>
> But as Stuart Hall argued, Thatcherism infected the masses' day-by-day
> understanding of life. There was a major shift in popular discourse away
> from class-conscious, solidaristic rhetoric & towards individualized,
> market talk. While the Tories may be on the ropes, has Blair's Labour party
> really done anything to reverse this, much less come up with so pervasive
> an ideology of their own? I'm not there, so maybe someone who is can
> enlighten.
>
I would take a more (historical) materialist approach. The rise of conservatism as a hegemonic ideology was linked more to the material conditions by which the working class reproduced its own existence. Unemployment, sado-monetraism and austerity are awfully good at divide and control where people are left with the obvious choice of rugged individualism and going it alone. Individualism and austerity are imposed by force from without. Conservatism in the ideological sphere merely reflected and reinforced the changes occuring in the material sphere. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Chile. The exact same process took place in Britain though on a much less extreme level. Cathy Schneider in her book *Shanty-Town Protest in Chile* put it nicely: " the transformation of the economic and political system has had a profound impact on the world view of the typical Chilean. Most Chileans today, whether they own a small business or subcontract their labor on a temporary basis work alone. They are dependent on their own initiative and the expansion of the economy. They have little contact with other workers or with neighbors, and only limited time with their family. Their exposure to political or labor organizations is minimal, and with the exception of some important public-service sectors such as health-care [which the fascist rulers were unable to demolish in the face of popular resistance], they lack either the resouces or the disposition to confront the state. The fragmentation of opposition communities has accomplished what brute military repression could not. It has transformed Chile, both culturally and politically, from a country of active grassroots communities, to a land of disconnected, apolitical individuals. The cumulative impact of this change is such that we are unlikely to see any concerted challenge to the current idelogy in the near future."
BrundelFly
Happy 100th Duke Ellington!