they have both the means and the will to do so. You can see the targeting of both means and will from every level they have under their control, from the Biden administration’s statement on “trans awareness” on Easter to the trials of Trump to laws passed that explicitly restrict people of certain skin colors from promotions and positions in organizations connected to the subverted establishment.
This is why the process of demoralization is so critical to the infiltrators’ plans. They need their enemies to think that there is nothing that can be done, that their vote doesn’t matter, that their voice doesn’t matter. If possible, they would love to push their enemies into doing something emotionally reactive that they can use as propaganda in order to further demoralize (see the J6 trials as an example.) These efforts are all focused on one thing – removing the “will” of those who could oppose their efforts.
This is also why there is such a great focus on racial grievances and DEI. If they can ensure that Christians, and especially white Christian men (the most explicitly hated enemies of these forces according to their own admissions), are excluded from access to resources (e.g., reserving access to both positions and promotions in academia, the military, government jobs, and now even public companies under the guise of “diversity”) they can remove the “means” aspect from that crucial equation. Without resources, you cannot fight. Without willpower, you will not fight. They know this, and that is why so much effort and energy goes into making every aspect of our nations seem "lost," "over," and "too late to fix." They know if they can keep us out of the fight, their win is guaranteed.
It is important also to remember the admonition of Paul in Second Corinthians, “for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal…)" The fact that the centers of temporal and spiritual power were the key targets of these enemies of the West reminds us that this is both a spiritual and temporal conflict. It is not enough to fight a culture war in the flesh in much the same way that it is not enough to just try to pray it away. We need to recapture both realms, both fields of battle, while working to recover and restore our centers of gravity.
Arthur is a former editor and consultant. Born in India to missionary parents, he spent his early career working in development for NGOs in Asia, Central America, and Africa.
Arthur has an educational background in history and psychology, with certifications from the University of Oxford and Leiden in the economics, politics, and ethics of mass migration and comparative theories in terrorism and counterterrorism. He is currently launching CivWest, a company focused on building capital to fund restorative projects and create resilient systems across the Western world.
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Excellent perspective.