This is the primordial power that has always functioned, and that has simply accommodated itself to different illusions of power.
Death of the Salesmen
This is an establishment civil war that has exposed the reality that the contending parties of our liberal democracies are but opposing factions of the ruling élite, and that there exists within each party conflicting elements of that same governing cadre.
The Bureaucratic State, Fear, and the Kafkaesque
In this reality the author self-censors and conforms freely for fear of being seen and scrutinised by the now realised Big Brother state and state-dominated society. This is a democracy that behaves itself by conforming to the will of the state – to the will of power – en masse as a result of accepting as true the “promises of later success” and with vague hopes of the benefits and vague fears of the powers of the masters.
Who is Really Pulling the Strings?
Society, according to Gramsci, is comprised of two spheres of power; that is civil society – the private domain – and political government – the public domain. Each of these is subject to the hegemony of the dominant class.
Hegemony and the Problem of Resistance
Wealth, as one of the principal sources of power, was never democratised and so remained a source of power for the wealthy as they repositioned themselves both politically and economically in their respective nations.
Someone Called Me A Cynic
I’m thinking now that Coco was right. I am a cynic, but this takes nothing from my optimism. The opposite of optimism is pessimism, and I am not a pessimist – however much the world gives us cause to abandon all hope.
How Can We Resist the State?
Mere resistance to the state so far as such resistance does not become a threat to the life of the state will always be to some extent tolerated by the state. Any such resistance that does become a threat to the state will eventually be met with the full force of the state that is the monopoly of violence.
I have a Confession to Make
This anxiety is something in which we are all made complicit; the products we buy, the food we eat, the modes of living we cannot readily escape are all delivered to us by a global system that robs others of dignity, rights, and even life.
