Dominant classes rule by framing alternatives within their ideological limits, not by dictating minds.

Evidence

Gramsci argued that “hegemony” exists when a ruling class (or, rather, an alliance of ruling class fractions, a “historical bloc”) is able not only to coerce a subordinate class to conform to its interests, but exerts a “total social authority” over those classes and the social formation as a whole. “Hegemony” is in operation when the dominant class fractions not only dominate but direct or lead: when they not only possess the power to coerce but actively organize so as to command and win the consent of the subordinated classes to their continuing sway. “Hegemony” thus depends on a combination of force and consent. … This operates, not because the dominant classes can prescribe and proscribe, in detail, the mental content of the lives of subordinate classes (they too “live” in their own ideologies), but because they strive and to a degree succeed in framing all competing definitions of reality within their range , bringing all alternatives within their horizon of thought. … Hegemony is accomplished through the agencies of the superstructures—the family, education system, the church, the media, and cultural institutions, as well as the coercive side of the state—the law, police, the army, which also , in part, “work through ideology.” It is crucial to the concept that hegemony is not a “given” and permanent state of affairs, but has to be actively won and secured : it can also be lost. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 905

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains how ideological hegemony works through framing limits rather than mental control.
• XREF: Connects to Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks and prefigures Hall’s own work on media and consent in civil society. — connects to: Class consciousness requires maintained antagonistic cleavage, not reconciliation with rulers. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2076