Big Picture

I find Laclau and Mouffe most interesting when they offer an important clarification in the conversation about capitalism’s ability to divide a work force, and the question of the work force’s ability to organize and rise against its oppressors: “the tensions inherent in the concept of hegemony are also inherent in every political practice and strictly speaking, every social practice” (88). I find this conclusion a bit more realistic for our current situation in America, than others offered by say Braverman. In a certain place in time it might have been possible to identify ridged class distinctions but right now I find it difficult, especially since I myself could be seen as belonging to an oppressive class (I would not wear my Carnegie Mellon swag at a bar in Wilkinsburg). Therefore when reading all this theory, I feel like it is often addressing situations that are much more fundamental and unchangeable than they are given credit for.

Aside from class identity confusion in America, I feel like there are currently many other divisions that prevent hegemony within the lower and working classes themselves, such as race, sexuality, and religion. Taking a spin on the demographic roulette wheel: Would a homosexual, male, Republican, Baptist, white, preacher from the rural South, and a black, straight, female, Democrat, atheist, elementary school teacher, from Seattle, that make the same amount of money, and maybe even identify with the same level of class, find a common cause in fighting against capitalist oppression? It’s always possible, but the question I am trying to raise is that, at what point does blaming capitalism’s ability to divide a work force start turning into a dumping ground that covers up larger problems that we are unable to solve, and in a way, prevent us from addressing the problems we originally set out to solve? In what ways does dwelling on a failure to organize into one voice against capitalism, hide all the progress and small victories that should be learned from and copied?

I guess the point that I’m trying to make is that maybe one of the main reasons for these divisions along political and social lines, is that they are inherently attractive to all of us on some level, or as Friedmen points out, “The divisions within the working class are therefore more deeply rooted than many wish to allow; and they are to a certain extent, the result of the workers’ own practices” (82). So the question becomes, how are we able to enjoy our identities without oppressing others? How can we tactfully recognize similarities among ourselves, while still enjoy the differentiations that make us, and those like us, who we are?