The One True Path

It’d probably be too easy and too cheap to attack religion as the clearest example of hegemony and the level of control it can exert over a people but it sticks out since it continues to come up throughout history into today.

The most prevalent examples of this in our current consciousness might be Fundamentalist Christianity and Islamic Extremists. However, I think it’s very important to understand that this has been going on for millennia even before monotheistic religions rose to the prominence they now have.

The issue is not the religion; the issue is those in charge using that religion in order to further the ideals of the state.

I think the best example of this would have been Ancient Rome. In Rome not only was there a religion promoted by the state but Caesar was a god himself. Everything he did was divine and to go against him was placing one’s soul in peril. We’ve seen this throughout history in various other theocratic states.

In Hawaii for example, a way of keeping commoners in their place was spreading the myth that the royal family were of a totally different stock and to even attempt to consort with them would lead to the death of a normal person.

The immediate successor to the Roman Empire is the Roman Catholic Church. For centuries this religious position actively engaged in ruling over people and used its clerical powers to maintain its dominance over peoples. Often it would use the idea that one had to support the church to fund itself and in turn became one of the richest entities on Earth.

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.