Subversion is an overturning or uprooting. The word is present in all languages of Latin origin, originally applying to such diverse events as the military defeat of a city. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

As early as the 14th century, it was being used in the English language with reference to laws, and in the 15th century came to be used with respect to the realm. This is the origin of its modern use, which refers to attempts to overthrow structures of authority, including the state. In this respect, it has taken over from ‘sedition’ as the name for illicit rebellion, though the connotations of the two words are rather different, sedition suggesting overt attacks on institutions, subversion something much more surreptitious, such as eroding the basis of belief in the status quo or setting people against each other. This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... In politics, authority generally refers to the ability to make laws, independent of the power to enforce them, or the ability to permit something. ... A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. ... Sedition refers to a legal designation of non-overt conduct that is deemed by a legal authority as being acts of treason, and hence deserving of legal punishment. ... For the Danish youth organization, see Rebel (Denmark) A rebellion is, in the most general sense, a refusal to accept authority. ... Severe soil erosion in a wheat field near Washington State University, USA. Erosion is the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock, and other particles) by the agents of wind, water, ice, movement in response to gravity, or living organisms (in the case of bioerosion). ... Look up Status quo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Status quo is a Latin term meaning the present, current, existing state of affairs. ...

Subversive activity is the lending of aid, comfort, and moral support to individuals, groups, or organizations that advocate the overthrow of incumbent governments by force and violence. All willful acts that are intended to be detrimental to the best interests of the government and that do not fall into the categories of treason, sedition, sabotage, or espionage are placed in the category of subversive activity. In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ... Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction. ... Espionage is the practice of obtaining secrets (spying) from rivals or enemies for military, political, or economic advantage. ...

Recent writers, in the post-modern and post-structuralist traditions (including, particularly, feminist writers) have prescribed a very broad form of subversion. It is not, directly, the realm which should be subverted in their view, but the predominant cultural forces, such as patriarchy, individualism, and scientific rationalism. This broadening of the target of subversion owes much to the ideas of Antonio Gramsci, who stressed that communist revolution required the erosion of the particular form of ‘cultural hegemony’ in any society. Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... Post-structuralism is a body of work that followed in the wake of structuralism, and sought to understand the Western world as a network of structures, as in structuralism, but in which such structures are ordered primarily by local, shifting differences (as in deconstruction) rather than grand binary oppositions and... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Patriarchy (from Greek: patria meaning father and arché meaning rule) is the anthropological term used to define the sociological condition where male members of a society tend to predominate in positions of power; with the more powerful the position, the more likely it is that a male will hold that... Individualism is a moral, political, and social philosophy, which emphasizes individual liberty, belief in the primary importance of the individual, and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence. Individualism embraces opposition to authority, and to all manner of controls over the individual, especially when exercised by the political... For the scientific journal named Science, see Science (journal). ... Rationalism, also known as the rationalist movement, is a philosophical doctrine that asserts that the truth can best be discovered by reason and factual analysis, rather than faith, dogma or religious teaching. ... Antonio Gramsci Antonio Gramsci (January 22, 1891 – April 27, 1937) was an Italian writer, politician, leader and theorist of Socialism, Communism and Anti-Fascism. ... A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (public ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... Cultural hegemony is the concept that a diverse culture can be ruled or dominated by one group or class, that everyday practices and shared beliefs provide the foundation for complex systems of domination. ... ...

External link

• "Address before the National Association of Manufacturers" on the Soviet military and political threat by Allen Dulles (1959) - lower-middle portion of web page

• "Subversive Mind Rant" blog and community for the subversive by Subversive Minds - political subversion and religious subverts