The Limits of Hegemony?

Abstract

In this study I will try to put forward the views of the social theorists and critics who consider “postmodern culture” (Jameson) as deeply manipulative. The fundamental patterns of the system of the ideology preach to the spread of the values of consumerism, individualism and hedonism (Fromm). As the study shows, the media play a key role in spreading these values (Chomsky). The media became the main “ideological apparatus” (Althusser) and the business world, the world of culture and politics is controlled by these media. Economic system thus gains support of the population and can reproduce itself. According to some interpretations there is no escape from the environment of the systemic manipulation (Jameson, Foucault, Marcuse), but there are also opinions according to which systemic indoctrination can intervene only in the public - official discourse, but not culture and behavior patterns of marginalized groups (Scott, Bloch, Williams). I will try to interpret and analyze systematically these two intuitive views. In this context, I will develop the thesis that the value of truth, not as an epistemologically or metaphysically regulative principle, but as a socio-emancipating force which can have in the environment of the absolute manipulation a decisive impact in the formulation of alternative to the current (post)modern global-capitalist society. The study is based on the author's book Matrix of Capitalism: Is the Revolution Coming? (Veda, Bratislava 2011).