Does it ever matter?

Hegemony is the idea of dominance that was brought upon by consent as opposed to force. Rather than simply explaining how a culture could dominate another, let’s look at how one culture dominated another. Christianity, the majority of people living in the United States belong to this religion. Every single one of our presidents has been a Christian. Some candidates even flaunt their faith as a reason for their nomination. We, by which I mean those of us that still think our votes affect the election, choose one out of two or three people to lead the country for two years. The main problem with this is the fact that all the candidates are the same. Until recently, all the candidates would be white males. Unlikely that someone who doesn’t fir that criteria would even be taken seriously, let alone win the nomination, even then it would be unlikely for that person to win the election.

While we thought the common link between candidates was their gender and skin color, of course Clinton and Obama have disproved this since both have a possible chance at becoming the president, but what is then common link then? They are all Christians. For some reason, we as a nation have agreed that not just religion, but a religion that the majority follows is a major qualification for the president. We didn’t even see it happening, at first it was all that was available, most people that came to this country in the colonial era were Christians. Since each president was a Christian, why should we want another one? The whole idea behind hegemony is people saying “hey, we got a good thing going on here.”

The status quo is so locked into our minds that we can’t even conceive the idea of an Atheist president. Rather than focusing on the issues, people would question his moral background and the fanatics would sooner hang him from a tree than even hear him debate. The Christian dominance exists all around us. The “War on Christmas” is often covered on the news, but they seem to sway more towards the religious rather than someone simple protest. Perhaps they are afraid, or perhaps they are biased to the religion they belong to, either way it continues.Marx said “religion was the opium of the masses.” It has warped the judgment of the population. While out candidates may look different and may spin the same word in a charming tone, they are all clones.

Reindeers, Marxists, Gramsci...

, Gramsci’s concept of hegemony explains why working-class movements failed and why Marx’s theories in “German Ideology” never came to fruition. Gramsci believed that economic struggles weren’t enough to warrant a revolution. Simply, people were too different. “Gramsci was more "dialectic" than "deterministic": he tried to build a theory which recognized the autonomy, independence and importance of culture and ideology” when I read that quote, it seems that Gramsci understood that people follow different ideologies and belong to different cultures, this would of course prevent a unified Marxian revolution. Gramsci continued to discuss reasons as to why the majority would favor the hegemony. It could be argued that certain members of the working-class didn’t feel as if they were qualified to run the world, and that the bourgeoisie, who were already the wealthier and smarter group, were better suited for controlling the masses.

Keeping Gramsci in mind, lets look at the Marxist reading or “Rudolf”. Rudolf, a mutant reindeer with a red glowing nose, ridiculed by his peers, shamed by his parents, he decides to runaway. Due to his mutation, it was assumed that Rudolf would never pull the sleigh, and thus he would never get to work. Work, being the primary goal for a reindeer. A Marxist finds the similarities between Rudolf and the working class. “The theme, like so many texts before it, is how an individual gains social acceptance, but the emphasis on how the social activities the reindeer children perform prepare them for entrance into the labor force makes it clear that this acceptance and work are somehow inextricably linked” Not until Rudolf finds a use for his mutation is he accepted. Work good, no work, not good, this is how the ruling class see the working-class.

The elf that Rudolf was paired with wanted to stop making toys and become a dentist, interesting how this decision wasn’t based on paychecks but on his own inadequacies in the toy making business. Going back to Gramsci, the economy wouldn’t be enough for a revolution, it would depend on ideology and people. Rudolf and the elf “revolt” by leaving and trying to make it on their own. Their revolution is clearly short-lived because no other workers share their views. I am reminded of Huxley’s “Brave New World” two characters felt apart from the natural order of things. After their time with the Savage they both tried to convince people how the world could be and how it used to be, no one cared. The majority already embraced the hegemony. The world in “Brave new World” was only a dystopia for those two characters, everyone was happy, it was in fact pretty close to Marx’s dream world. As Gramsci said, the economy wouldn’t be enough, it depends on the people, if they submit to the rule and think the world is a utopia, it’ll be hard to pull them in for a revolution.