The Revolutionary and Hegemony

Preface: I've been accused of using too many big words, so I'll try to break it down a bit.  The problem is that when one is popping off about this or that one prefers to use words that more exactly mean what one is trying to pop off about.  For instance, in the following I am going to be talking about hegemony, which is kinda like culture, or a dominant culture, but it's more than that.  In the book Eight Hours for What We Will reviewed previously in a Latest Read installment, the author used the term "hegemony" inappropriately.  For him, it was the middle class culture attempting to assert itself onto the immigrant working classes (which more-or-less successfully defended themselves).  His idea of hegemony was defined as the culture of dominant class, which is not it at all.  I argue instead that hegemony is the meta-culture (big word again, I know); the umbrella culture that all the other cultures end up falling into.

Example: in today's world, hegemonic culture teaches us that boys are better than girls, that the very essence of being a boy is called into question if one is not stronger (physically, and arguably intellectually) than any random girl one encounters.

Example: in today's world, hegemonic culture teaches us that status and success are directly measured by one's salary and/or indicated by material possessions - cars, houses, clothing.

So, it doesn't matter whether you are black, latino or white.  It doesn't matter if you are immigrant or native.  It doesn't matter if you are west coast or east coast.  It doesn't matter if you listen to rap, rock and roll, country or classical.  It doesn't matter if you are a lawyer or a pimp.  It is the culture of America.

The Meat of the Matter:

The Revolutionary is in a predicament, because the Revolutionary is dedicated to changing the culture, but is also a product of the same culture.  The pitfalls are many.

On the one hand, there is danger that in trying to counter the power relationships that exist in society, the Revolutionary will merely replace them with new, equally unequal power relationships.  Example: Communist revolutions to date (Russia, Cuba, China, etc.).  This connects back to my arguments against cultural nationalism.

On the other hand, there is the problem of recognizing and dealing with one's own cultural expectations and identity.  This gets at the problem of the Martin Luther King, Jr. being a great leader for equality in one area, but also being pretty damn anti-woman within his own organization.  As Revolutionaries, if we are true to our pledge to create a just world, we must recognize and deal with the counter-revolution within our own souls.

This is an ongoing process, as we can never truly know ourselves, we may not recognize the ways that we have been negatively shaped by our culture, but we should be open to the possibility.  I was encouraged today to read a blog-post from a friend of mine.  It turns out, fearless reader, the Revolution is alive and well in our youth . . .