WEEK 10 GRAMSCI’S HEGEMONY
ANTONIO GRAMSCI
Biographical Details A Modern Day Machiavelli Hegemony and Common Sense • Crisis and Hegemony • Civil Society and the Integral State • Common Sense • Counter-Hegemonic Revolution Intellectuals and Ordinary People
APPLYING GRAMSCI TO TWENTIETH CENTURY POLITICS
Gramsci and the Culture Wars May 1968 The Hegemony of Advanced Capitalism • Liberal Democracy • Keynesianism and the Welfare State • Neoliberalism • Consumer Capitalism Critiquing Gramsci and the New Left
THE BIG QUESTION
What would Gramsci have to say about reality TV? • How does it promote apathy and acquiescence rather active citizenship? • Who does it exploit? • How does it promote capitalism? • Would he have contempt for it and those who watch it?
Is reality TV really okay? • Is it any worse than other forms of entertainment? • Are viewers really so passive, vulgar and stupid? • How might it empower participants and viewers and promote good values? • Is the era of reality TV over?
HERBERT MARCUSE
Biographical Details One Dimensional Man False Needs
TRACES OF GRAMSCI and MARCUSE
• A New Britannia • Orwell and the Proles • Hollywood as Bread and Circuses • The World of Advertising • The Affluenza Epidemic