Among the ranks of dissenters there is ongoing debate about the focus of our ire: should it be directed at the elite perpetrators of injustice and oppression, or the compliant masses who go along with it? The drawback of the first focus is being accused of “conspiracy theory.” The drawback of the second is being accused of “blaming the victim.” To me such attacks smack of unhelpful and divisive fundamentalism, as both perpetrator and victim deserve attention.
On the receiving end of institutionalized abuse, society falls into line according to what Mattias Desmet calls “mass formation”—a kind of collective trance, hypnosis or psychosis, akin to “Stockholm Syndrome,” where victims identify and sympathize with our oppressors.
Mao put the blame more simply on “the bourgeois in all of us.” Our capitalist masters capitalize on this weakness to align us with their own rulership, known as hegemony.
Toby Rogers inquires as to the root of this sheep-shaping disease:
‘Gramsci used “hegemony” a lot like how I define “bougie” — a set of economic incentives, structures, and habits that bend thoughts and culture to conform with dominant power structures in society. Hegemony is like gravity — it’s invisible but always felt, it has a power and force, it pulls people in a certain direction.
‘The members of the bourgeoisie just know — it’s an intuitive, felt sense — that it’s easier to align their interests with the ruling class than to fight against it (even though the ruling class despises them and would be happy to be rid of them).
‘So for Gramsci, everything about culture becomes about embracing and internalizing the ruling class’s perspective as one’s own (even though you’ll never be in). In our era, that includes mainstream films that celebrate Wall Street avarice, rappers from impoverished backgrounds celebrating bling rather than fighting against corporate predations, and women thinking that Fifty Shades of Grey is sexy.
‘Hegemony is not just limited to these few examples. Hegemony shapes EVERYTHING. Thoughts, actions, careers, values, science, medicine, culture, laws, religion, art, etc. all align to support and reproduce existing power structures and send the message to the middle and lower classes that it’s better to obey. We all exist within this system of hegemony and are constitutive of this system.… Hegemony does not care about what’s good or true or beautiful, hegemony is only a measure of what’s dominant and on top today. …
‘The Resistance in every era has always been about listening to that “still small voice” that calls us to challenge hegemony and seek out what’s actually true (in spite of the enormous cost to ourselves).
‘That’s the human story and the human condition — the struggle between what’s dominant versus what’s true, between succumbing to the dark versus seeking the light, between fitting in versus standing up for what’s right. And our challenge during the Age of the Iatrogenocide [mass death by medical intervention] is to see and name the operations of hegemony and dismantle them in service of humanity.’
As a champion of individual conscience as a source of truth, Toby Rogers invokes the quintessential Quaker phrase “still small voice” at the heart of Resistance. Historically Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) have played prominent roles in resistance movements against war and slavery, and advocated for rights of prisoners and indigenous peoples. Yet over its 400-year history, it appears even this sect born of dissent has fallen prey to creeping middle classism, bourgeois complicity, and passive acquiescence to the Hegemon.
Years ago an active member of Friends, I became disenchanted by what I saw as lifestyle values overriding political values; a hypocrisy of privilege, complacency and complicity. A harsh judgement, I admit—and certainly unfair to activists such as Norman Morrison, from my own Baltimore Friends Meeting, who lit himself on fire in front of the Pentagon in 1965, to protest the Vietnam War (as detailed in My Generation).
So what about Covid? Did Friends follow the inner light to truth, or did they sell out the very concept of consensus they are also renowned for? In Quaker consensus if you don’t agree but it’s not the end of the world, you can choose not to block a decision but to “stand aside” and let it go forward. In 2020 both truth and consensus were handed off to “the science” as decreed by “the experts.” In this case Friends might have thought it was the end of the world but still chose to “stay safe.” And scientific fact or fraud, there was at bottom the safety of numbers: the new, secular, media-manufactured “consensus.”
Sad to say, it didn’t take long to find confirmation. The March 2021 issue of Friends Journal is titled, Pandemic at One Year. The introduction by Martin Kelley says it all, embodying all the bourgeois virtues of hegemonic compliance, and no Resistance whatsoever:
‘We have collections of masks; we’ve learned how to use Zoom; we’ve become adept at ordering food and clothing online. We’ve carved out imperfect spaces on kitchen tables, back patios, and bedrooms to work and socialize. Many of us have seen friends, neighbors, or family members fall ill and sometimes succumb to the virus. We’ve missed friends’ weddings, birthday parties, family gatherings, summer holidays. New hospital rules meant I almost didn’t get to say goodbye to my dying brother in December. This is a collective trauma.
