Why Nothing Changes
How the Ruling Class Maintains the Status Quo
If you are at all interested in change (the social/political kind), you probably realize a few things. First, that the planet is in peril from ecosystem destruction, climate change, pollution and many other human impacts. You probably realize that there is great social inequity, that all the power, wealth, and resources are held by a few, while the vast majority of humanity to varying degrees are just making by, most often in pretty horrible conditions.
What then are the chances of anything changing on any of these fronts any time soon?
The short answer is that the chances are very slim, certainly in the conventional sense. The people with the power, wealth and resources aren’t going to voluntarily change the status quo that enables them to maintain their power and wealth.
I don’t say this to bring you down, but rather so you understand what we are dealing with… realistically. Let me also state up front that this is in no way an excuse for giving up. To the contrary, the implications simply require a different approach, as I will try to explain.
Why Don’t We See People Rising Up?
Given the glaring problems with inequality, injustice, and planetary demise, why the hell aren’t people taking to the streets and revolting? The truth is that even as things have changed over the past half millenia, as people have revolted against tyranny, monarchies, colonialism, slavery, and capitalism, some things never really changed. There always winds up being a ruling class, and they always wind up exploiting the masses and the planet for their own gain. There’s hardly an exception.
What’s even more daunting is that the people, the citizenry under the grip of these ruling classes generally not only go along with it, but believe it is the best way. At best, there’s a group of citizens who want reform, but still generally accept and support the system and its dominant ideology.
Example: capitalism = good, it just needs more competition.
Cultural Hegemony
This phenomenon where people accept the worldview and ideologies of the ruling class as their own is called cultural hegemony, a theory originating from an Italian philosopher named Antonio Gramsci.
Cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview of the ruling class becomes the accepted cultural norm. As the universal dominant ideology, the ruling-class worldview misrepresents the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, and perpetual social conditions that benefit every social class, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.
We have to realize that most people living their lives out there accept what is happening in society as “natural, inevitable, and perpetual social conditions,” that worse yet “benefit every social class.” They see it as the best way. No one elaborated this mindfu@k better than the imperial savior himself, Winston Churchill, when he said ‘we have the worst system of government, except for all the others that have been tried.’ You see, it may not be perfect, but there is nothing better. This belief sums up how the ruling class maintain the status quo.
That is what we are up against. Dominance… by willing participation.
“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Years later in the film The Matrix, Morpheus talking about people in the Matrix explains why this is such a challenge for change.
How Do We Overcome Cultural Hegemony?
Antonio Gramsci argued that we’d have to win a war of position (intellectual) before we could win a war of maneuver (strategic). His idea essentially was to create a counter-culture to the ruling class’s cultural hegemony to increase class consciousness, teach revolutionary theory and historical analysis, and further develop revolutionary organization.
Let me draw some distinctions that are important. Yes, creating a counter culture where class consciousness is raised and revolutionary organization happens is vital for a just and ecologically balanced future. However, we cannot expect or wait for this to be widespread in time to prevent what will likely befall civilization as we know it… and that’s okay.
In all likelihood, most people won’t be persuaded so long as the ruling class maintains such powerful influence over social institutions such as schools, churches, courts, and the media, among others.
People have been trying to raise class consciousness for a century and we haven’t come very far at all. The planet has been ransacked in the 40ish years I have been alive (and obviously for much longer). There isn’t time left to wait. It’s not coming.
Change We Can Believe In?
2020 might be marked as the beginning of the end as it were… when certain systems began to unravel, and the stability and security offered in exchange for compliance of the masses comes to an end. Time will tell.
With climate and unfettered growth, there are crop failures, supply chain failures, wars and upheavals on the horizon. Some call this collapse.
My only point in saying ‘there isn’t time’ is that we won’t prevent what’s going to happen. Prevention is no longer the goal. Why? It is simply impossible. Economic growth and industrial output is a runaway train.
Instead, the question we should ask is what will be left?
Is there an opportunity to reclaim a culture not dominated by the toxic ideology of a ruling class? When the current dominant ideology fails, which it will, then people (some, not all) will be open to new ideas. Some will still cling on with dear life to their old beliefs and pivot, placing blame elsewhere… probably on the ecoterrorists, communists, Antifa, the gays, the woke and BLM, or perhaps on the Proud Boys, Infowars and Donald Trump. Either way, they’ll want things to go back to how they were… some appeal to a golden era. We can’t let that happen. The work we do now is vital to that end. We do have to build that counterculture to give people an alternative when the current system fails.
We can also ask what ecosystems will be left? If there are desert tortoise and Joshua trees here in 10-20 years, there might be some in 100 years. If they are gone in 10-20 years, they are gone forever.
This means we need to fight with every means necessary to save what ecosystems are left. That means using every tool possible, whether lobbying, advocating, and all the way to direct confrontation.
As I’ve written about before, this is a time to also prepare ourselves and our communities for what is coming. Working on creating communities of resilience that can band together to provide basic needs is a vital place to make change now.
As things unravel from economic instability, war, famine, and uncertainty, there will be both vulnerabilities that arise on the ruling class’s grip on power, as well as more fascistic response to that loss. It’s a double-edged sword. But it’s a time where big changes can happen.
That’s right, change can and will happen. The important thing is to fix your sights on the change that can happen, not the change that won’t happen. The point of this post is a redirection of attention from prevention to adaptation. There’s still time for the latter.
In other words, we can’t prevent the collapse of industrial civilization as we know it. Hopefully we can prevent the worst case scenarios, like 3 degrees celsius, and in fact the collapse itself will help to that end. We must prevent industrial civilization from continuing its destructive path or there is no adaptation. But there is already some calamity baked in, and that’s the part we must adapt to.
Much more to come, my counter-cultural comrades. I appreciate your readership and support so much. If you have any thoughts on today’s topic, feel free to comment below, or find me on social media. Much appreciated.