Class consciousness requires maintained antagonistic cleavage, not reconciliation with rulers.
Evidence
The General Strike thus focuses the “cleavage” between the antagonistic classes, by making every individual outburst of violence into an act in the class war. “Cleavage”, for Sorel, is the equivalent of class consciousness, of the class for-itself; e.g. “When the governing classes, no longer daring to govern, are ashamed of their privileged situation, are eager to make advances to their enemies, and proclaim their horror of ail cleavage in society, it becomes much more difficult to maintain in the minds of the proletariat this idea of cleavage without which Socialism cannot fulfil its historical role.” — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2076
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines Sorel’s ‘cleavage’ as the equivalent of class-for-itself consciousness.
- XREF: The idea that ruling-class accommodation (refusing to ‘dare to govern’) erodes subordinate class consciousness parallels the reader’s interest in how hegemonic inclusion defuses opposition. — connects to: Class consciousness is a self-destroying strategic artifice, not an inalienable identity. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 1763; Class is a contingent articulation of demands, not an ultimate core. — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 487; Class consciousness arises from being looked at by oppressors, not from material hardship. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1028 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Class ascendancy cannot quietly mature within the regime it aims to replace
#corroborates(0.88) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 382 - Class consciousness is a self-destroying strategic artifice, not an inalienable identity.
#complicates(0.82) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1763 - Class consciousness functions as an artificial rallying device rather than a natural given.
#complicates(0.80) - Class structure persists without class consciousness, even aided by the post-68 left
#complicates(0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1908 - Class structure persists while class consciousness has been politically disavowed
#complicates(0.79) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1908 - Class is a contingent articulation of demands, not an ultimate core.
#complicates(0.78) — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 487 - Class consciousness is formed culturally, not determined by economic experience
#qualifies(0.77) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 215 - Subordinate class institutions can be absorbed to contain rather than end opposition.
#complicates(0.76) - Class consciousness arises from being looked at by oppressors, not from material hardship.
#qualifies(0.72) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1028 - Dominant classes rule by framing alternatives within their ideological limits, not by dictating minds.
#complicates(0.71) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 905