‘But not all of the change is negative. Our authors this month tell the stories of a year in lockdown. There’s a lot of bravery and resilience here. There’s also surprising hope. David Male and Tricia Gates Brown remind us of stories of spiritual exodus and self-denial in the Christian tradition, of seasons that call for us to wait with expectation and with faith. Rachel Miller and the folks at Friends Council on Education share how online tools have made some of our communities more accessible to some. Kaylee Berg shares new self-discoveries and wonders how they might be integrated into her life after COVID-19. Jaimie Mudd and Howard Garner find solace in old practices made new.
‘As Friends we know there is always light at the end of spiritual tunnels, but as we enter the third month of 2021, it’s possible for rational minds to see an end. Treatments for acute COVID-19 have improved, and vaccines are slowly making their way through much of the population. There will be a time when we can put masks away at the back of drawers and return to family reunions, sports stadiums, performance venues, and restaurants. With any luck this era will be tidily wrapped up in a future Wikipedia entry for our grandchildren to marvel at.
‘Until then, please join me in holding those we have lost in the Light, along with those still suffering loneliness and depression in this era of social isolation. Let us all commit to being a bit kinder and more generous. Be safe, Friends.’
Yes, you chose to stand aside. I don’t condemn you, I forgive you (as if it’s up to me, LOL!). Do we have a new consensus yet?
Seriously, the Friends’ crime here is no more heinous, or preventable, than the curse of middleclassism, the scourge of Stockholm Syndrome, the mind-virus of mass formation. Its inner voice echoes in the very chambers once occupied, go figure, by Quaker Founding Fathers.
Identify with thy captors. Wear thy mask with an inner smile. Put attention to the life beyond, and the light to come. Take thy medicine with grace and gratitude. Put aside thy weapons of dissension and discord. Stay home and shut up.
On the government side, the one-size-fits-all bureaucratic container is prescribed to fit the whole body politic, though each citizen of “our democracy” may rightly claim to be lit by divine light. The net result, spirituality put in its appointed place is no different than what democracy has become. Indeed, though both Christianity and Democracy were touted as revolutionary in historic terms, they can also be seen as co-opting genuine popular revolt, taming the people’s will in the service of status quo power.
“In Debunking Democracy, Tereza Coraggio reminds us that
‘democracy was invented to quell a revolt against the archons, who were the landowners. Smallholders had joined with the landless, the colonized, women, barbarians and slaves to demand… an end to the archon system. They wanted anarchy: rule by rules, not by rulers.
‘Instead Solon created hierarchy where small landowners could climb the ladder by contributing their wealth (from others’ labor) and their later-born sons to the military. Instead of overthrowing the archons, we got democracy: ‘an insipid milksop inoculating against real change,’ which has kept us complacent for over 2000 years.’
Jesus the revolutionary, who overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple, is watered down to the quiescent mask-wearing worshipper of Jesus. The Greek revolutionary who wanted freedom from feudal rule was given instead the right to vote for the feudal ruler of his choice.
But don’t complain—be grateful. It’s the easy way, the way to stay safe.
Sorry to hear about the division amongst Quaker views, yet that's a pattern side-effect of the pandemic amongst various groups that had seemed all similiars. Also i think important to say that in an otherwise insightful bit about obedient society and the faux powerful, Toby Rogers writes: ‘The Resistance in every era has always been about listening to that “still small voice” that calls us to challenge hegemony...That’s the human story and the human condition... And our challenge ... is to see and name the operations of hegemony and dismantle them in service of humanity." Yet this label of "human condition" ignores the perspective of Original Peoples and others worldwide who serve the well-being of and listen for guidance from every being of the natural world and Mother Earth, Herself. So, yes, listen to the voice within yet also listen to the voice of the waves lapping the shore, the bird at dawn, and so forth, in service not just of humanity but also the rivers, oceans, mountaintops, etc. that are being polluted or destroyed by the nefarious hegemon and those who go along for that reckless ride.