By: koganbot

koganbot — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 06:00:10 +0000

I use the word “hegemony” on my lj, hurrah!

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/308168.html?view=2368456#t2368456

By: koganbot

koganbot — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 21:47:27 +0000

The word “privilege” is subject to the same misuse, though often the user aims at himself/herself as well as others. The problem is that such words are no longer used as tools of understanding but rather as a means to beat up on someone. Not that those two roles need be mutually exclusive. One big message of “The Presentation Of Self” is that such efforts – learning and pummeling – not only can be compatible, but that the attempt to wall off and protect the former (learning, thinking, wondering) from the latter (fighting, flirting, etc.) impoverishes each. But unfortunately there’s a perpetual unconscious urge on the left* to protect the fighting by shutting out the learning, and “hegemony” and “privilege” have been taken over by that urge. They’re used to wound, and for little else.

Btw, I’ve never noticed you using “hegemony,” in fact or in spirit. Occasionally, you’re too ready with the phrase “the forces of conformity,” but in context your point would be that such stuff as the glib use of “hegemony” and ” privilege” are what serve the forces of conformity so well.

*Not to mention the right and the center, but they’re not the ones with “hegemony” and “privilege” at their tongue tips.

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By: koganbot

By: koganbot