It's an interesting thesis.
Discussing the Mythology of Liturgical Reform (propagated from roughly 1955 through the conclusion of John Paul II's reign) TNLM first essays the Myth:
The argument (very slickly made so that it is far from being this overt) is that the early Church consisted of happy, sharing, caring Christians who lived in a kind of utopian togetherness, sharing all things in common and caring for the poor. Yes, echoes of Rousseau. Then Constantine institutionalized everything and hence began the decline, which is aided by a theological error that emphasized Christ's divinity more than his humanity. The decline continued until the abyss of Trent, which ruled with an iron hand until 1969, when the people finally rose up and took back their liturgy, leading to the current happy days.
He then asks the question:
...What is the source of this apodictic certainty that the relationship between the people and the ruling Church elites can be characterized by unrelenting conflict? Why must every bit of history point in this direction and this direction only? What kind of ideology can reduce something as glorious and transforming as the Mass into a simple-minded struggle of this sort?
And answers it:
The answer, I think, is Marxism. Now before you dismiss this idea as fanciful or conspiratorial, consider that Marxism has had more influence on a century of social science and literary criticism than perhaps any other mode of thought. Marxism is far more than a policy program; that is the least of it. Its most important contribution has been to provide a theme by which to understand the broad patterns of the evolution of civilization. Its theory of history and analytics of the underlying structure of the stuff that makes history: this is its true legacy. Marxism represented the popularization of the Hegelian dialectic that gave intellectuals a lens through which to understand the full sweep of world events, and sports-like drama with good guys and bad guys, and this theory has stuck. It animates the subconscious of vast swaths of the intellectual world, long after the Marxian program for political revolution has been discredited.
Interesting--but, in my humble opinion, insufficient.
The real origin was in the Garden. When one speaks of 'class envy,' and the 'victory of the proletariat,' one merely refashions language around the "You shall be like unto God" spoken to Eve, many centuries before Marx elaborated for the benefit of the simple-minded Liturgeists (and other iconoclasts.)
But hey! TNLM had to endure Liturgy Training Programs' filmstrip to cook down their "history" for us. Kudos, and thanks!
Spot-on, Dad. You could also argue that the Liberal's sense of entitlement springs from the same event, along with all other sins. We want to be like God, with hymns of self-praise on our lips. "Nobody has the authority to tell me what to do/say/think." Hence the legacy of perpetual defiance.
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