Hebdige - Hegemony/ Pre-Class 3-22

After reading Dick Hebdige's piece, one quote stuck in mind and this quote is actually quoted from another author: " 'Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring classes' - Brecht, A Short Organum for the Theatre" (150). That's the result of hegemony: warring classes. Usually, classes are not tangibly at war with each other, but we have broad opinions and generalization when we mentally place people into classes. As we have studied in CMC 100 (and Hebdige reminds us, too), dominant and ruling classes in a society will impose their dominant ideologies on the rest of the population.

What happened just last night? Congress voted and passed a health care reform bill that has been two years in the making. I am not bringing this up to start blog-based political fisticuffs; the new health care bill represents a HUGE change in hegemonic power in our modern society. The bill will impact my generation, how we receive health care, and how we will pay our taxes for years to come. In the past, health care generally was made available for families and individuals who could afford it - in other words, the dominant power in the health care industry resided with the privatized health care agencies. With this new health care bill, virtually all Americans could receive health care; this is an incredibly interesting hegemonic power shift in our generation. However, to point back to my initial quote at the top of this post, I have heard of a greater split (or a greater war waging) between classes as a result.

The Washington Post published a long article this morning (source of article listed at bottom) which presented a synopsis of the event. I found it interesting how they quoted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi toward the end of the first page, saying, "Today we have the opportunity to complete the great unfinished business of our society and pass health-insurance reform for all Americans as a right, not a privilege." Reading this quote, part of me wants to say, "F___ yeah! Citizens rights! We need more of those, cuz that's what America was founded on." The other, more rational part of me is reminded of the dense bureaucracy I grew up around in Washington DC and thinks, "Well, that sounds great, but I doubt we will have any more rights than we did yesterday." Call me a pessimist, but I firmly believe the ruling class has not given a shit about health care reform and rather cares about securing their personal endowments; hence, everything will stay the way it has always been.

DISCLAIMER: I tried to stay an unbiased as possible when discussing touchy political topics; I simply used the health care reform as a platform for discussion.

Link to Washington Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/22/AR2010032201817.html