Capitalism, Gramsci suggested, maintained control not just through violence and political and economic coercion, but also through ideology. The bourgeoisie developed a hegemonic culture, which propagated its own values and norms so that they became the "common sense" values of all.
To counter the notion that
bourgeois values represented natural or normal values for society, the working
class needed to develop a culture of its own. Lenin held that culture was ancillary
to political objectives, but for Gramsci it was fundamental to the attainment
of power that cultural hegemony be
achieved first.
“Two types of intellectuals.
The first is traditional intellectuals who are people that regard themselves as
independent of the dominant social group and are regarded as such by the
majority of the population. (Gramsci, A. 1971) The second type is the organic
intellectual. This is the group that grows organically with the ruling class
and is their thinking and organizing element. (Gramsci, A. 1971) They were
produced by the educational system to perform a function for the dominant
social group in society. It is through this group that the ruling class
maintains its hegemony over the rest of society.”
After Gramsci, many neo
leftist (Herbert Marcuse, Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Stuart Hall,
Raymond Williams, and many more) spread in
the world and entered in the educational systems. They did institutionalization
of the neo communism as suggested by Gramsci. This actually changed the western
world. Without wining elections, neo communist became the minds behind the
governments and came into power. This institutionalization of neo communism
penetrated communism so deeper in the western world that weather it is a
democratic party or a liberal party or some other party, the leaders were, and
currently are bearing certain properties of the communism. There are many facts/measures
which shows that it was always and it is currently the neo communism which was
winning and ruling, irrespective of the which party has won the elections.
Rise of Individualism
What are the parameters or
facts which shows that Gramsci’s communism has won. There are many. One of the
major parameters is the human relationship. The human relationship has taken a
drastic turn during or because of the rise of cultural revolutions (Product of
Gramsci’s theory). The distance between humans is increased. Humans have
created a space around them, comfort zone. Individualism is rising. The article with the
numbers collected worldwide shows the rise of individualism and its impact with
many factors like divorce, one child, lonely adults etc…
Many will say that the
individualism is the product of urbanization as it is said in the article. But there
are many middle east countries, many Asian countries which are heavily
urbanized, but have a low index of individualism. Brazil1 and
Singapore2 are one of
the developed countries but still individualism is not so much popular there, we
can say it is because they respected and perished their culture. Individualism
is the product of anticultural movements. New left used the institutional activism
as a medium of many revolutions. Individualist mindset causes divorce and
remarriages, which ultimately resultes in the contracted and unstable families.
These kind of nuclear families and unstable families (divorce and remarriage)
gives birth to a generation which ultimately becomes individualist by birth and
the cycle continues.
Herbert Marcuse, father of
the New Left, says “If people are preoccupied with inauthentic sexual
stimulation, their political energy will be ‘de-sublimated’; instead of acting
constructively to change the world, they remain repressed and uncritical.”
Confused voters and the leaders
The crisis consists
precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this
interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear. – Gramsci
UK- Minority Government,
Germany, Spain, Austria, Australia, Italian –
coalition with negotiations,
France - first incumbent president of France
Portugal – Designate Prime minister is
appointed as no one has the majority
Sweden – Coalition and Left Party agreed to
abstain from voting against Löfven
Denmark – Minority Govt. in 2015
Greece – functioning on European Union Help
Poland – first time full majority government
that too with 37% votes (4 extra seats than required for majority)
I am not saying that the coalition is wrong, but the above trend also shows the confusion in public. The countries have lost their capacity to produce visionary and publicly accepted leaders. Even if we observe the charts of the vote share by parties in these countries, it shows that there is no stability in peoples mind about the leadership. It also shows the lack of producing long lasting and visionary leadership.
The second parameter is, the decreased belief of peoples in the peoples itself, ultimately in the democracy and the public establishments. This is because most of the countries are facing the serious problem of generating good visionary leaders. All the current leaders of most of the western countries are good businessman, there are no leaders who are with very clean and transparent character and possessing high social values and can think of humanities wellness in long term. Which ultimately lowers the belief of public in the leadership. The respect about the individual is increased but about the leadership is decreased. Because the current leaderships don’t carry or possess the values which a leader should have, to be a respectable leader. Individualism cannot produce such leaders with a great social values and vision. The current leadership of these countries is only concerned about the GDP, the infrastructure, and the law. They are unable to handle the issues apart from these. The increased crime rate, declining birth rate, Asylum seekers and economic migrants these are some of the major issues these governments are struggling with.
(The
declined birth rate and the contracted families created another problem of
lowered revenue generation. Smaller and unstable families lowered the basic
needs of the person or the family. Ultimately this resulted in the market
stagnancy, to answer this, these countries invited economic migrants to settle
down in their countries (Multi-culture), considering this will help in keeping
the economy moving. It really solved the problem to certain extent but created
many other problems such as increased crime rate, extremism, and the terrorist activities.
