After the failures of socialism—economically, historically, and ethically—the Left-liberal intellectuals, not wanting to abandon socialism, employed several new strategies. It has been suggested that these several manifestations can be subsumed under one general category—postmodernism. After a review of postmodern philosophy and philosophical influences, Stephen Hicks explains his central argument in Explaining Postmodernism: “Postmodernism is the academic far Left’s epistemological strategy for responding to the crisis caused by the failures of socialism in theory and in practice.” In other words, once socialism was discredited theoretically, economically (in several ways), historically, and ethically, those who were still ideologically committed to socialism despite its failures had to try to achieve socialism and central planning by appealing to other goals. One such strategy was the pursuit of egalitarianism (i.e. “equality”) between every disparate group, even between humans and the environment. Thus, the modern environmentalist movement—influenced by prior streams of thought—was born.