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hegemony is about cultural domination: it is about controlling the terms of debate.
in the states, the hegemonic ideology is a variant of neoliberalism, whcih trickles down onto the heads of most of us in the form of an endless apology for capitalism in all its forms. contemporary conservative ideology is obviously part of this--but it is not identical with it. same goes for such ideology as there is in the democratic party that is not a simple duplicate of the republican.
from this follows the complete absurdity of the right casting the democrats as leftist--like the old saw goes, the us is a single party state with two right wings.
with a question like this ruling on eminent domain, the terms of debate are really pretty interesting--i think the incoherence of conservative ideology provides the folk who see their world through it no basis for criticizing the ruling--i could point out specific instances above, but i think they speak for themselves. the claims about "the government" assailing the right of individuals is at the very best a truncated way of seeing what is happening here.
in the main, i think smooth was right about the matter of responses to it having as much if not more symptomatic as logical interest.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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