It is becoming difficult day by day for these countries to separate refugees
with. It developed insecurity between the natives and which resulted in the clashes
between the natives and the migrants. Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, France,
Germany can be taken as major examples of these situations. The famous Brexit
is ultimate result of all these issues. European union may say that they accepted
the refugees from the humanity point of view, but what about economic migrants.
There are voices being raised to send migrants back and settle them down in
their own countries. But now the things have gone worse and I don’t think those
can be controlled. To address these kinds of problems, countries needs strong
unity and leadership people believe in. All the current governments facing
these problems are unstable governments and are struggling to be in majority. The
conclusion of this problem will be a sad chapter of the history.)
The world is divided between
good entities (moderate) and bad entities (extremist). If the bad entities are
united then organized crime will increase over good entities, but if good
entities are united then they will handle/control bad entities which will lower
the crime rate. Both good bad entities will always coexist. Also, western world
is slowly getting divided into individualists and collectivists. And extremists
are following collectivism. The moderates are getting converted from
collectivist to individualists. As collectivists are better united as they have
many grounds for unity and they are ready to sacrifice for their community.
Individualists can never remain united, because they have less grounds for
unity and no tendency to sacrifice for community. This may lead to the
domination of extremists over moderates and moderates may loose their freedom
of enjoying the individualism.
Communism’s problem is they
just ignore this principle and divide the world in classes, which are
frequently changing (as worker class doesn’t exists now). Gramsci targeted
culture as the root cause of the class generation and advised to destroy the value-based
culture and form a new one. We can see that the value-based culture is dying.
Current generation don’t have live idols to follow. The current era is of
confusion about the establishments and the leaders, damaging the images, spreading
fake news, spreading false propaganda. The mediums used for these activities
are press media, electronic media, social media, memes, standup comedy etc. The
current era is of respecting individual and its opinion but targeting,
criticizing, defaming leaders. All this is happening because value-based, ethics-based
culture is collapsed, and the new culture which is rising is just anarchy. I
really doubt if these countries will come out of this deadlock. As businessmen
will not be able to handle this situation, for this they need true leaders with
high social values, social characters, so that people will believe them, and
they will be supported by most of the population.
Success of Dawkins over nature by changing the
genes
The sex revolution happened
during the 1960s was the ultimate product of institutionalization of the neo
communism. Major developed countries or westernized countries are making the
laws for LGBT+ and making it as legal now. The percentage of the LGBT+ is raising worldwide.
Is this a natural growth? Dr. Dawkins wanted to change the genes of the human being
and looks like he succeeded in it. How many mammals or animals other than human
being have this kind of population in them having LGBT orientation in the
world. But now this growth in human being cannot be stopped. It is leading the
world towards another anarchy.
The rise of ‘non-religious ness’ and Atheism
As the concept of god is
followed by the culture and rituals, communism cannot coexist with theism.
Though the concept of atheism is quite old, but the major rise in atheism can
be seen from 1960 onwards. That is from when the cultural revolutions started
in the western countries after the successful institutionalization of the neo
communism. As per the united nations data, the atheist
population in the westernized countries is increasing. All the new communists
mentioned above were the atheist. Again, the atheist is an individualist. To
carry certain social values, one must believe that there is something which is
beyond my knowledge, vision, and imagination. There is no space for social
values like forgiving, controlling emotions, sacrifice in the life of an
atheist. Atheist can’t think of society’s psychological needs, they don’t
understand emotional inequalities or variations in the human being. So, they
will not be able to generate good leaders out of them who can handle the issues
related to emotional needs of human being. The extremism is the ultimate result
of the extreme emotions. And what if this (No religion and atheist) population
increases and becomes the majority. A Gallup Poll in 2016
found that 18% of Swedes are atheist and 55% are non-religious so they are in
majority in Sweden.
These are some of the facts/measures/parameters
which shows that the Gramsci’s neo communism has already conquered the
western/westernized world, slowly its moving to rest of the moderate world and
Asian countries. As of now it can be said that communism is not targeting
extremist world, at least by institutionalization.
Gramsci wanted to give the
power in the hands of worker class by changing culture. Destroy the value-based culture and evolve a
new one. I can see that the destruction of the culture has happened, and a new
culture is already evolved in major part of the westernized world, only few
countries are left with the old value-based culture. Rest of the world, I can
see Gramsci’s communism is winning. Not sure if it means the worker class has
the power, not sure if it means that the class struggle is over, and peoples
are going to be happy forever, but cultures are destroyed for sure.
References-
Help to Greece -
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/20/eu-greece-bailout-ends-pierre-moscovici
Cultural effects of migration-
http://www.globalization101.org/cultural-effects-of-migration/
http://www.globalization101.org/the-financial-crisis-and-xenophobia-2/
Sweden 'least religious' nation in Western world-
https://www.thelocal.se/20150413/swedes-least-religious-in-western-world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_Sweden
