Ideas Have Consequences

Politics was of little interest to me in my early years, but my view of the world changed pretty radically when, as a mature student, sociology helped me to a greater understanding of our world. I began to see things differently.

I’m not wanting to get bogged down in too much jargon here, but studying how societies work really was a revelation for me.

Like you I guess, I’d grown up to see the way we live as ‘normal’ and beyond question, but sociology helped me to see that day by day ‘normal’ isn’t the result of some God-given reality but is largely the result of years of human interaction.

Although some changes in the way we live have been responses to changes in the natural environment - such as loss of food supplies - most have been the direct result of human decision making and management, generally by those who are in a position to benefit most from it.

I guess that from the beginning of time the strongest, smartest and most ruthless have been able to manipulate things to their own advantage. The demands of tribal chiefs ruled the day. With feudalism came clearly designated roles and responsibilities, with the peasant knowing his place in the order of things, giving part of his produce to the Lord of the Manor and doffing his cap when the Lady passed by. Kings and priests have all ensured that those lower down the pecking order have known and kept to their place.

A good starting point in seeing why we live in the way we do is the word ‘culture’, which describes the language, behaviour, beliefs, clothes and social customs of any group. These cultural ‘moorings’ – the ‘norms’ if you like - are what make life predictable and help to bond groups of people living together. As we go about our daily lives it helps us to feel safe and part of the group if others around us behave in a reasonably predictable way.

We learn our culture through a process of ‘socialisation’. From an early age we pick up – from our family and friends and those nearby - how we are expected to behave. We take it in as common sense really, the natural order of things.

So, there I have it: the messages which hit me as I go through the day reinforce in my mind that I should live a certain lifestyle to ensure that I am an acceptable member of the group. For the young especially, it becomes important for them to ensure their ‘street cred’!

Advertising, which plays an important part in our socialisation, is used to encourage us to see how we should look and what latest gizmos we should buy. The messages are pushed home by celebrities who, by their constant appearance on our screens, demonstrate the desired lifestyle.

Hollywood has been very successful at selling us these ideas, but social media threw open a new door to those trying to influence our thinking and to sell us ideas: The wealth, lifestyle and beauty of the American Kardashian family (3.6m followers on Instagram) are held up as that to which we should all aspire. Clever that!

The chains inside our heads

Once I began finding out where the messages of how I should live are coming from, I came across another term which seems crucial to my understanding: Hegemony.

The idea of Hegemony, which describes the unquestioned world view which is taken in by a population has been something of an eye-opener and I have to admit I got a bit preoccupied with it.

The term was coined by the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci who, in the 1930s, used the term to describe how, in a democracy, the domination of one group over others can be achieved by political power which depends on the population taking on certain values and ideas.

Gramsci was pondering why the population remained largely apathetic while jackbooted Fascists used torture and violence to take control in Italy in the 1930s and why the Russian revolution had been such a long time coming when millions of peasants were living in abject poverty while a small minority elite were living in luxury.

Can’t help seeing something of a parallel with our 21st century world.

What, then, are the cultural ideas and beliefs that I, born in the UK in the mid-20th Century, have been socialised into taking in as common sense from an early age?

• To be successful and happy and to ‘fit in’ I have to look and live a certain way. Fashion dictates how we should dress, what our homes should look like and what latest gadgets and gizmos to buy.

• Excessive material consumption and keeping up with the latest fashions is the sign of success, and tells the world that we’ve ‘made it’

• Get a job, work hard and I can ‘make it’

• Those who have ‘made it’ deserve ‘it’ and have worked hard for ‘it’ (or perhaps they are smarter and superior to me)

• Those who haven’t ‘made it’ haven’t tried/worked hard enough (or are pretty stupid and inferior)

• If we each look after ourselves the whole will benefit.

• Free market competition will allow wealth to be created by the hard-working and enterprising and the benefits will trickle down to all.

One of the best pieces of GOOD NEWS I’ve uncovered on my journey to understanding is that ever more people are seeing through the idea that excessive material stuff is the panacea for a good life and are beginning to think and live differently ...

Growth, Growth and Yet More Growth

‘Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet is either mad, or an economist.’ - Sir David Attenborough (quoting from Kenneth Boulting during a hearing in the US congress):

Learning about the importance of growth in our world was another crucial step in my understanding of why it’s all gone so very wrong.

What’s growth all about and why are we told we need it?

Going back a few hundred years, the early English industrial capitalist was someone who was enterprising enough to see that new technology made industrial production possible. He set up the factory, searched for labour and raw materials and found a market for his products. After paying his expenses and supporting himself and his family he had surplus capital so he looked for other ways to invest his money to make more profit.

Thus ‘growth’ is what makes the capitalist wheels go round, but look where it’s taken us now …

• The ever-increasing number of cars on the road gradually leading to gridlock and to our breathing in dangerously polluted air because the motor industry is crucial to our economy.

• Ever more of the world’s forests and green land is being taken over in our insatiable search for land for cattle grazing and growing animal fodder (we in the wealthy world love our meat), for logging (an eye-watering amount of paper and cardboard flows through our days) and oil and chemical extraction.

• Inequality has become so extreme that 1% of the world’s richest people own as much as half the global population.

• Burning fossil fuels which feed our need for growth is leading to potentially catastrophic climate change

If you’d like to know more about -

Hegemony -