( heg - em - mon - ee )

a strange word, yet a powerful one

Hegemony can be described as our group common-sense and is found 'inside' you as a set of internalised rules and 'outside' as laws, conventions and social habits.

But the 'inner' and 'outer' hegemony are not just simple sets of rules and descriptions. They are vast complex contradictory and dynamic systems, which are very flexible in their working. Individuals can hold diametrically opposing views and still function. Societies can do the same.

A classic example that clearly spans both inner and outer is as follows:

. . . . . we are supposedly a Christian nation, yet England has been and probably still is one of the most aggressive nations on Earth. Christ clearly said that we should not kill people, but how many have died and suffered cruelly at the hands of England's greed? This greed sanctioned by it's state religion, not just tolerated, but approved.

The hegemony can handle such a contradiction because it operates, both at inner and outer levels, in an unconscious way. We change our laws, we change our minds, but we tend not to look at the core conditions under which we live. History shows that any given hegemony will resist fundamental change, incorporate increasingly opposite tendencies, until a crisis point is reached, a 'critical mass' if you like, then a period of massive socio-economic chaos follows with much confusion and violence.

The hegemony operates in very subtle ways. Take the example of Robin Hood. Capitalism can use the Robin Hood myth to sell movies, books, T-shirts - and yet the underlying ethos of Robin Hood is exactly the opposite of capitalism. The hegemony can absorb a great many contradictions (though history shows this is not an endless process). Rob from the rich, give to the poor - get your T-shirts here! We like rebels in our movies but not in our offices and factories . . . . .

For the purposes of soul searching it is not necessary to study history in depth, but for all such searchers a need for a new moral outlook often emerges. Confusion arises if you try to just graft another one on to your new understanding. It is better to try and find your own, to gently tease it out of your new experiences . . . .

 

Here is a story about common sense . . . .

When this young man got married he was very happy with his new life. He loved his wife and had no reservation about his new situation, but as time wore on, one small thing puzzled him about his wife. When it was her turn to cook the ham, she always cut off the bone at the end. At last, curiosity prompted him to ask:

"Why do you cut the bone off the end of the ham?"

"I don't know, my Mum always did it"

It was a trivial thing but his curiosity would not go away, so when a moment arose to ask his mother-in-law, he got this reply:

"I don't really know, my mother always did this, why don't you ask her?"

It was some time before he got to meet Grandma, but when he did he asked her too and got this reply:

"I never had a pot big enough for a whole ham".