Hegemony is when one ideology becomes dominant in a key institution—that is, a solid majority of the key positions in a particularly important institution are held by those who have embraced a particular ideology. For example, if 75 percent or more of Ivy-League administrators and professors were registered Democrats, we could safely say that the Left has achieved hegemony over the Ivy League.
Cultural hegemony is when one ideology becomes dominant in all key institutions.
A key institution, from a hegemony perspective, is any institution that greatly shapes what we think, do, and value. The big three key institutions in America are Big Education (preschool through graduate school, publishing, advertising, museums, art galleries, and zoos), Big News (print journalism, broadcast news, cable news, talk radio, podcasts, and the social media algorithms that steer eyeballs to “reliable” news rather than “misinformation”), and Big Entertainment (television, movies, theater, music, streaming, sports, amusement parks, and video games). Any ideology that has achieved hegemony over each of these key institutions has basically achieved cultural hegemony.
But to really solidify cultural hegemony, the ideology that dominates the big three key institutions has to also dominate the following institutions:
- Big Bureaucracy. This is the administrative or deep state—the unelectable and hard-to-fire bureaucrats that Congress and the several state legislatures have granted great leeway to make and enforce the regulations in our hyper-regulated lives.
- Big Accreditation. These are private and public agencies that decide, among other things, what colleges are suitable for student loan money (see the American Bar Association), what values and knowledge are suitable for licensing requirements (see the American Psychiatric Association), what scientists and academics are suitable for research grants and prestige (see the National Institutes of Health, the Mellon Foundation, and Elsevier), what artists are suitable for government subsidies (see the National Endowment for the Arts), and what private citizens and groups are “fascist” and suitable for scorn (see the ADL, ACLU, and SPLC).
- Big Charity. These are the leading NGOs that make up the private-sector part of the compassion-industrial complex. They are funded primarily with tax dollars and donations from wealthy philanthropists. And their primary job isn’t to fix a particular problem (e.g., homelessness), it’s to make campaign contributions to the right politicians (i.e., kickbacks) and provide intellectual cover (i.e., “facts” and “research”) for whatever narrative is being pushed by Big News.
- Big Tech. These are the biggest social media platforms, search engines, and AI firms that gatekeep our screens and mitigate our exposure to the people, ideas, and definitions that they deem unfit for polite society.
- Big Labor: These are the biggest labor unions in the country that use their financial and organizational clout to provide politicians with campaign donations and free, get-out-the-vote foot soldiers (see the AFL-CIO and the National Education Association).
- Big Business. These are the biggest corporations in the country that use their financial clout to shower politicians with campaign donations, use their advertising clout to push the “correct” worldview, and use their hiring clout to make sure only the “right” thinking and looking people are in their employ (see any Fortune 500 company).
Woke Cultural Hegemony in Action
The position taken here is that our Wokies achieved cultural hegemony in the 1980s by capturing Big Education, Big News, and Big Entertainment, and really solidified that dominance in the 1990s and 2000s by capturing the other key institutions mentioned above (Big Bureaucracy, Big Accreditation, Big Charity, etc.). Naturally, our Woke Overlords have used their hard-won power to remake the world in their image. What, after all, is the point of having cultural hegemony if you can’t foist your worldview on the great unwashed. Here, then, are the three main ways our Woke Overlords exert their cultural hegemony:
- Narrative cleansing. There is only one true narrative, the Marx Crow narrative. Anyone who subscribes to a competing narrative is unfit for service in any key institution.
- Marx Crow supremacy. Some of our Founding Fathers owned slaves—not because they were human, and human beings are tragically predatory and tribal—but because they were white, male, and Christian, and members of that particular tribe have an oppression gene that no other tribe has. The historically powerless are morally superior to the historically powerful.
- Tribal-based standards. Right or wrong and good or bad aren’t determined by objective standards; they’re determined by group membership. Members of the historically powerless are always right and good, and members of the historically powerful are always wrong and bad. Here are the three main tribal-based standards practiced by our Woke Overlords:
- Worst-reason bias. The historically powerful are never given the benefit of the doubt. The corollary to worst-reason bias is best-reason bias: the historically powerless are always given the benefit of the doubt.
- Manufactured sympathy. Anything that reflects favorably on the historically powerless is fitting material for our country’s memory loop—the news, movies, plays, art exhibits, and curricula that greatly shape what everyone “knows.” Anything that reflects poorly on the historically powerless is fitting material for our country’s memory hole—it’s either ignored or reported once on page 36 of the New York Times. The corollary to manufactured sympathy is manufactured contempt: anything that reflects poorly on the historically powerful is fodder for the memory loop; anything that reflects favorably is fodder for the memory hole.
- Selective prosecution. This is where our Woke Overlords take a crime or offence that everyone is guilty of but only prosecute the historically powerful. The corollary is selective defense. Our Woke Overlords take a crime or offence that everyone suffers but only come to the defense of the historically powerless.
So, What to Do?
Great question. Our Woke Overlords worked tirelessly for roughly 60 years to achieve cultural hegemony. They’re not giving up that power anytime soon. The good news is that cultural hegemony is largely sustained by consent. We don’t have to attend Woke schools. We don’t have to watch Woke news. And we don’t have to amuse ourselves with Woke entertainment. In the coming weeks, I will be presenting my seven baby steps for a total freedom makeover. Yes, I have blatantly ripped off Dave Ramsey’s “proven plan for financial fitness” and geared it toward freedom. It should be fun.
Okay, groovy freedomist, that’s all I got. Let me know what you think when you get a chance. Peace.
Be First to Comment