3. There’s no hegemony without counter-hegemony

3. There’s no hegemony without counterhegemony

1. Hegemony is never 100% absolute.

A hegemony is not a massive, impenetrable block of granite. Hegemony never includes all individuals, all organizations, not even all institutions.

No matter how compelling hegemony may be or feel, at every level there are cracks and holes in the hegemonic armor that can be wrenched open further. From there, counter-hegemonic seeds can germinate.

Fluid hegemony

Even though the water surface of the current hegemony may appear calm, there are all kinds of currents underneath moving in different directions. These are fed, among other things, by the rivers and streams that flow in from other hegemonies.

Thus, hegemony is constantly in motion and it is virtually impossible to capture it, fix it or even isolate it.

2. Counter-hegemonies always emerge.

From the moment hegemony gains a foothold, the seeds of counterhegemonic thinking and acting are sown.

These counter-hegemonic dynamics arise automatically as they try to erase and redraw the hegemonic outlines. Sometimes, this is successful. Often it is not.

3. Counter-hegemonic thinking and acting stems from hegemonic dissatisfaction.

When individuals encounter problems or challenges to which a current hegemony no longer provides an adequate answer, counterhegemonic thinking and acting can arise.

4. Hegemonic dissatisfaction begins with individuals.

When the answers and solutions provided by the current hegemony no longer suffice, individuals may become frustrated and begin to seek alternatives.

5. Counter-hegemony is always social.

The moment an individual talks to other individuals, counterhegemonic thinking begins to spread.

6. Counter-hegemony becomes real in doing.

Counter-hegemony becomes real when individuals decide to take action together. When they organize themselves.

7. Counter-hegemony materializes when many new ideas arise among many individuals who, along with many other individuals, organize themselves into a wide range of new social organizations.

One counter-hegemonic idea by a single individual that results in one new social organization is not going to move the goalposts. One new idea is no threat to the current hegemony.

To really gain a foothold, counter-hegemony needs a large volume of individuals and social organizations to increasingly think and act differently.

To achieve that, counter-hegemonic ideas and actions must become as widespread as possible.

8. Counter-hegemony must remain expansive for a long time to be successful.

For a counter-hegemony to be successful, efforts must be made to reach out to and involve as many other individuals and organizations as possible. When this is sustained over a longer period of time, counter-hegemonic thinking and acting can break out of its own cocoon and spread more widely.

9. It takes a mass of individuals and social organizations to think and act counter-hegemonically, before the chance arises for institutions to switch.

Trying to realize a counter-hegemony (= thinking and acting differently) through an upheaval of the institutions is nonsensical. Counter-hegemony proceeds from the bottom to the top and cannot simply be imposed from top to bottom. Widespread consent from below is needed to make it happen.

10. Institutionalization is crucial to complete a counter-hegemony.

Thinking and acting counter-hegemonically at the level of individuals and social organizations alone is not enough. Only when institutions also change their ways can a counter-hegemony become the new hegemony.

Only after such institutionalization, can counter-hegemony cease to exist and become the new hegemony.

CHAPTER 3 | There’s no hegemony without counter-hegemony

Counter-hegemony happens when individuals no longer consent to the current hegemony.

Counter-hegemonic thinking and acting starts with individuals and becomes reality through social organizations. Only when we do this en masse and persist long enough, can new ways of thinking and acting eventually penetrate the institutions. Only then, can the possibility of a counter-hegemony becoming hegemony materialize.

Balancing on a tightrope.

Counter-hegemonic thinking and acting makes frequent use of the current hegemonic ideas and actions of individuals, social organizations and institutions. As a result, counter-hegemony is always somewhat schizophrenic:

• Counter-hegemonic thinking opposes current hegemonic thinking but at the same time uses it to reach a broad layer of the population. • Acting counter-hegemonically means doing things differently.

But initially, this is done within a current hegemony: it is working on something new and different within what already is.

To think and act counter-hegemonically is to continually seek a hard-to-find and ever-changing balance.

This schizophrenia causes counter-hegemonic thinking and acting to be interpreted very differently by different people. Hegemonies nor counter-hegemonies are solid, impenetrable blocks of granite. They are hodgepodges of very diverse ideas and actions of individuals and social organizations that each interpret hegemonic and counter-hegemonic thinking and acting differently.

Counter-hegemonic ideas and actions tend to come about independently of each other. Each new idea turned into action is like a grain of sand that may appear here or there. Over time, a few grains of sand may be blown together. What at first appears to be little more than a few piles of loose sand - far insufficient to serve as a foundation for a new hegemony - can gradually expand and emerge in more and more places. This process is chaotic and ad hoc.

As more grains of sand appear, the differences and similarities between them will also emerge. This can strengthen the cohesion between the loose sand and be the beginning of a more solid foundation. What first seemed very different, diverse and incoherent can now become more homogeneous. What was ad hoc now becomes more systematic.